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The Spectrum . Redwood City's Monthly Magazine
IT’S ALL ABOUT THE GREEN WITH CITYTREES
By Dale McKee
Stevens set up the organization and recruit the board.
On the cusp of summer, we all enjoy the shade of the overhanging trees as
we go about our
b u s i n e s s
throughout the city.
Strolls on a late afternoon,
a light breeze in
the air, wouldn’t be the
same without the lush
trees lining the city
streets. They are a part
of our daily life here in
Redwood City, and perhaps
a part we take for
granted.
That’s not true for
CityTrees, a nonprofit
organization working in
concert with the city’s
public works department.
CityTrees was founded
in May 2000 and has
worked in partnership
with the City of
Redwood City Public
Works Services
Department to plant
over 1,000 trees by the
end of 2004. Their mission
statement: To
improve the quality of
life in Redwood City
through a coordinated
program of education,
outreach and advocacy for tree planting, maintenance
and support.
CityTrees raises funds
for the purchase of trees
and recruits volunteers
from the community to
plant and maintain
them. The Redwood
City chief arborist,
Gordon Mann, uses the
citywide plan to determine
where trees should
be planted and which
species are most appropriate
for a location.
Homeowners or Public
Works takes over
responsibility for watering
the trees, and they are
CITYTREES GOES TO WORK
monitored on an ongoing
basis. CityTrees volunteers get back into the picture to prune, restake or otherwise
do maintenance.
There are 11 board members, including Nancy Radcliffe, whom I was able to speak
with at her store, Lulu’s, on Main Street Downtown. Her enthusiasm shone
through in her voice as she spoke of CityTrees and the service they perform in
Redwood City.
“Jane Taylor and Jack Stevens are friends,” she said. “Jane somehow came up with
the idea of a tree group, and she called Jack. At the time I was on the Downtown
task force with Jane, so she said, ‘Oh, I’m thinking of doing this,’ and I said, ‘Oh,
I’d be really interested!’” Ira Ruskin, mayor at that time, helped Taylor and
JANE TAYLOR, JESUS ANGLE [WITH THE CITY] JUDY BURSAK, RICK NORDENSTEN, JASON LEITH HOLDING
BABY JULIAN, TOM CRONIN, ROSS HOTCHKISS, KAREN FINE AND JOHN HOFLAND
“We’ve put in probably over 1600 trees … all over Redwood City,” Radcliffe said.
“I think we’ve totally
planted the Friendly
Acres neighborhood.
Two years ago we had
our thousandth tree. …
We planted a Dawn
Redwood at Stafford
Park, and we’ve got a
nice little brass plaque
— a thousand trees in a
thousand days.”
started planting in the
beginning. As they get
planted, we’ll go back
three years later and
prune.
“The city has mapped
out over 7,000 spots
that need street trees.”
That’s a lot of trees for a
volunteer organization
to tackle, but Radcliffe
explained how the city
helps them in their
efforts.
There’s such a difference
with the shade,
beauty and peaceful
green presence of trees
than without. Now
that CityTrees has
added so many trees,
their focus has shifted
from just planting to
planting and pruning.
Keeping the trees beautiful
and healthy isn’t
as easy as it might
sound.
“We do 30 to 40 trees
per planting. When we
first started off, we did
plantings about 11
times a year. Now it’s
down to about six
plantings,” Radcliffe
said. “But we’re doing
pruning now. Pruning is a new area for us. We’re
going back and correctly pruning the trees we
“We’re very much coordinated
with the city,” she
DIGGING NEW GROUND
said. “They help us on every
planting. … They’ll decide … the trees we’re going to plant, because there’s five
different trees that they like to use as street trees. And they will mark the street.
… If any predigging needs to be done, Public Works will do that for us. … They
deliver the trees that day to the spots, and there’s always a city crew working with
us. … We reimburse them for the trees, but because they buy them, we’re able to
get them at a wholesale price versus a retail price.”
Tree planting is something usually handled by Public Works, but in the wake of
budget cuts, the demand simply outpaced the supply.
“That’s why we’re working in conjunction with Public Works,” Radcliffe
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