25,000 more trees in L.A.
Re “Mayor Bass, climate change is urgent too,” editorial, Dec. 30
Your editorial suggests that Mayor Karen Bass finish the tree-planting goal set by her predecessor Eric Garcetti. We can’t just dig holes and plant the other 25,000 trees. As a representative to the Community Forest Advisory Committee, I can attest that it is more complicated.
Because saplings were dying before they could reach groundwater, the city started watering as needed for five years. But the city’s Urban Forestry Division is too severely under-funded to handle more work.
In 2021, the City Council adopted a report saying Los Angeles is in a biodiversity hot spot and thus requires native flora. Large-canopy natives need bigger tree wells. To accommodate these wells, Bass should apply for federal infrastructure funds for parkway widening to 10 feet.
Furthermore, natives are not well stocked by the city’s supplier nurseries, and contract growing has not been allowed. Bass could change this.
It takes 20 years for a tree to mature. Existing trees are also losing canopy. Businesses chop existing trees for sign visibility. Urban Forestry over-cuts for liability because the budget forces them into a 20-year-plus trim cycle. Homeowners see this and over-prune.
Trees are also removed for building projects. A mature oak is worth $125,000, yet city fees to remove one are only $2,000.
Bass faces greater challenges on trees than just putting more of Garcetti’s saplings into the ground. Joanne D’Antonio
Valley Glen
Perhaps the most effective action that Bass can take is to vocally and consistently support a federal fee on greenhouse gas emissions to counteract the market failure that allows polluters to dump warming chemicals into our air and stick us with the consequences.
Twenty-seven California cities and three counties (including Los Angeles) have endorsed the policy. Many economists across the political spectrum find such a fee the fastest, cheapest and among the fairest responses to our climate crisis.
Without bans or mandates, the market will determine winners and losers. Coupled with a border adjustment to protect domestic producers and avoid unfair competition from trading partners that pollute, we can ensure the worldwide cooperation required for effective climate action.
Tom Hazelleaf
Seal Beach