Posted on May 18, 2017May 18, 2017 by BriannaWoo

Local community colleges trade trees for solar panels

Local community colleges trade trees for solar panels

FRESNO, Calif. –

Local community colleges are saying goodbye to trees and hello to solar panels. It’s something almost every school in Clovis Unified School District as well as Fresno State have incorporated. Now, State Center Community College District’s five community campuses are following suit. By the end of the year they will have solar panel car ports and shade structures.

Christine Miktarian with SCCC District says they are a huge benefit.

“They will have shaded parking, LED lights underneath the car ports, charging stations, and electric vehicle charging stations,” she said.

She said it will ultimately save the district $18 million dollars throughout their 20-year solar panel lease.

“We will be saving our cost in energy, reducing our reliance on un-renewable energy, and be more sustainable,” said Miktarian.

To do so, the district will loose 280 trees across all campuses. Eighty eight trees from Fresno City College alone. Lee Ayres with Tree Fresno said there’s nothing that can replace green life.

“We will miss the shade benefits, the calming benefits, and the calming of the trees that a cold panel just doesn’t replace,” he said.

However, he said solar panels are a move in the right direction.

“I do think with the energy reduction from those solar panels there will be a big gain but we do lament the removal of trees whenever it happens,” said Ayres.

Fresno City College students agree. Losing trees is not ideal.

“We need the trees they help us have clean air not only outside campus but on campus,” Fresno City College Freshman Isenia Jinenez.

However, shaded parking is.

“It’s better for the people to have shade and stay cool,” said Fresno City College Freshman Noah Parsos.

Tree Fresno said they, along with Cal Fire, will be replanting 400 trees across State Center Community College District’s campuses as a trade off for the new solar panels.

Posted on May 16, 2017May 16, 2017 by BriannaWoo

Fun plus flood safety: Park expansion can save Fresno County lives

River Campers battle each other in a water war during swim time at Scout Island’s River Camp run through the San Joaquin River Parkway and Conservation Trust. The Parkway offers education, recreation and flood control all in one beautiful package. CRAIG KOHLRUSS Fresno Bee File/July 22, 2008

VALLEY VOICES

MAY 12, 2017 12:27 PM

Fun plus flood safety: Park expansion can save Fresno County lives

BY DRS. MARCIA SABLAN AND OSCAR SABLAN

Parks can help to address public health challenges, including childhood obesity. They also make communities more livable as Central Valley populations boom. And parks can also provide additional, less obvious benefits.

Most significantly, investing in parks could reduce our region’s flood risk in this era of climate change. Gov. Brown finally announced that most of California is no longer in drought, thanks to a record-setting wet winter. Today, the Central Valley is facing the highest flood risk we’ve seen in decades.

These weather extremes place significant stress on existing levees. They also highlight the need to protect riverside communities from flooding and to replenish groundwater.

We have a chance today to address these concerns, while simultaneously creating public spaces along rivers with parks and trails to serve our communities. The Draft 2017 Central Valley Flood Protection Plan proposes a multi-benefit flood management project to provide 100-year flood protection for Firebaugh.

If designed correctly, the project could create a riverside park for Firebaugh, recharge groundwater and become the first leg of a riverside trail between Firebaugh and Mendota.

The San Joaquin River Parkway illustrates how protecting rivers and floodplains can create a vibrant recreational resource for Fresno County residents. As we weigh funding allocations for water supply, flood management and recreation, we should prioritize investments in the Parkway.

The San Joaquin River Parkway reach of the river extends from Friant Dam to Highway 99, and includes a series of parks, trails, and floodplain habitat for wildlife. This is one local effort to create more accessible open space in our park-poor region.

More than a decade ago, the California Department of Parks and Recreation developed a vision for the Central Valley. They concluded that Valley communities are underserved by parks and identified opportunities for improving access.

Based on extensive community outreach, a top recommendation in the vision document was to “[s]ignificantly expand recreational and interpretive opportunities, programs, and the preservation of resources, particularly those along river corridors.”

