The Porter Ranch Neighborhood Council allocated $9,000 of the 2017-2018 budget to an ambitious project removing 22 dead trees and stumps as well as removing dead wood on another 35 diseased and dying trees along Tampa, Rinaldi, and Porter Valley Drive. These beloved and majestic Canary Island Pines that can grow to be 80 feet tall, suffered terribly in the drought and in their weakend state succumbed to the attacks of bark beetles despite being very strong trees. The work was completed in June 2018.
In the last couple of years the PRNC has heard from stakeholders about their concerns of bark beetle infestation on our trees and we appreciate Jason Hector, PRNC Community Beautification Chair, for taking action and leading this significant project. Special thanks to Jessie Strobel, Jonathan Coto and Nicole Bernson at CD12 who helped get the permit approval. Also special thanks to the Department of Recreation and Parks Urban Foresters Leon Boroditsky and Art Flores as well as Park Maintenance Supervisor Jorge De Loera.
In addition to hands on beautification projects in Porter Ranch, the Community Beautification Committee has made policy recommendations to the City regarding the care and maintenance of our urban forest and tree canopy, a traditionally undervalued resource. In a recent report assessing the City's current tree management plan, the authors suggested that trees be considered as assets on city budgets. Research shows that shoppers are willing to spend 9-12% more on goods, more time shopping, and will travel greater distances to shop in districts with high quality trees. We would assume that those findings can be extrapolated to increased value of our neighborhoods and houses.
In our Community Impact Statement on Council File 15-0467-S8 we supported the findings of the Urban Forest Management Plan,the Dudek Report and requested that the City fund a tree inventory to be completed by professionals as a first step in managing our urban tree canopy. We also asked for help replacing trees in 200 empty tree wells, alternative sidewalk repair options to allow Porter Ranch to keep existing Canary Island Pines in place and tree maintenance along the same model as the semi-annual pothole repair trucks.
The next project of the Beautification Committee is to remove fallen and dead trees from Limekiln Canyon Park and Wilbur Tampa/Palisades Park. The PRNC approved up to $10,000 for this project at our May 2019 meeting. We are working on securing permits from Recreation and Parks. Stay tuned for news about this upcoming community improvement and contact Community Beautification Committee Chair JasonHector [at] PRNC.org (Jason Hector) with your ideas and join us at our next committee meeting.
