HomeMy WebLinkAbout11/05/2021 cc - Pinard (state of city trees)
Delgado, Adriana
From:Peg Pinard <pinardmat@gmail.com>
Sent:Friday, November
To:Advisory Bodies; E-mail Council Website; Wilson, Nick; Dave Congalton; Peter
Johnson; Santa Lucia Sierra Club; Dave Hovdie
Subject:State of the City's Trees
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SLO City Council
SLO Planning Commission
SLO ARC
SLO Tree Committee
According to the city’s recently hired Davey Research Group (DRG), here are the carbon sequestration impacts for some
sample trees. Besides the city’s recent approvals for the removal of over a thousand mature trees for developments
many more throughout the city have either died or are dying as a result of the drought. Even the roughest calculations
for the loss of so many trees shows that they city has put tens of thousands of pounds of carbon into the atmosphere
every year.
ANNUAL CARBON SEQUESTRATION BENEFITS
Trees absorb atmospheric carbon, which reduces GHGs. The carbon-related function of trees is measured in two
(2) ways: storage (total stored in tree biomass) and sequestration (the absorption rate per year). Urban trees act as
a sink of CO2 by storing excess carbon as biomass during photosynthesis and the amount of CO2 stored is
proportional to the biomass of the trees (Gómez-Baggethun and Barton, 2013).
Name
DBH
Reduced Atmospheric
(inches) CARBON (pounds)
Purple Leaf Plum (Prunus cerasifera)
6 in.
110 lbs./ year
Red Maple (Acer rubric)
12 in.
267 lbs./ year
1
Big Leaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum)
24 in.
731 lbs./ year
Douglas Fir (Pseudotsuga manziesli)
24 in.
466 lbs./ year
Western Red Cedar (Thuja plicata)
24 in.
466 lbs./ year
Given DRG’s calculations, perhaps the following few snapshots (there are hundreds more!), taken this summer, will give you
an idea of how much carbon the city has allowed to be put into our atmosphere. **Note: the city is considering giving our
precious recycled water to businesses outside the city. This is water that city residents have already paid for and
were, literally, banking on for their own use during a drought.
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As a reminder: approx. 700+ mature trees were cut down for the San Luis Ranch project... hundreds more for
developments at Tank Farm, Westmont, Palomar, etc. (the city doesn’t even count the impacts from trees under 6” in
diameter)
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