Trees in the News

Before the gold rush in 1850, Benicia’s hills and flats made for a rather barren landscape. In 1855, humorist George H. Derby, an army Lieutenant, is reported to have liked the people of Benicia, but not the place, as it was “not yet paradise” due to the lack of trees. The dearth of trees is also well documented through old photographs and written records. Our landscape has changed dramatically with the planting of many trees over the past 160 years. In 2004, the City began taking a serious look at the care and maintenance of our trees.

City streets can be mean, but somewhere near Brooklyn, a tree grows far better than its country cousins, due to chronically elevated city heat levels, says a new study. The study, just published in the journal Tree Physiology, shows that common native red oak seedlings grow as much as eight times faster in New York's Central Park than in more rural, cooler settings in the Hudson Valley and Catskill Mountains.

Every tree in urban Tennessee provides an estimated $2.25 worth of measurable economic benefits every year. Might not seem like a lot, but with 284 million urban trees in the state, the payoff's pretty big.

Through energy savings, air and water filtering and carbon storage, the urban trees of Tennessee account for more than $638 million in benefits, according to a report [PDF] conducted by the Forest Service of the U.S. Department of Agriculture and released earlier this year.

TREES are on the front lines of our changing climate. And when the oldest trees in the world suddenly start dying, it’s time to pay attention.

North America’s ancient alpine bristlecone forests are falling victim to a voracious beetle and an Asian fungus. In Texas, a prolonged drought killed more than five million urban shade trees last year and an additional half-billion trees in parks and forests. In the Amazon, two severe droughts have killed billions more.

The common factor has been hotter, drier weather.

By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter

Some Benicia Girl Scouts are hoping residents with overloaded fruit trees will be willing to share their bounty.

By Tony Burchyns / Times-Herald

Benicia Arbor Week includes Tree City ceremony, study of inventory, master plan

By Donna Beth Weilenman, Staff Reporter for the Benicia Herald

In events that begin Tuesday with looks at the city’s tree inventory and its tree master plan, residents and officials alike will celebrate trees during Benicia Arbor Week.

WHEREAS, in 1872, J. Sterling Morton proposed to the

Nebraska Board of Agriculture that a special day be set aside for the

planting of trees; and

WHEREAS, the holiday called Arbor Day was first observed

with the planting of more than a million trees in Nebraska; and

WHEREAS, Arbor Day is now observed at various times of the

year throughout the nation and the world; and

WHEREAS, trees can reduce the erosion of our precious topsoil

due to wind and water, cut heating and cooling costs, moderate

NO TREE LOVER likes to see trees cut down. Unfortunately, in many urban environments, trees often become subjects of controversy in contested spaces, both public and private. Trees in cities are often at risk of removal, or damage from the vicissitudes of urban life.

Dear Editor:

No tree lover likes to see trees cut down. Unfortunately, in many urban environments, trees often become subjects of controversy in contested spaces, both public and private. Trees in cities are often at risk of removal, or damage from the vicissitudes of urban life.