More Trees, Please
How Los Angeles County Planning, City Plants, Tree People and others are preparing for a hotter future
Sweat trickles down my forehead and my makeup melts as I walk down a lifeless, gray blur of sizzling asphalt and concrete near the famous intersection of Hollywood Boulevard and Vine Street in Hollywood, Los Angeles. A panting Maltese passes by me dragging its tiny paws across the star-studded sidewalk. Just a few block north, in the leafy Franklin Hills and Los Feliz neighborhoods, it’s a different scene. There, the sidewalks are shaded by abundant tree canopy, including large deodar cedars, and grassy parkways that are the envy of surrounding neighborhoods.
According to TreePeople, a Southern California organization started in 1973 to address the regions urban tree deficiency, about a fifth of the city’s tree canopy grows where only one percent of the city’s population lives. Unsurprisingly, the wealthier neighborhoods have more trees and enjoy cooler temperatures, pretty environments, and walkable streets compared to lower-income neighborhoods.
In contrast, TreePeople reports that the area around Hollywood and Vine has only 13.46% of tree canopy coverage. Instead of shade-giving cedars, oaks or maple trees, the Hollywood streets are adorned with those iconic palm trees that look good on postcards but provide no shade and a lot of mess when Santa Ana winds blow off their brittle branches. A visit to TreePeople’s website reveals that Hollywood is part of the 82 percent of Los Angeles neighborhoods suffering from a lack of tree canopy coverage.
An abundance of asphalt, concrete and built environments alongside a lack of shade and access to cool, green spaces produce what are called urban, heat islands.
Heat islands and general increasing temperatures will become a bigger problem as temperatures rise due to global warming. According to ABC 7, “Parts of Southern California could see double the number of 100-degree days in the next 30 years,” and we will experience more frequent issues from droughts, floods, and fires. The Los Angeles Times also points out that “… heat waves in cities could cause two to three times more heat-related deaths… and in Los Angeles, extreme heat is the city’s biggest climate threat and greatest cause of climate-related deaths and hospital visits.”
Most urban planners, ecologists, experts and officials agree that increasing tree canopy, providing more green spaces, and making them more accessible for more residents is crucial to preparing for a hotter future. Aside from decreasing the urban heat island effect and providing more shade, increasing urban tree canopy will provide more biodiversity, carbon sequestration, mitigation of stormwater, improvement of our air quality, and beautiful streets that will encourage more people to walk and bike around Los Angeles. Thus, it will also improve our physical and mental well-being.
So what exactly is Los Angeles County doing to plan for a hotter, possibly drier future?
Through a public hearing with the Board of Supervisors on April 16, the Climate Action Plan was approved and the final step is getting it adopted.
The Senior Planner of Environmental Planning and Sustainability from LA County Planning, Iris Chi, breaks down several of the ongoing efforts her department as well as other departments are working on.
LA County Planning primarily works on long-range and land use plans for the county’s unincorporated areas, which include East Whittier, Northeast Whittier, Northwest Whittier, West Whittier, and South Whittier. Her department works on land use and how to adapt our built environment to increase sustainability, resiliency, or climate change mitigation.
The department recently finished a massive report called the Climate Action Plan that explores different ways the county can reduce greenhouse gas emission, including: renewable energy such as solar panels in buildings, decarbonizing modes of transportation, and transitioning out of using natural gasses in general.
In terms of green space, the Climate Action Plan looked at how the county can reduce greenhouse gas emissions through three different approaches. One of them is through the conservation of open space by preserving it and leaving it in its natural form. The second way is through regenerative agriculture that won’t release more greenhouse gasses. The third way is to increase our urban canopies.
Through a public hearing with the Board of Supervisors on April 16, the Climate Action Plan was approved and the final step is getting it adopted. It has ambitious goals.
By 2030, the target is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40 percent below 2015 levels, 50 percent by 2035 and by 2045, the goal is to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 83 percent below 2015 levels on the way to carbon neutrality. Many of those targets align with the state goals for greenhouse gas emissions reduction.
“The Climate Action Plan has 94 actions, so it’s a lot, but we needed all of those to be able to reach the targets that we set out,” says Chi. “And so I think getting through all of that is going to be tough but the county is committed to really implementing all of those actions. And then, also trying to find the funding is going to be tough. But now we’re already planning out how to budget for the work and then also looking to see if the State of California or the federal government has any grant opportunities that we could apply for.”
Chi mentions that the Chief Sustainability Office works on county-wide efforts and that they have a Sustainability Plan that looks at equity. The office want to ensure that policies or actions taken are equitable to disadvantaged communities or vulnerable populations. It also looks at how they can support the economy as we try to move into a greener economy.
Currently, the Chief Sustainability Office is working on a Community Forest Management Plan that is still being drafted but considers how they can effectively increase our tree canopy coverage. Chi adds, “Because it is an ongoing plan, they’re always looking for community input.”
The Parks and Recreation Department is also part of the efforts to increase access to parks, gardens, and more essential community infrastructure that many communities lack.
The Climate Action Plan, The Sustainability Plan, and The Urban Forest Management Plan look at how to incorporate equity into any of the actions that they have in those different areas. For example the Climate Action Plan has a section on equity that lays out the different steps to take or consider as it starts implementing those 94 actions. The department will be utilizing maps to identify which areas are in most need, whether it’s their socioeconomic status or maybe it’s the climate hazard itself since certain areas may be more prone to extreme heat. These communities will need to be prioritized since they will be hit harder and probably earlier with the effects of climate change.
