A volunteer advocacy group is looking to ensure that Sunnyvale’s Urban Forest Management Plan takes root.
The not-yet-named group of interested tree enthusiasts met Nov. 20 to discuss the group’s objectives at the Sunnyvale Community Center.
The Sunnyvale City Council unanimously approved a citywide Urban Forest Management Plan on Sept. 16.
There are an estimated 231,000 trees in Sunnyvale, including about 70,000 along street rights-of-way.
Key goals of the plan regarding this inventory include increasing the city’s tree canopy, maintaining street trees, fostering community support for maintaining and improving the city’s urban forest, and encouraging proper tree management on private property.
Part of the plan also included establishing the volunteer group, which could help carry out these goals.
Sunnyvale’s neighboring community Palo Alto has a tree canopy cover of 37 percent, whereas Sunnyvale is about half of that at 18 percent, according to key organizer Deborah Marks.
“I asked myself, why couldn’t we do that in our city?” Marks said.
Marks has spent the last four years urging the Sunnyvale City Council to adopt the plan and approached the city about a volunteer group.
Likely partners for the group in the effort will include Our City Forest in San Jose, Canopy in Palo Alto and Mountain View Trees.
“We have a precedent case for the involvement of the community with trees in the city,” Marks highlighted during the Nov. 20 meeting.
In 1960, the city entered a contest with about 28 other communities to plant trees during Arbor Week. In that time, Sunnyvale community members planted more than 900 trees, taking first place in the competition.
“At that time, Lockheed had come to town; many homes and schools were being built and trees were being taken down,” Marks said. “People wanted to beautify their city and planted trees. We have a similar situation now.”
Marks said with large technology companies coming to town and building new facilities, many mature trees are being removed.
“We need to plant trees as replacements; we need to plant trees in the parking strips, in parks and on private property,” Marks said. “I would like to see that as the trees which we plant grow, we grow in the community as a recognized and respected group.”
Sunnyvale has more than 4,500 spots where street trees could be planted.
The group plans to advocate for the city’s program where street trees are planted at no cost to Sunnyvale residents. The street tree planting season began Nov. 1 and ends in March.
For more information, visit trees.insunnyvale.com or contact Deborah Marks at deborahmarks5@yahoo.com or 408.746.0580.
