Shade, Oxygen, Hold the Heat

The way we look at our environment has changed in the past few years. My mother drives a hybrid. I wish I did, but I do drive a Camry, which is not quite as bad as other cars. I wish my father drove a hybrid, and we won't mention what he drives.
It is time we all take a look at what we are doing and how it is affecting the world around us.

One of the things I have always felt to be unique about Modesto has been the abundance of trees. I think we held a record at one point for the number of trees per person. And we have held records for the number of trees planted by the city in a year. We even have our own "Greater Modesto Tree Foundation."

Our propensity for trees is in spite of the fact that one of our most popular trees, the Modesto Ash, has appeared on a USDA list of California’s 20 most maintenance problematic urban trees. I doubt you haven’t noticed our friendly rollercoaster sidewalks and boughs full of mistle-toe. But the city takes care of all the trees, right? Wrong.

Eve Hightower reported in the Bee today that last Tuesday, Modesto City Council passed a $324.5 million budget and gave our Community Forestry Division, which takes care of our trees, no new money. However, they do plan to look at funding three new jobs for the forestry department in August. All of this comes after the Forestry Division has had major cut backs in funding.

Oprah gets it; she has started to publicize how dire our environment’s situation has become and how great the need is to plant trees. Our entire world is heating up like a microwave oven, and our city council is worried about our golf courses and funding reserves. I know we need more money in law enforcement, but does it need to be so much that it is more than half of our budget? Does the Modesto City Council plan to do anything for the environment?

We have lost a lot of trees over the last 10 years and we will lose a lot more if we don’t take care of them. I don’t want Modesto’s summers to get any hotter. If they do, sooner rather than later we won't be living in the fertile Great Valley of California.... we will just be living in another desert.

Submitted by Adm Golub on Wed, 2007-06-06 09:52.

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it's really a quality of life issue...

it's really a quality of life issue... yes the city needs money to pay for existing stuff, yes the budget is tight, yes we are paying for our past mistakes.

...but if you make Modesto a worse place to live then why bother. This is the sort of thing that will effect us in 5 years... it sounds good now because it saves a bit of coin but later it will make things worse (kinda like deffered sewer maintenance).

The point about the type of tree is pretty interesting too. It reminds me of a city downsouth that deiced to go with fruitless Ginkgo trees... well they got the wrong sex of trees.. the cost to clean the fruit is far more in the long run... beautiful trees though

so the lesson for me? Citizen Oversite maybe... don't trust government? heh... you tell me

Submitted by angryf on Wed, 2007-06-06 10:26.

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Ahh Mistakes...

The problem that we have is that we just don't have enough money to do what needs to be done...

What happens is that we put off problems until they become so bad that we have to act. Much like the sewers had to wait, the trees are just one of many other things that are going to have to wait their turn until we can afford to take care of them...

Its really a shame...

Then again, if this is an important issue to people then someone should organize a citizen volunteer group to work on the project a couple weekends a month and see if they could make a difference.. Maybe make a deal with the city that the labor would be free, but costs and equipment would be covered?

Chris

Submitted by Chris Ricci Presents on Sat, 2007-06-09 21:11.

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Need a Tree

We need a tree. We had the City take out two because the first one dropped berries by the truckload, but that wasn't the worst problem. The berries were full of syrupy juice, which everyone tracked into the house and ruined our carpeting. The syrup stained the concrete sidewalks. The next tree almost fell over as it grew taller than its tiny trunk could handle. Now we need a third one, but the City won't plant one because of their budget. If we want a tree, we have to go and buy one at over $100. The next tree better not have any berries, better not lean over, and better not bloom those stinky blossoms that some are known to have. In fact, maybe I will just plant whatever I want, and that will be an evergreen conifer! I say if I have to pay for it, then tough if that isn't what the City wants placed there.

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"Imperfection is beauty. Madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than to be absolutely boring." ~Marilyn Monroe

Submitted by Charpix on Mon, 2008-08-25 08:30.

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