A Gap in the Trees of East Palo Alto

Last week I went for a bike ride around East Palo Alto, looking for a gap in the trees. I am on a quest to understand more about East Palo Alto and starting with street trees. The specific detail I was looking for was how many trees succeeded and how many fail. Street trees are often planted as a set of the same species along a road to create a coherent appearance. The spacing is even, so if a tree dies, you usually see a gap or find a smaller tree planted in as a replacement.

Here is a set of flourishing trees matched in age and size.

I chose a neighborhood at random, and it rewarded me with a completely idiosyncratic arrangement of trees. First, it was not clear if these were private or public trees. Most street trees were behind fences, although somewhat along the street.

Are these trees street trees or privately owned and maintained trees?

Here is one tree that is a real edge case.

In the end, I was not able to find a row of street trees in that neighborhood, so finding the gaps was also a non-starter. I did find a failed tree. It has something in common with my edge case tree.

Another tree that is on the fence.

I will have to learn more about property lines in East Palo Alto, who owns what, and how the city manages trees, tree planting, and tree maintenance.

After my reconnaissance bike ride, I did some more research on East Palo Alto trees. I discovered that Canopy will be working with East Palo Alto tree initiative. I plan to share more about their work in future blogs*. In the meantime, I plan to look up redlining maps of the area. Look for my next post on redlining maps.

* I have reached out to Canopy but have not yet heard back. As with many such agencies, coordination of communication and efforts are no doubt hampered by covid.

Canopy (canopy.org) is an organization with the following mission: “to grow urban tree canopy in Midpeninsula communities for the benefit of all.”