Atascadero Lake Tree Planting, Atascadero

Lionel and I were excited to hear from Cory Meyer and the North County Earth Day organizers early in the 2010 that a tree planting was scheduled for the April 18th celebration at Atascadero Lake Park.  The planting would be a double celebration, promoting both Earth Day and Arbor Day.  We’d discussed the site as a possibility over the years but somehow never had the right contacts to make it happen.  With a newly formed partnership between One Cool Earth, the Atascadero Parks and Recreation Department, the California Conservation Corp and the Atascadero High School Green Club we had the right mix of permissions, material support, muscle and followup to realize this great improvement to the park and community.  One Cool Earth provided madrone trees, tools, and time while Parks and Recreation provided valley oaks, caging, and tools and did the background work, verifying that neighbors wouldn’t lose their much loved view of the lake.  The CCC and Green Club put their backs into the planting and the Green Club adopted the watering of the trees for the first two years.  At the end of the three hours we had 20 brand new trees for the park.

Trees around the border of the lake provide many of the usual benefits that trees bring, such as carbon sequestration, habitat improvement, erosion mitigation and beautification.  However, next to Atascadero lake, the trees would shade the water, lowering water temperatures and potentially reducing the loss of oxygen from the lake, which can cause it to smell bad.  Tree roots would also reduce eutrophication by absorbing excess nutrients from the lake waters.

Stay tuned, future plantings are planned!

Work History:

April 18th, 2010 – Initial planting of 20 trees

Project Status: ongoing…

Updates:

none

Los Osos, Saint Benedict’s Episcopal Church Tree Planting

Project Description: Lionel donated trees and helped organize a planting to establish the trees in a perimeter around the church.  Located in the windiest part of the county, the trees will eventually break wind for a distance ten times their height.  Catalina cherries, Catalina Island oaks, and Monterey cypress all do well in the near-coastal conditions of the site.  More information about the church can be found at their website.

OCE Work History:

1990’s – original planting

Project Status: estabished

Updates:

Summer 2009 – visited site, counted three catalina cherries, ten Monterey cypress, and five oaks of various species doing well.  -Greg

San Luis Obispo, South Hill

Project Description: Originally known as Cheapskate Hill for its historical use by people seeking free views of the racetrack at its base, South Hill exemplifies the open spaces that make San Luis Obispo a wonderful place to live.  In 1998 Lionel rallied residents of neighborhoods around the open space to plant live oaks, toyons, and valley oaks around a seasonal drainage at the Exposition Drive entrance to one of the spaces trails.  Since then, the trees have taken root and are doing their work stabilizing the drainage, providing habitat, and beautifying the land.  Read more about the site, as well as view historical photos at here.

OCE Work History:

1998 – original installation

Project Status: established

Updates:

2010 – Future plantings are planned in the area as it posesses ample space for trees from which it stands to benefit.

San Luis Obispo, Sinsheimer Park Tree Planting

Project Description: Oak trees at the entrance to Sinsheimer Park are a testament to the legacy of tree planting.  One Cool Earth and student volunteers from the after school program Students Taking Active Responsibility (STAR) worked together almost two decades ago to plant live oaks at the entrance of of the park near the tennis courts.  Since then, the trees have matured and we have returned to collect acorns from trees which we planted as acorns years ago!  Now they provide great shade near a playground and will continue to do so for years to come.

**Updates!!**

After 20 years, One Cool Earth has returned to Sinsheimer park and, with the help of Sierra Student Coalition and 350.org Day of Climate Action enthusiasts, has planted 50 live oaks to replace dead and dying Monterey pine trees surrounding the Sinsheimer elementary baseball field.  Trees will serve as a windbreak and shade the school sports fields, as well as stabilize eroding slopes and improve wildlife habitat.  The project was supported by the City of San Luis Obispo, and generous grants from Pacific Gas & Electric as well as the Glikbarg Foundation.

OCE Work History:

1990’s – original planting

Project Status: ongoing

Updates:

3/29/10 – The City of San Luis Obispo has approved One Cool Earth’s plan to plant oak trees around the Sinsheimer Elementary School’s baseball field adjacent to the park.  Support for the project comes from PG&E and the Glikbarg Foundation.

10/10/10 – The Sierra Student Coalition and people celebrating 350.org’s 10/10 Day of Climate Action planted 50 live oak trees and will help tend them over the next three summers until the trees are fully established.

