City of Santa Barbara receives $20,000 grant to expand urban forest
SANTA BARBARA, Calif. – The power of one tree goes a long way.
“Trees are like the fundamental building block to a healthy community the benefits the trees provide are numerous. you know they help to filter our air," said urban forest superintendent Nathan Slack of the City of Santa Barbara.
Thanks to local nonprofit Santa Barbara Beautiful, the city's Urban Forestry Program is getting $20,000 for new trees in 2023.
"The big take away from a community i think when you visit Santa Barbara is the green infrastructure and a huge part of that are the street trees," said Slack.
The trees will be planted in the area of Oak Park and the lower eastside neighborhoods.
“We’re really excited because we’ll be able to plant trees in communities that need it," said parks manager Simon Herrera of the Santa Barbara Parks and Recreation Department.
“We try to focus on, you know the neighborhoods throughout the city that have the largest percentage of vacant tree sites," said Slack.
The city believes these new trees will add to the sustainable future of Santa Barbara’s urban forest.
“We’ve had a long-standing partnership with Santa Barbara beautiful for more than 30 years … they funded street tree planting since 1965 efforts ramped up in the late 70s and has been going strong since," said Slack.
Once planted, the new trees will be added to the Urban Forestry Program’s maintenance and watering schedule.
“My hope is the community will enjoy all the trees that would be planted in there," said Herrera.
“Santa Barbara Beautiful is honored to support this incredibly worthwhile program and its long-standing commitment to the sustainable future of Santa Barbara’s urban forest,” said David Gress, Chairman of Santa Barbara Beautiful’s Horticulture Committee.
Since Santa Barbara Beautiful's creation in 1965, their partnership with the city has led to the planting and care of over 13,000 street trees.
This newest grant will be used to purchase and plant an additional 200 trees in accordance with the city's Street Tree Designation List.
"Planting efforts will focus primarily on the Oak Park and lower Eastside neighborhoods, as these have been identified as having the greatest number of vacant planting sites,” City of Santa Barbara Urban Forest Superintendent Nathan Slack describes, “Residents outside the planned planting areas who have the means to water a new street tree are encouraged to contact our office to request a tree be planted.”
Planting of the new trees is set to begin in February, 2023.
