Student’s tree-planting efforts make city greener
High school senior’s group has planted more than 100 trees
Try conjuring up an image of Cupertino and apples come to mind.
OK, more like one specific Apple, but 17-year-old Karen Ma wants people to think more about the trees apples grow on, and she’s doing her part to make sure they’re visible all around her city.
Ma, a senior at Monta Vista High School, has dedicated herself to making the city greener. To her, the cause is a no-brainer: the environmental and economic benefits that trees provide are numerous, she said.
“Trees really don’t take much time to plant; they don’t require much money, and honestly, it’s such a good investment to make, both environmentally and property value-wise,” she said, adding that even one tree has the potential to significantly boost the value of a home. “It’s an investment with a really high return, I would say.”
While Ma’s efforts may not necessarily grab the attention of passersby, that hasn’t been the case with her elected officials, who bestowed praise upon the budding horticulturist at a city council meeting this month. With her beaming parents in the audience, Ma accepted a proclamation recognizing her for being a superstar volunteer for the past six years.
“Honestly, I was really proud and I’m really grateful for what the city has done,” she said. “I guess just seeing how far this group has come and how many people share my interests, it was really great. I’m really glad that the city views this as something to give a proclamation to. I’m glad they value environmental sustainability as much as I do.”
The group Ma is referring to is the Silicon Valley Tree Planters, which she formed on the social network site Meetup and whose 140 members work with the Cupertino Tree Department to host a tree-planting event once a year, typically around Arbor Day. At last year’s event, they planted a tree in memory of Yogi, a puppy that was friends with Ma’s dog, Milo, and died after being hit by a car.
“His owner talked to me and asked if we could plant a tree in his memory,” she said. “I thought it was a really great way to remember the dog, so we planted that tree near Jollyman Park.”
The city provides the designated planting spots, tools and breakfast, while Ma’s group provides the manpower in the form of volunteers. Once an all-day event, the plantings now are completed in just a few hours.
“It’s gotten a lot more efficient, and just getting more people involved, it’s been really successful,” she said.
Ma first became interested in trees in middle school. During her bike rides to and from school, she became aware of what she considered a shortage of foliage.
“After noticing this, me and my dad began offering planting trees for neighbors free of charge,” she said. “The more I started learning about trees and planting trees, the passion just kept growing.”
Since then, she has gone door-to-door asking residents if they would like to plant a tree and, with other volunteers, has planted more than 100 trees, many of them in and around Jollyman Park. She’s also created the website balanceourcarbon.com, where she shares information about the environmental benefits of trees and how to get into planting.
Next year, Ma will go off to college, where she hopes to study sustainable development or environmental engineering, but that doesn’t mean she plans to hang up her gardening gloves anytime soon; she said that she would stay involved with her group in one capacity or another.
“I really hope this group will keep growing,” she said.