Thirsty street trees need a drink of water and some love from neighbors
By Alex Wilson 06/11/2009
Tight financial times for the city of Ventura combined with a deepening drought are creating a need for residents to give a helping hand to city-owned street trees.
The chairperson of Ventura’s Tree Advisory Committee, Brian Brodersen, updated the City Council about their work on a revised tree master plan, and the plight of about 29,000 street trees that might be overlooked by people who live near them and assume that the city can water them on a regular basis.
Brodersen is a landscape architect and agriculturalist who’s served on the panel for more than six years, and is hoping for greater community involvement in tree issues. “A question that always comes up is what can the public do to help the street trees. Our concern is that we do have a professional staff that does the tree trimming, and it’s very important that the trees are trained correctly and are maintained by professionals. So we don’t really encourage citizens to go out there with pruners and chop on the trees,” says Brodersen.
“We do encourage them to water the trees,” says Brodersen. “That’s one of the real challenges for the city right now with the budget cutbacks. Any new trees that have been planted in the city, they have to water those with trucks for establishment.
So this summer, if it gets warm you can water your tree and that’s a great help to the city.”
Ventura Mayor Christy Weir is a supporter of trees and says it’s a shame that they’re victims of looming budget cuts. “It’s a little bit ironic right now actually; we just got named Tree City USA, which is kind of an honor. It means that we have a tree program and are doing a fairly good job,” says Weir. “But we get this honor the same year that we have to cut a huge amount out of our budget for tree trimming, for new tree planting, and it’s sad to me that it’s one of the things that’s going to have to suffer in our budget.”
Mayor Weir and the tree committee are working on a new plan for getting more street trees planted by allowing neighbors with empty tree wells near their homes to buy specimens that the city would then own and maintain. They’re working on a revised tree master plan, including a recommended list of about 20 trees that people can buy and enjoy. “That’s something that would be encouraged, for people to offer to purchase trees. They can find out what the master plan calls for on their street; then they can call and say, ‘I’d like to donate a tree for our street,’ ” says Brodersen.
The public is encouraged to get involved with tree issues, and people can attend the Tree Advisory Committee’s monthly public meetings at Ventura City Hall that are held each third Thursday of the month at 6:30 p.m.
Mayor Weir is hoping that trees will get more attention when the economy turns around and the city has more money. “We have some great old beautiful trees like our Morton Bay fig tree in Plaza Park, and we take them for granted sometimes,” says Weir. “I would hope, as sort of a tree hugger myself, that it would be a higher priority for us when our budget does come back.”F
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