Hope for heritage trees?

March 12 Tree Committee meeting offers glimmer of hope for Chico’s historic trees

This article was published on 03.13.14

The still-in-the-works Urban Forest Management Plan may help keep Chico’s remaining heritage trees from meeting the sad fate of this towering valley oak at the corner of West Eighth and Salem streets, which was removed to make way for duplexes.
FILE PHOTO BY CHRISTINE G.K. LAPADO-BREGLIA

Urban forest update
I ran into Mark Stemen, Butte Environmental Council’s board director, over the weekend as he was gathering signatures in front of the Chico Natural Foods Cooperative in support of a ballot initiative to give the Saturday morning farmers’ market a six-year lease at its current site. He told me he had some good news to share with me regarding the fate of heritage trees in the city of Chico, which he sent me via email:

“As a follow-up to your story on BEC’s appeal of the Salvation Army project at Eighth and Salem, we have good news,” Stemen wrote. “As you recall, we did not want to punish a fellow nonprofit for cutting down a heritage tree. Instead, BEC has been working behind the scenes to make sure something similar would not happen again.

“To that end, after persistent dialogue with the city, we are pleased to let you know that the Bidwell Park and Playground Commission’s Tree Committee will be meeting on Wednesday, March 12, at 6 p.m., and one of the items will be an update on the draft Urban Forest Management Plan.”

Obviously, that meeting is history, but Stemen offered this suggestion for the future: “We encourage everyone interested in local trees to get involved in the coming months. BEC also wants to thank our fellow organizations in the local environmental coalition (particularly Chico Tree Advocates) for their efforts in helping to move the Urban Forest Management Plan forward.”

Go to www.tinyurl.com/treecomm to learn more about the Tree Committee.

Raise the fence!
This Saturday, March 15, those of you not riding on the bus down to the big Don’t Frack California event at the State Capitol in Sacramento should consider attending the Oak Way Community Garden Work Day, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Sponsored by Cultivating Community North Valley and BEC, the work day is a “fence-raising party,” as the press release describes it, for the new community garden.

“This work day is a free event. Bring gloves and water,” the release advises.

The garden is located at 1400 W. Eighth Ave.

Learn to compost
CCNV is also hosting a composting workshop on Wednesday, March 26, from 3:30 to 5 p.m., at the compost display area on the Chico State campus, in conjunction with the university’s Organic Vegetable Project and AS Sustainability.

Workshop is $10, or free to those who are income-eligible. Preregister (required) and learn more at cultivatingcommunitynv.org.

And on Wednesday, April 2, from noon to 3 p.m., CCNV is presenting a composting work day at the OVP at Chico State’s University Farm (311 Nicholas C. Schouten Lane).

“This free work day will be an application of all the principles and techniques learned at our last compost workshop March 26 at the AS Sustainability compost site,” the press release for the event said. Preregister (required) at the CCNV website (see above).

Get yer Jefferson gear
Go to www.jeffersonstatestore.com to access the Jefferson State Store, which offers an assortment of State of Jefferson merchandise for sale, such as bumper stickers, flags, ball caps, T-shirts and “Don’t Tread on Me” Jefferson hoodies. Thanks to Meredith J. Graham, the CN&R’s staff writer for client publications, for this useful bit of information!