San Luis Obispo, Temple Ner Shalom Tree Planting

Temple Ner Shalom

Project Title: Temple Ner Shalom Tree Planting

Project Description: Tu B’Shevat, literally the fifteenth day of the month of Shevat, marks an important day in the Jewish religious tradition.  According to Leviticus 19:23-25:  “When you come to the land and you plant any tree, you shall treat its fruit as forbidden; for three years it will be forbidden and not eaten. In the fourth year, all of its fruit shall be sanctified to praise the L-RD. In the fifth year, you may eat its fruit.“  A trees age is calculated by how many Tu B’Shevat’s it has lived through.

OneCoolEarth has joined with Temple Ner Shalom for to celebrate this day, donating trees for planting on the temple grounds.  Over 350 oaks, cypress, redwoods, and a variety of other native trees survive, providing windbreaks and privacy screens for the temple and surrounding facilities.

Project Status: ongoing

Updates:

Jan. 12th, 2010 – We returned to the site to celebrate Tu B’Shevat with the congregation and the Jewish sorority and fraternity by planting 75 new trees as the first phase of a project to restore a seasonal waterway that runs through the grounds, and to set the stage for the eventual creation of a Biblical plant garden.  The layout for plants was designed by Cal Poly Landscape Architecture students in collaboration with the congregation members.

Jan. 22nd, 2011 – The Sierra Student Coalition participated in a tour of the grounds led by John Belsher and helped to plant 51 live, tanbark, and valley oaks, as well as madrones and willow cuttings to stabilize an eroding arroyo.

San Luis Obispo, Pennington Creek

Project Summary

OneCoolEarth is currently planning the construction of a small nature path along Pennington Creek, an active steelhead trout stream that connects the campus Morro Bay. Uniquely located on the grounds of an educational institution, the path with interpretive signs and benches carved from locally harvested urban timber will serve as an educational resource. Students and volunteers will complete the planning, construction and maintenance of the trail over the next few years. We are currently applying for grants to pay for materials, plants and supplies. If you are interested in co-sponsoring this project, please contact us.

History

Pennington Creek exists as a microcosm of local environmental challenges and of community involvement in overcoming them. Originally degraded by overgrazing and deforestation, the creek suffered severe erosion. OneCoolEarth has played a longterm role in the restoration of Pennington Creek, originally as an advocate for developing appropriate land use practices to balance the needs of the creeks ecosystem and those of the surrounding Cal Poly ranch and croplands. Later, our organization furnished native oaks as part of a major restoration conducted by the California Department of Fish & Game to control erosion. Later, Maino Construction assisted in the installation of a system of fish ladders and the California Conservation Corp chiseled resting pools into the creek bed to aid spawning steelhead trout swimming upstream from Morro Bay. Currently, this story of success lies just as unknown to Cuesta Students and San Luis Obispo natives as the creek itself, hidden as it is behind a few dying Italian stone pines and a fence, beridden by gophers and non-native annuals. A nature path, beautifying and restoring the landscape, opening the human and natural history of the site as well as its ecology to the public would be a capstone on the Pennington Creek’s long history and perpetuating its legacy by educating generations to come.

Collaborators:

Cuesta College

Grassroots Gathering Student Club

Morro Bay National Estuary Program

Cal Poly San Luis Obispo Landscape Architecture Students

Glickbarg Foundation

Orchids of Los Osos

Gaia Graphics

Updates:

**May 2nd, 2010 – Broke ground at Pennington Creek with Alpha Chi Omega and Phi Kappa Psi brothers and sisters, planting 25 California Sycamore trees.

June, 2010 Returned to water trees

July, 2010 Returned to water trees

Aug, 2010 Returned to water trees

San Luis Obispo, Colleen Rosenthal Photography Tree Planting

Rosenthal Photography

Project Title: Colleen Rosenthal Photography Tree Planting

Description: A successful example of one of Lionel’s early experiments in direct seeding of acorns can be found at the photography studio of Colleen Rosenthal on the outskirts of San Luis Obispo.  Following the tired and true method of the wildlife, Lionel, Colleen and friends dug small holes, around her home, putting several acorns into each.  A drip system provided water only a couple times during the hot season for the first few years and then was removed.  The trees have now grown to over 20 feet in height and are producing abundant acorns of their own.  With very little labor, time, or resources, Colleen’s yard was transformed into an oak woodland, with a selection of Canyon, Cork, Valley, and Coast Live oaks on proud display.  Overall, the trees serve as a windbreak around the home and driveway, as well as provide shade, wildlife habitat, and a privacy screen.