A possible unintended consequence of the Climate Action Plan and it’s improvements is gentrification. The department is aware of this.
“Yeah, it’s sad that it’s connected,” says Chi. “You know, improving a space means higher housing prices, therefore pushing people out, displacing people. That’s something that as planners, we’re trying to keep in mind. We are trying to figure out ways to prevent that from happening or ways to help support existing residents.”
When exploring ways the people can get involved with planners Chi reveals that they are trying to figure out ways to have the younger generations more involved with the plans and efforts that will affect them. She says, “I think the most meaningful feedback that we can get is through comment letters. Whether it’s through the process, they tell us what they like, what they don’t like, what works, and what doesn’t work. But then when plans and actions go to the public hearing phases, getting a comment letter goes a long way.”
Chi adds, “When people are okay with it, they usually don’t say much. And we hear from those who want changes to the project. So having the younger generation provide their feedback to the decision makers I think really makes a big difference.”
While they conduct presentations to inform the people, Chi claims that it is difficult to reach out to younger generations because the youth are not typically associated with a group such as a neighborhood council or a town council.
“Having the younger generation provide their feedback to the decision makers I think really makes a big difference.”
Chi mentions that she was looking into programs at Whittier College and that is how she came across EPA Action Day at Whittier College. She attended the environmental campaigns that Sara Angevine’s The Media and The Political Process class and Cinzia Fissore’s Urban Ecosystem Ecology class participated in. She was also one of the judges that evaluated which campaign was the best. Additionally, she conducted a presentation in Villalobos Hall at the beginning of the event to inform students about ongoing efforts.
She says they initially had the idea of looking into sustainability clubs at schools and a good way to continue communication with the clubs after the positions change every year would be for these clubs to use a static email address so that they can always be informed of new plans and possible ways of getting involved.
Alongside LA County Planning’s efforts, City Plants, a non-profit organization partnered with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, is also committed to increasing the tree canopy coverage in Los Angeles, especially in areas that need it the most. On its website, one can find a tool that enables viewers to see LA’s tree canopy coverage and zoom in to specific neighborhoods.
City Plants provides free trees to residents. It can even deliver and help you plant the trees if you request help. You can plant trees on your property, business, schools, and apartments as long as you go through the proper procedures. If you request trees for your yard, City Plants can provide you with up to seven trees and deliver them along with stakes and other tools to help you tend to the trees.
City Plants distributes 20,000 trees a year and hosts hundreds of community tree adoption events. One of its recent events took place on April 27 at Echo Park Lake during the Echo Park Earth Fest. The event included food trucks, live music, activities for children. City Plants had a booth at which festival attendees could learn more about its services.
The typical Echo Park array of filming crews, paleteros, dog walkers, and hipsters had new company on the sunny festival day. Fuzzy, baby geese huddled together following their mother, children ran around the park eagerly visiting booths and occasional speeches in between musical performances were new additions to the usually buzzing Echo Park Lake.
At City Plant’s booth on the west side of the lake, Miriam Lara, a third-year Child Development major at CSUN, helped run the tree adoption event along with other volunteers and team members. “I started working in the Youth Program for City Plants in high school and now I help run events,” she says, adjusting her black-rimmed glasses.
Tucking a strand of her brown hair behind her ear, Lara says, “The most rewarding part about being part of City Plants is helping plant trees for excited new owners and seeing them take pictures of their trees or taking pictures of them with their trees when they ask for one.”
Pointing to the dozens of trees next to the booth, Lara says, “I hope people know that these trees are free. A lot of people come up to us and they think they need to pay for the trees but that is not the case.”
Lara mentions that last year, City Plants planted around 750 trees in the San Fernando Valley in communities that need them most. They also help work with LAUSD schools on their mission to increase green spaces on their campuses such as in playgrounds.
The Los Angeles Urban Forest Equity Streets Guidebook highlights that planting trees is no easy task. Specifically, it mentions that, oftentimes, it’s the most difficult to plant trees in areas where they are need the most due to existing infrastructure and lack of space. In these cases, funds and workers are required to plant trees.
The Metropolitan Water District of Southern California recently announced a rebate program that offers people $100 per tree they plant up to five trees. Programs like these that offer incentives to people might encourage more participation.
Eric Adams and Philip Murphy greeted visitors with warm smiles at the Friends of Elysian Park booth. The opportunity for more shade presented by an entire generation of LA’s iconic palm trees dying of old age came up in conversation. “Coast live oaks, black walnut, and sycamore trees might be good replacements,” Adams offers. “However, something to keep in mind is that we need to diversify our plants and be mindful of invasive species.”
“We need to think about potential fire hazards and resilient characteristics in plants that we plant in Los Angeles because that is what is going to benefit Los Angeles in the future.”
Envisioning a cooler Los Angeles and working towards a desired future is more of a necessity than a luxury. Shade-giving oak trees lined up on Hollywood Boulevard in place of the skinny palm trees may again become L.A.’s iconic tree. In other words, the rest of Los Angeles might look more like the leafy Oaks neighborhood in Los Feliz. Residents might feel the urge to walk around their neighborhood regardless of income and ethnicity. It might be beautiful to walk and meet neighbors you never met before while the children get to play more outside with birds, butterflies, and flowers in the background. For now, only a handful of people live in that reality. But there are people working to change that.