Central Valley residents want increased river access for fishing, riverside biking and hiking, picnicking, canoeing, nature study and wildlife viewing. Investing in public spaces – through acquiring easements and other land use strategies, in partnership with willing landowners – can make this vision a reality.

Developing parks along rivers brings multiple benefits that make this type of public spending especially efficient. In much of the Central Valley, establishing riverside parks involves setting back levees and designating strategic areas to take in high water during times of flood, protecting farmland and communities, and recharging flagging groundwater reserves in the process.

This type of project requires local and state leaders to think about flood safety in a new way. Instead of building up failure-prone levees that are expensive to maintain, our communities can identify strategic places to expand floodways to lower flood levels. As in the proposed Mendota-Firebaugh Parkway, these spaces can provide much-needed public recreational space when they are not in use for flood control.

The need to improve flood safety is clear. A recent poll by the Public Policy Institute of California showed that 61 percent of California adults support investing in flood safety improvements; in the Valley, that percentage jumps to 65 percent.

The state Legislature is considering placing one or more bonds on the ballot that would support both expanded parks and increased spending on flood-related infrastructure. By advancing opportunities like the Mendota-Firebaugh Parkway, Fresno County has the chance to cost-effectively address its pressing need for investment in parks while also improving public safety.

Posted on May 16, 2017July 26, 2017 by BriannaWoo

Meet the Man Who Planted a Forest

Every day, man plants trees in same spot. 37 years later, his masterpiece takes our breath away

written by Jonathan Maes on May 5th, 2017

The young teenager Jadav “Molai” Payeng decided to help nature out a little bit and started planting trees over thirty years ago. He planted the seeds next to a very and deserted sandbar closely to his birthplace in the Assam region, India. Jadav wanted to create a habitat for wildlife and oppose people who were cutting trees down.

Jadav later decided that he would dedicate his life to building his own forest and planting trees. For almost every day for 37 years, the man planted seeds and has successfully built a whole new ecosystem. It’s estimated that the forest now approaches a size of 1,360 acres. For comparison, Central Park only has a surface area of 778 acres.

The turning point for Jadav was when he found a number of dead snakes in the sandy area after a flood. The deceased reptiles encouraged him to build a habitat where animals wouldn’t need to feel threatened or have their homes taken away from them.

“The snakes died in the heat, without any tree cover. I sat down and wept over their lifeless forms. It was carnage. I alerted the forest department and asked them if they could grow trees there. They said nothing would grow there. Instead, they asked me to try growing bamboo. It was painful, but I did it. There was nobody to help me. Nobody was interested,” the now 47-year-old said to The Times of India.

The very dedicated Indian arborist has truly built an ecological paradise for wildlife, a fantastic example of how beautiful nature can be. Jadav’s forest is the home to over 115 elephants, a number of rhinos, deer and even a couple of tigers.

“I will continue to plant until my last breath,” Jadav said. A fantastic story!

Please SHARE this with your friends and family.

Source: National Geographic

Posted on May 15, 2017July 26, 2017 by BriannaWoo

Tree San Diego April 2017 Newsletter

To read more visit: http://mailchi.mp/7a0516d95a70/b1mu87tm5d?e=513d66dbfd

DID YOU KNOW…

… there’s a new field of tree science dedicated to tree care for encouraging birds and other wildlife? We’re all aware of the Endangered Species Act and other laws protecting wildlife, but it takes more than laws to make sure our region provides suitable and safe habitat for our native and migratory fauna. It takes knowledge of the needs and habits of our wildlife.For example, what an arborist about to trim a tree sees as the tree’s flaws is quite different from what a bird or a squirrel sees. Where the arborist might see the need to thin out over-branching at the end of a truncated limb, the bird might see a well-hidden location perfect for a nest.