OCE Work History:

1990’s – original planting

Project Status: established

Updates:

none

San Luis Obispo, El Chorro Park Ranger’s Station

Catalina Cherry in Cage

Project Title: El Chorro Regional Park Ranger’s Station Tree Planting

Project Description: The Grizzly Academy, a federally and state funded organization that assists at-risk high school age youth, worked with OneCoolEarth on February 9th, 2008 at the El Chorro Park Ranger’s Station.  The planting was initiated by Lionel when he noticed the dying row of Leyland Cypress–a tree not well suited to California that only lives for a dozen years in such a setting before succumbing to disease.  However, the dying trees provide shelter to OCE’s newly planted Catalina Cherries and oaks planted between and intended to succeed them.  Overall, more than 50 tree were planted on the site to provide shade for the parking lot, beautify the headquarters, and break the wind notorious in the Highway 101 corridor.  The new trees will outlive their predecessors by decades, precluding replacement costs and saving money since they require little water or maintenance.  The new trees enhance the park by providing habitat for local wildlife.  In addition, Grizzly Academy youth received hands-on landscaping instruction and got the chance to make their lasting mark on the community.

OCE Work History:

February 2008 – Original planting.

April 2010 – Planted 20 Oaks at entrance to park with ECOSLO and community service workers.

Project Status: established

Updates:

none

Lopez Lake Tree Planting

Lopez Lake

Project Title: Lopez Lake Tree Planting

Project Description: In collaboration with the Grizzly Academy, an organization that furthers the advancement of at risk high school-aged youth, OCE set about planting a variety of oaks near the Lopez Lake Ranger station in the Fall of 2007, replacing a number of dying pine trees in the area and further beautifying the entrance to the park.  Lopez Lake has many fine specimens of Valley and Live Oak, and OCE collects some of its acorn stock from this area every year–some of the acorns we find here are almost two inches long!  The area is a wonderful place to observe wildlife in action, and while collecting we have seen woodpeckers collecting acorns and storing them in the pockets they make on the trunks of surrounding trees.  Squirrels, deer, and numerous insects also make use of this bountiful food soruce.  This planting will help to ensure that these acorns remain plentiful for future collecting–by both animals and humans.

OCE Work History:

Fall 2007 – Original planting with Grizzly Academy.

Project Status: established

Updates:

Feb. 2010 – Planted an additional 50 trees along Grizzly Way with Grizzly Academy students.

Cal Poly, Rodeo Grounds

Cal Poly Rodeo Grounds

Project Title: Cal Poly Rodeo Grounds Tree Planting

Project Description: On August 2^nd and 3^rd of 2009, 152 sycamore, catalina cherry and redwood trees were planted on the eastern and southern borders of the Cal Poly Rodeo Grounds.  The project embodied OneCoolEarth’s five principles:

Education

The trees were planted with the help of five crews of high school students working in the Summer Civil Conservation Corp.  Before the planting, OneCoolEarth workers discussed the value of planting the trees, as well as imparted proper planting techniques.  Through this partnership, the student workers acquired basic understanding and skill sets for responsible, holistic, sustainable landscaping.

Beautification

The trees were planted to augment the Cal Poly Rodeo Grounds, a heavily trafficked area and popular event location.

Restoration

Native trees were planted to provide habitat for local flora and fauna.  Excessive erosion caused by gophers will eventually be stabilized as the tree’s unpalatable root structures take over the ground, holding it together and driving out gophers.  Planted alongside a drainage for animal corals uphill from the site, the trees will eventually serve to filter excess nutrients from runoff that could possibly pollute nearby waterways.  The trees also mitigate climate change, fixing 140 tons of carbon dioxide.*

Human Utility

Since Cal Poly is liable to the Water District for its runoff, the mitigation of runoff has a direct benefit to both wildlife and humans.  The trees serve to cool, shade, and block wind at a hot and dusty site.  Eventually, the trees may be managed as a sustainable source of lumber.  (This would not negatively affect the carbon offsetting capacity of the project, since harvested trees would be continually replaced and the already sequestered carbon would go into long-term storage in wood products. )

Economy

This project has the economic benefits of providing free training in a fast growing job field to low-income students.  The restoration aspect of the trees proactively avoids fines and precludes expensive pollution cleanup and prevention measures.  Beautification of the site makes it a more attractive destination as an event center.  The sustainable harvest of the trees could provide an income for the school.  Finally, some of the trees used in this project were purchased from the Growing Grounds Nursery which employs and trains the mentally and physically challenged.

Updates:

Spring 2010 – a dozen members of Alpha Phi Omega turned out to help with the care of trees–all trees were mulched and several trees were planted to replace trees that had died.

Sept. 2010 – 24 WoW participants returned to the site to replace fatalities, weed, mulch, water and cage trees.