The organization responsible for keeping Watsonville’s wetlands healthy joined forces with city officials and a herd of volunteers Saturday to spruce up the Struve Slough trail.
Watsonville Wetlands Watch (WWW) Director Jonathan Pilch said the effort included planting 15 coast live oak trees and bringing in 50 volunteers that included students from Pajaro Valley, Watsonville and Harbor high schools and Cabrillo Colleges’ STEM Club.
“Students and community members spread out throughout the trail, planting trees that will provide shade for trail users and improve the habitat of the surrounding wetlands,” Pilch said.
Coast Live Oak trees are well suited to planting along the wetland trails, Pilch added. They are a long-lived evergreen native tree to coastal California that grows up to 70 feet tall with a canopy spread of 30–70 feet.
“It provides great habitat for many types of birds, such as woodpeckers and northern flickers, insects, and other wildlife,” Pilch said. “It’s inspiring to see so many community members and especially local students volunteering. Student and community volunteers are essential to the success of these plantings.”
The event followed a morning of learning at WWW’s first Watsonville Tree Symposium, held at the Watsonville Center for the Arts in downtown Watsonville. The symposium included talks about growing fruit trees by Cristy Gardener from the Monterey Bay Chapter of the Rare Fruit Growers Society and Lexa Dillon of Four Winds Growers and a talk on proper tree care and maintenance by Joseph Medina, City of Watsonville Parks Superintendent. Following the talks, the group took a tree identification walk around the Watsonville Plaza, led by WWW arborist Amanda Romo.
The tree planting is a part of the effort to increase tree canopy in the city from 9% to 30% which will require planting thousands more trees throughout the city, a goal adopted this year as part of the City’s urban forestry management plan.
Since 2018, when WWW and the City’s urban forestry started up, more than 1,200 shade trees and 1,600 free fruit trees have been planted.
Tree canopies provide valuable shade, especially with increasing numbers of hot days, improves air and water quality, helps to infiltrate more rain water and captures atmospheric carbon.
Funding for the planting was provided by a 5 year grant to WWW by the USDA Forest Service’s Urban, and Community Grants program associated with the Inflation Reduction Act.
In addition to shade tree plantings, the project will sponsor an adopt-a-tree program where any resident or business of the City or community of Pajaro can receive a free shade or fruit tree, along with Wetlands Watch staff consultation and planting support.
Grant funding will allow for 4,000 new trees to be planted in parks, schools, and neighborhoods, a paid job training certificate program for young adults, and new volunteer and educational and outreach programs.
To adopt a free tree for your yard or business, residents are encouraged to go to watsonvillecommunityforest.org.
