How to Get More Trees in Your Community

Atwater Times Newspaper - May 11, 2007
The San Joaquin Valley Regional Urban Forest Council
How to Get More Trees in Your Community
By Beverly Barela
Other future projects include building a Center for Volunteerism in the Ralston Park area
Urban Forest Workshop tours Tree Partner’s Nursery at Federal Prison in Atwater
The San Joaquin Valley Regional Urban Forest Council presented a workshop May 11th
at the offices of the Atwater Elementary School District. The workshop, entitled “How
To Get More Trees In Your Community”, imparted knowledge from a network of sources,
and was designed to educate and encourage San Joaquin Valley participants in
implementing tree projects in their communities.
During the workshop, there was a field trip to a unique nursery program at the U.S.
Penitentiary at Atwater. On the grounds of the prison is a 26-acre planting site. Seedlings
will be grown at the prison, and when they are big enough, the trees will be shipped to
various non-profit organizations from a packing plant which will be built and operate at
the site.
He addressed the group, emphasizing, “The non-profits we will ship to will be tree groups,
city Parks and Recreation, schools, and churches. We’re not focusing on what you stand for.
The idea is to get trees planted. I welcome everyone with a tree list from your city or group
to get them over to Dr. Jim Williamson. The purpose is to get trees you’re going to use.
We want to know what kind of trees you want so we can cover you and take care of you for
the first three to four-year plan.
Describing the program, Machado explained, “We will start with a staff of five, and grow from
there. The staff will include Brian Tassey, who was hired by Tree Partners as Nursery
Manager, and a couple of others from Tree Partners.”
He continued, “Prisoners will voluntary work in the nursery. They’ll be very active with it.
We could get 100 employees from the prison if we need them. The prisoners will have one
hour per week of education, and this will increase. They will learn the purpose of planting
trees, how trees grow, and best practice.”
Grants will be sought to fund the program. Machado said, “We’re going to go after every
resource.” According to Machado, the City of Merced has been providing funds to the
project for the past two years.
Merced Mayor Ellie Wooten spoke about the prison nursery project, during the luncheon.
She said, “The City of Merced is on board with this program. Gordon Gray has been working
on things like this for years. It seems we’ve been blessed with some acreage, and that’s
going to make a vast difference.
Jesse Gonzales, Warden Assistant, spoke to the group. He began, “We’re very excited to
partner with Tree Partners, the Arbor Day Foundation and U.S. Forestry. We have 127 low
security, first time offenders, white collar, who will work on the project. The goal is to train
them and reintegrate them back into society. We’re going to build a vocational training
around this program. The inmates who are going to be involved will gain knowledge about
horticulture. It will bring up the quality of life.”
Cindy Allgood, Director of the National Arbor Day Foundation, also spoke during the tour.
She described her organization’s Trees for America program, saying, “We work with a wide
variety of partners - - municipalities, utility companies, educators, builders and developers.
Our passion is involving everyone we can, rich or poor. We believe every person has a
responsibility for wise environmental stewardship. Last year, we sent eight million trees
to members throughout the United States. We planted more than three million.”
She continued, “We applaud Tree Partners Foundation for all its hard work growing the
right trees for California communities. I’ve been doing this for 17 years, and it’s hard to
ship trees into California; some trees are restricted because of species. Tree Partners
will be growing trees suitable for California so there will be no regulations difficulties, and
it will ship trees directly to our members. Our partnership with Tree Partners is an important
way to advance our cause and to continue to create more stewards of our national forest.”
Darla Mills, Urban Forester with the California Department of Forestry, explained her role.
She said, “An Urban Forester is an individual who deals with the urban forest where she
lives. My job is to work with non-profit organizations and communities to help them find
ways to start an urban forestry program. I offer technical assistance, grand funding available
for tree planting and work with tree inventories. Tree inventories are important because to
manage your forest, you need to know what you have. I teach a software program to help
you take an inventory of all your street trees and know the health and vigor of trees.
A maintenance schedule can be created. The great thing about my job is I get to plant trees,
give people money, and work with kids.”
Mills provided some background on the prison nursery. She said, “The program began
because Tree Partners of Atwater, as a non-profit organization, was having a hard time
getting credits with the big tree companies to get inexpensive stock and get quality product.
Dr. Jim Williamson, the founder of Tree Partners, said, “Why can’t we help other non-profits
by growing quality stock inexpensively?”
She continues, “The former prison warden, Paul Schultz, grew up carrying buckets of water
to trees for his grandfather, who was a groundskeeper at Princeton University, so he had
a fondness for trees. The Penitentiary believes in inmate rehabilitation and training in
vocational fields. So Dr. Williamson met up with Paul Schultz and got in contact with
Valerie Steward, the legal counsel, and they had all these meetings. The result was Tree
Partners contracted with the Federal Penitentiary to build the nursery to supply stock to
non-profits. The inmate labor makes it economical. The inmates will learn how to prune
trees, proper watering, species identification, and this knowledge will create a vocational
skill that these guys can take with them when they’re released. Dr. Williamson had this
dream, and it’s now moving forward!”
Mills explained how Tree Partners then connected with the National Arbor Day Foundation,
a positive move for both. She said, “I was at a conference in Minnesota, and I asked Dan
Lambe, who is a vice president of one of the programs at National Arbor Day Foundation,
if he was having issues getting stock into the state of California. All Foundation members
are supposed to get ten seedlings for joining. I found out the National Arbor Day Foundation
couldn't ship to its members in California due to the strict regulations because of diseases
and pests. I told him that Tree Partners had an agreement in place with the Federal
Penitentiary to build a nursery, and suggested Tree Partners could provide the stock for
California members of National Arbor Day Foundation because it would be California stock
anyway and would bypass the quarantines. Then Tree Partners started talking with the Arbor
Day Foundation, so they are going to supply trees for its California members.”
Mills concluded, “This is a very big win-win situation for the State of California and the
inmates of the penitentiary.”
Describing the impact on the future of our society of plating and shipping trees in the
region, she said, “When you plant trees, you’re planting them for the next generation.
So you’re thinking about the future.” She related some fascinating tree statistics which
show how trees planted now will benefit air quality, saying, “One thousand trees can
remove 100 tons of carbon dioxide per year. Carbon dioxide is the gas that traps the
earth’s heat and creates more gas, and is part of what’s adding to the greenhouse effect.
Those same one thousand trees remove five tons of pollutants, including 4000 lbs. of
ozone and 3,000 lbs. of particulates.”
Describing further advantages to our future economy of planting trees, she continued,
“Trees reduce storm water run-off and decrease soil erosion. The improve water quality.
They decrease energy use and energy costs because in summer, they provide shade for
homes, and during the winter, they drop their leaves and allow the sun to come in to warm
homes. They increase property values and home sale prices. Trees have a calming effect,
so buyers when shopping are willing to pay 11% more for the same items. Trees reduce
noise levels. Planting four trees at your home reduces your cooling costs by 30%. If you
plant 400 trees in parks and green ways, you can capture 140,000 gallons of rainwater
annually. It’s water that gets retained in the soil. This helps replenish the water table.”