Hawks nest, courtesy of West Coast Arborists

When we plant new trees, there are questions we should be asking: What species of tree is conducive to our native birds nesting and hiding from threats? Is our choice of plants contributing to species diversity? And when there is work to be done on existing trees, there is the all-important question: When is breeding season for the birds who nest there?The Tree Care for Birds and Wildlife Project, formed of arborists and wildlife biologists, is setting about to educate professionals whose work affects natural habitats, especially trees, as well as politicians and the general public about how we all can make our urban forests more wildlife friendly. To learn more about the work of this newly formed project, visit their websiteTreeCareForBirds.com

Logo for Tree Care for Birds and Other Wildlife

Posted on May 10, 2017July 26, 2017 by BriannaWoo

Goodbye trees, hello solar canopies: Project will change look of college parking lots

Goodbye trees, hello solar canopies: Project will change look of college parking lots

BY BONHIA LEE

The installation could save about $18 million in energy costs districtwide over the next 20 years. But it also means death to a bunch of trees – at least 88 alone in the Fresno City College parking lots along McKinley Avenue.

Fresno City faculty member Jeannine Koshear isn’t happy about the trees being cut down, including one that she claims is a century old and used in class lessons. She’s also upset with the district for not getting more community input before voting to move ahead with the project.

“Here we are, in the Valley, with horrible air quality, and we’re going to cut down trees to install solar?” Koshear said.

“This would change the face of campus forever.”

THIS WOULD CHANGE THE FACE OF CAMPUS FOREVER.

Jeannine Koshear, Fresno City faculty member

Discussions about a districtwide solar project started last August. A presentation was made to the board of trustees in February and the board voted in March, in a close 4-3 decision, to move ahead with the installation. There were a lot of meetings leading up to the vote, and the district posted a formal 15-day notice before the March meeting, said Christine Miktarian, associate vice chancellor of business and operations.

The district entered a lease agreement with ForeFront, a solar company recommended by the School Project for Utility Rate Reduction, or SPURR program, a joint powers authority created in 1989 by California public school districts. SPURR helps streamline the solar competitive bidding process for public entities.

The plan is to install solar shade structures and some electric car-charging stations at Clovis Community College, the district’s Herndon Avenue campus in Clovis, Fresno City, Madera Community College Center and Reedley College.

Fresno City was the biggest challenge because it has a lot of trees, a shortage of land and a plan that outlines possible future development at the college, Miktarian said. The district did not want to take away any parking areas or build on land that could be slated for a new building, she said.

The solar structures would be built over the existing parking lots along McKinley Avenue. The lot closest to the railroad tracks was spared because it could be home to a new parking structure in the future.

“We’re not putting (solar) on the buildings,” Miktarian said. “That would be an added structural issue for the buildings themselves.”

88Trees to be removed at Fresno City College

The trees in the parking lots are in the way so they have to go, the district said. None of the college’s “heritage” trees – the old, mature trees that are part of a campus tree walk program – will be removed, Miktarian said.

Once construction is finished by the end of the year, the district plans to plant 100 large native shade trees on the Fresno City campus and another 300 between the Madera and Reedley college sites, Miktarian said. The district is working with Tree Fresno on applying for a grant.

Construction is scheduled to begin in late summer and will run into the start of the new school year.

Koshear, who said she supports solar and other efforts to reduce energy costs, is still not convinced solar panels on the parking lots is the way to go.

“It seems to me like there’s a model that is much more … collaborative and doesn’t involve the destruction of trees.”

BoNhia Lee: 559-441-6495, @bonhialee

State Center Community College plans to remove 95 trees from the Fresno City College parking lots B, C, and D along McKinley Avenue and more at four other campuses to make way for solar panel installations. Plans also include electric car-charging ports. Construction is planned for late summer. ERIC PAUL ZAMORAezamora@fresnobee.com

Posted on May 2, 2017July 26, 2017 by BriannaWoo

13 Ways Valley Oaks Teach Kids of All Ages

VALLEY VOICES

APRIL 28, 2017 4:45 PM

The giving tree: 13 ways valley oaks teach kids of all ages

BY DAVID ROBERTS

Enthusiastic Fresno students really dig botany lessons learned in a recent tree-planting project at Ruth Gibson Elementary School.

