Trees are a source of pride in Sacramento. But are they also a source of shame? | Opinion

Trees are good for Sacramento.

The spaces they hold act as buffers for pedestrians on sidewalks and the pollutants they absorb make the air we breathe cleaner.

City officials are well aware of this and hope to add more healthy trees to our canopy, starting with the Sacramento Urban Forest Plan. The main goal of the plan is to increase citywide tree canopy. There are currently 1 million trees within the city limits. The Sacramento Urban Forest Plan calls for the city’s tree canopy by 35 percent by 2045. To do that, the city would need to plan 25,000 trees per year until 2045. The city has a $2 million grant but that’s not nearly enough and the city is facing budget deficits. To make this plan a reality, city leaders need to find partnerships and pots of money elsewhere.

It’s an important issue because if there is one thing I’ve noticed in my time in Sacramento, the tree canopy gracing our beautiful city is also an indicator of inequity.

For instance, affluent areas like Land Park enjoy luscious tree canopies missing in low- to moderate-income areas like Meadowview, Del Paso Heights, Parkway and Valley Hi, where there is far less shade and where summer heat is felt more intensely.

A map created by the Sacramento Tree Foundation charting the tree canopy in terms shows stark shortages of trees in neighborhoods where larger numbers of people of color live. This disparity has evolved over decades.

In 1960 the city began mandating that trees be planted in new subdivisions. But in 1979, Proposition 13 was passed and reduced the amount of tax dollars that could be used for government services, such as maintaining trees that were both public and private. At that point, individual neighborhoods were burdened with the upkeep of these trees.

When these trees died, neighborhoods lacking the resources to plant trees didn’t. Neighborhoods that could afford to plant trees, did.

A simple trip to Franklin Blvd in South Sacramento demonstrated to me that not every part of the city lives up to the nickname City of Trees.

Opinion

Equity with Trees

I live in midtown and trees are planted everywhere. Every sidewalk, park, and street is blessed with their presence.

“The sun hits the trees just right in Sacramento,” I think to myself every day I ride my bide down 26th street to work. I pass parks where unhoused people take advantage of the trees and sleep under them. They are more than just an accent to the landscape. They are the main attraction.

Sadly, it’s an attraction that not everyone in the city can experience often.

Walking along Franklin Blvd one thing was clear: it’s damn hot. Yes, lately, it’s been hot everywhere in Sacramento. But the lack of a tree canopy to support people out in the heat only magnifies it. The cement sidewalk collected all the heat from the sun, turning the pavement into a heat source that might have been tempered by shade.

During my walk in the neighborhood off Franklin Blvd, I came across a couple of vendors, each using the only two trees in the area as shade. Further down Franklin, I saw Curtis Valencia out on his front porch with his grandson. Providing shade for him and his grandchild is a Chinese Camphor that grows right dab in the middle of his front lawn. As a retired state worker, Valencia knows about the importance of trees, recalling the windstorm that happened in February that ripped 325 trees from their foundations.

Valencia lives in a tree desert, a part of the city with relatively few trees and low-income households.

In the area where Valencia lives, 67% of residents are nonwhite and the median income is a little more than $39,000. That average income is 27,000 less than the average salary in the entire city, according to statistics from ZipRecruiter.

With maintaining more than 100,000 of the millions of trees, the city relies on nonprofits and homeowners to grow the entire canopy.

Sacramento depends on trees

Equity can not be lost in the movement to increase to plant more trees in Sacramento. A November 2023 survey conducted by housing website Redfin showed that Sacramento was the most popular place for homebuyers looking to relocate. More people means more trees. This movement to enlarge our canopy is great but as our city grows, our city should not forget people like Valencia and his grandson, who want to live a good life in this city. But they cannot without a healthy, robust and diverse tree canopy.

Trees are Sacramento’s unsung heroes. They are the backdrop to an Instagram-worthy picture, and even just the sight of them can ease someone’s stress.

Just like the trees spread across our beautiful city, equity is rooted in the foundation of our community.

Our future efforts must be dedicated to seeing that those roots stay strong.