LOS ANGELES — People across Los Angeles have been working for years to increase the number of trees that shade sidewalks, give people peace and quiet, and even clean up some air pollution. They have faced increasing drought, poor tree pruning and objections from some neighbors who resent the leaves and sap. Now they’re wondering what the January fires did to their efforts.
Bryan Vejar, deputy director of community forestry for TreePeople, an environmental nonprofit dedicated to increasing tree equity in Los Angeles, said city arborists have shown him “sobering” photos of large trees leaning against homes and parkways have been struck by the same powerful wind that caused fire. got out of hand. Other images show scorched treetops.
The Santa Ana winds damaged trees in TreePeople’s main focus areas of South Los Angeles, Watts and Inglewood, historically underserved neighborhoods with less shade.
The air is still so bad that field crews cannot yet go outside and work safely. When they do, he says, they expect to find young trees that are broken, broken or dried out.
New trees are fragile and volunteers often have to go out to water them in the first few years.
“Events like this can dramatically increase our mortality rates,” Vejar said.
Past fires and extreme winds have ripped off many branches and toppled trees, especially those planted in narrow strips of land where there isn’t much room for much soil, Vejar said.
When it is safe to conduct field assessments, urban tree experts will go out to inspect, re-stake and re-stake trees fallen by the wind, and remove and replace those that have been lost.
Replanting trees in burned neighborhoods is now more difficult because of climate change, said Will Berleson, a professor in USC’s Department of Earth Sciences and a researcher with the university’s Urban Trees Initiative. Even though many of the city’s mature trees are only 30 or 40 years old, they “started growing at times when it wasn’t as warm and there wasn’t this kind of wet and dry fluctuation that we seem to be seeing now. ” he said.
Some experts see the loss of trees as an opportunity to continue educating Los Angeles residents about where they live and what plants suit them best, not necessarily the iconic plants from Hollywood movies. They want to replace non-native species such as palms – which are more closely related to grasses – with trees that provide shade and can withstand extreme heat and drought.
Aaron Thomas, director of urban forestry at the environmental nonprofit North East Trees, said trees like the coastal live oak are a good option. They are native to the region and are fire resistant — in fact, they must burn to reproduce, he said.
Thomas, who grew up in Altadena, has relatives who lost homes in the Eaton fire. His brother’s house burned down, but the five coastal live oaks in his backyard survived.
For him, it’s another reminder that cities need to think about how we rebuild in general and how we reforest communities with native flora: “That’s what we need to do.”
But planting trees with climate-resilient features, such as large canopies, is not always easy, and cities must consider community input when deciding what to plant. For example, trees that provide a lot of shade can make it difficult for drivers to see around corners. When space is at a premium, sometimes there just isn’t enough room above or below ground to plant them.
Berleson added that it will take a long time for neighborhoods to look like they did before the fires.
Trees offer numerous benefits. They purify the air and improve mental health. They collect excess rainwater and replenish the groundwater. And during heat waves that become hotter and deadlier, shade trees cool the air and urban surfaces.
Vejar said his group knows there will be setbacks, but that is the reality we live in.
“It’s climate change. They are water restrictions. These are extreme weather conditions,” he said. “And in light of this, we can only continue to build and rebuild and manage our urban forests in a way that makes it more resilient in the face of these extreme weather events.”
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