I witnessed it first-hand last Saturday as two hundred – two hundred – volunteers showed up to plant trees in Bixby Knolls. We planted 48 trees along Atlantic Avenue between Carson and Burlinghall – near Trader Joe’s and It’s A Grind (who provided coffee & pastries for the hungry volunteers). The entire job was accomplished in a little more than an hour!
For me, this started several months ago when I joined the Leadership Long Beach Class of 2008. I knew we’d be asked to do a class project, and I share City Manager Pat West’s view that our major streets don’t look nearly as beautiful as the great neighborhoods they serve. I knew I wanted to see more trees on those streets, and I suggested that idea as one of our class projects. To my delight, five classmates joined me and we formed a team.
Our next step was to contact the City of Long Beach and find a location. Art Cox of the City’s Public Works Department – a Leadership Long Beach graduate himself – steered us to the Bixby Knolls Business Improvement Association (BKBIA), which had already been working with local residents to plant trees along Atlantic Avenue. This also dovetailed beautifully with LLB’s Connected Corridor project along Atlantic. We knew we were in the right place.
Our partnership included BKBIA, the City, LLB Class of 2008, and California Heights ReLeaf. We also had assistance and volunteers from Long Beach Greens and the LA non-profit TreePeople. We sent out the news far and wide and hoped we’d get close to the 100 volunteers we figured we’d need to get nearly fifty trees into the ground in one morning.
The day dawned clear and warm, and volunteers began showing up around 8:30. By 9:00 it was clear we’d have no shortage of helping hands. People of absolutely all ages and from all parts of the city arrived eager to plant trees. I was elated.
It turns out there are a lot of steps to planting a tree, and a lot of ways to get it wrong, so the critical time was when we demonstrated the right way to plant. The hole needs to be dug wide and deep, and just to the right depth. (You have to measure.) You have to compact the soil at the bottom (so the tree doesn’t sink) and score the sides of the hole (so the roots can find their way out and stabilize the tree). You have to get the tree carefully out of its bucket and into the hole, and not expose the roots to sun for too long. You have to orient the tree so that it won’t touch awnings, pedestrians, or vehicles. You have to pound in supporting stakes on either side of the tree (not too close, not too far, not too late, not too slanty). You have to add a packet of powdery fungus halfway through planting (it helps the tree thrive in an urban environment by mimicking some processes that happen naturally in a forest). You have to build a dirt berm around the planted tree and water it with at least 15 gallons right after planting. The City folks did this for all the new trees with a watering truck – what a great help that was!
I am so grateful to every person who came out and helped to plant these trees. I will think of them every time I drive or walk by and see the trees – which will be often, because that’s my neighborhood. As the trees grow and provide shade and beauty, I will remember how the community came together and made it all happen in just a couple of short hours. It makes me wonder: What else we can accomplish?