City memo shows Sacramento has no more money to plant trees in parks
SACRAMENTO — Sacramento may be the city of trees, but a newly released memo shows the city has no more money to plant trees in its own parks.
Instead, the memo states Sacramento must now rely exclusively on volunteers.
Victoria Vasquez is the chair of the Sacramento Parks and Community Enrichment Commission. She is sounding the alarm after seeing this city park memo titled "Service Level Expectations For City Parks and Parkways," reading "the planting of new trees or the replacement planting of removed trees is supported exclusively by public volunteerism."
"I was stunned to read that," Vasquez said. "I think that puts our city's tree canopy in a free fall. When we see these storms knocking out trees, when we see things like a tree in its natural life cycle is going to pass away and we're not intentionally planting to replace?"
Former Sacramento Mayor Heather Fargo has also worked for the Sacramento Tree Foundation. She was surprised by the memo.
A park department spokesperson says the policy is not a new one and that there is no funding to initiate tree plantings in bulk numbers.
"When I was the mayor and on the council, we planted a lot of trees in city parks and the city maintained the trees in city parks," Fargo said. "Oftentimes, when volunteers plant trees, they're not maintained by the city either. So they may not get watered in the summer and they die even though people put a lot of effort into getting them planted."
Sacramento parks have 25% of the city's trees.
"Sacramento is actually one of the world's largest hand-planted urban forests, but not for long," Vasquez said.
It's a city that prides itself on its urban tree canopy, and this memo shows its park policy problem. There is no money to maintain it.
A city budget deficit is also looming, and the park department will likely be asked to cut even more unless the city council calls for changes to protect city park trees.