I am the father of a second and fifth grader in the Fresno Unified School District. I coach their soccer teams and actively participate in school activities. We compete on fields with little to no shade, and often my kids are indoors on smog-infused days. I seek to change this.

A majority of Fresno’s landscape emphasizes urbanization and irrigated turf. We can create a better framework for our city by highlighting our own endemic valley oak, a tree emblematic of our region.

Earth Day, 2015, in partnership with Tree Fresno, students successfully planted 25 valley oaks at Wawona Middle School. Last Saturday, Earth Day 2017, students again partnered with Tree Fresno. They gathered plans, funds and irrigation, planting eight large-canopy, drought-tolerant trees at Ruth Gibson Elementary School.

What’s the point? There are multiple reasons for these endeavors:

▪ School tree transition: Assist Valley schools to transition from short-lived mulberry and Modesto ash trees , to more appropriate long lived, drought-tolerant trees.

▪ School mobilization: Engage the school communities in all aspects planning, fund-raising, planting, and supervision. In the short term, it generates positive publicity for schools. For the long term, it provides an environmental education setting for generations.

▪ Education: Students engage in hands-on experiential learning through all stages of development from fund-raising to installation. Student participation will increase pride and ownership of the school community. Planted specimens will provide a living science lab for students of all grade levels for generations. Once educated on the natural, cultural, biological and ecological value, some students will become lifelong stewards of our Valley’s trees.

▪ Shade: Temperature in the canopy shade is 10 degrees cooler than in direct sun. Properly located on fields, the shade provides relief for students, parents, coaches, and athletes before, during and after play.

▪ Carbon sink: Valley oaks grow 70 feet wide by 70 feet tall. Throughout their more than 400 years of life, they take in massive amounts of carbon and convert it to oxygen and biomass through photosynthesis.

▪ Endemic: Valley Oaks are distributed throughout the Valley’s grassland ecosystem. They have evolved over the eons specifically to our arid climate and sandy loam soil.

▪ Drought tolerant: Water requirements change over time. During establishment, drought-tolerant trees need deep-root irrigation. After establishment, their tap roots use ground water, and surface watering may not be necessary. They use significantly less water over their lifetime than irrigated lawn.

▪ Natural barrier: Mature trees provide a natural barrier for wind, dust, noise, and pollution. Neighborhoods surrounding schools will benefit once these trees are established.

▪ Biological diversity: Valley oak habitats can support more than a hundred native species of birds, amphibians, mammals, and invertebrates. Similar-sized species support only a raction of this wildlife.

▪ Restoration: Over the past 200 years, 90 percent of valley oak habitat has been cleared for agriculture and urban development. Inadequate natural regeneration further impacts the species. The California Department of Fish and Game and the Nature Conservancy considers these trees threatened. Planting in our community will begin to reintroduce these trees into our urban landscape.

▪ Cultural heritage: The acorns from valley oaks wereused as a staple for native people in the Valley. Europeans settled near valley oak groves to feed their pigs with the acorns and farm the fertile soil.

▪ Iconic: Valley oaks are the largest of North American oaks and showcase the climax ecosystem for Central California. Ideally located in urban landscapes, they make a profound statement in terms of beauty, ecology, and restoration. Just as sequoias are the icons of the sierras and the redwoods are the icons of the Northern California Coast, valley oaks are the natural icons of the Valley.

▪ Economic value: Mature trees have been shown to measurably increase the economic value of a region. Desirability and value of nearby properties increases over time with trees maturity.

Lets make our community beautiful. When planting a new tree, I urge you to consider the valley oak. For future projects in the Valley involving valley oaks, you can donate to Tree Fresno – Valley Oak Project.

Month: May 2017