Growing Green: City of L.A. Kicks Off Million Trees Initiative

Since his first day in office Mayor Villaraigosa has expressed his goal of planting a million trees in L.A., and last month the Million Trees Initiative was kicked off under your direction. Elaborate on the mayor's goal and vision for this project.

It's an inspiring and visionary idea to provide a catalyst for profound environmental change in Los Angeles. A million trees will provide significant environmental as well as aesthetic benefits that can transform a neighborhood from a sparse built environment into a more beautiful shaded environment.

Trees can save energy and improve air and water quality; they also provide economic value, because trees can increase property value. For instance, it's been shown that a tree-lined commercial street can experience a 12 percent increase in shopping because of the more pleasant environment. And in addition, the involvement of Angelenos in this project will be transformative, because it will mean a commitment on the part of the people of Los Angeles to participate in the improvement of their environment.

In a TPR interview last year, TreePeople's Andy Lipkis lauded the Million Trees Initiative but said that "the key is making sure appropriate trees are planted in the proper places, that they survive and thrive, and are properly cared for so they can perform special infrastructure services. It is imperative that a public-private partnership is formed to use the best new science and technology to plan and implement this effort." How have you responded to Andy's assertion that this project needs careful planning?

I'm glad you brought that up. This initiative is based on science. We're designing it by using a canopy analysis, which is a scientific document done by Greg McPherson, a well known professor of urban forest research at UC-Davis. He's analyzed the canopy cover of the city to show us where it's the lowest. We've broken it down by Council districts, and it will be further broken down by neighborhood councils. He will help us select sites for trees that will maximize environmental benefits.

This project will be implemented by our partners, who have been planting trees for a long time and understand what it means to put the right tree in the right place. They will prepare target area plans that use this canopy analysis, look at where the trees can be planted, and provide the best places and methods to plant them.

Our partners include Hollywood Beautification Team, Koreatown Youth and Community Center, L.A. Conservation Corps, Northeast Trees, and TreePeople is working with Rec and Parks. So we have an expert team to implement this and assure the trees' long-term survival.

Andy Lipkis also emphasized that "a million wrongly planted trees in the wrong locations could worsen air pollution, use more water, worsen runoff, trigger more allergies and asthma, profoundly lower the quality of life and add huge costs to an already overburdened city budget." How will you avoid allocating trees more on the basis of politics than on science and good planning?

I think it's an interesting quote from Andy, but I think a million trees will provide air quality and water quality benefits no matter where they're situated. But it is important to put them in the right places, and we're guiding this through the work of the project partners. If by "politics" you mean people trying to pull things in a different direction, it's important that this be a collaborative process, and we are working closely with the council offices.

The commissioners of the Board of Public Works are engaged in this as well and will be working with the community groups. Our message is that it's important to have the right trees in the right places, and I'm confident that once they understand why, they'll work with us on this.

You serve on the Board of Public Works as an appointee of the mayor. What is the role of Public Works in implementing this initiative and in enlisting other departments in the city?

The Board of Public Works is leading this project, and I've been privileged to be asked to lead it on behalf of the board. It is the right place, because Public Works is home to the infrastructure of the city. We oversee five bureaus-Street Services, Sanitation, Engineering, Contract Administration, and Street Lighting. Sanitation is responsible for all the water that ends up going into the ocean.

I used to be president of Heal the Bay, and I came here to deal with those water quality issues, among others. Street services takes care of all the streets and it's home to the Street Tree Division, now called the Urban Forestry Division. The Urban Forestry Division is responsible for the city's urban forest, which is already the largest in the country by number. But it doesn't play out that way in terms of density, because our canopy cover is 18 percent and the national average is 27 percent. Because we cover such a large area, we still need quite a few more trees to even get close to the national average.

A lot of city departments are engaged in this process, particularly those that have direct involvement with trees. We're working with the Environmental Affairs Department, which is helping to coordinate grant-writing and coordinate the various departments.

We're working with the Department of Water and Power, which has folded its Trees for a Green L.A., a program into this program; you can think of Million Trees as an umbrella program for existing initiatives. We're working with Building and Safety to help collect counts and we're working with the Planning Department to develop any ordinance changes that would help support the urban forest. The list goes on. Obviously all of our bureaus in Public Works are fully engaged and there are liaisons assigned from key city departments to support this initiative.

For those who may be skeptical, is it possible today to coordinate across city departments, as you describe?

It is not only possible; it is already happening. In the year that we've been planning for this project, there's been a shift in how the departments look at trees. When I first started looking at this project, except for our Street Tree Division, departments didn't have an inventory of trees. They're now looking at that.

We're trying to to develop a culture that recognizes trees as a worthwhile investment because of the services they provide. We've quantified the air and water quality benefits in economic terms, and we've quantified the energy savings benefits in economic terms, and with those benefits you get a 280 percent return on investment.

If you were to engineer the solutions to those problems, such as designing a storm water system to provide the same benefits trees could provide, that piece alone would cost millions per year. So people in the city departments are recognizing that trees are a worthwhile investment. They're a green utility/infrastructure; Andy Lipkis calls it a "biogenic utility" that can provide long-term benefits.

How is this heroic effort being funded?

This is a public-private partnership on many levels, including the funding. We're getting public funding from bond money and departments, and we're raising money through a nonprofit board called the Million Trees L.A. Foundation board, which is a group of community leaders who are helping raise money from private sources and corporations. We've had commitments from Doubletree Hotels, Telemundo, Wells Fargo, SunCal, Xerox, and others, and we're in discussions with a number of others.

With this good work, you are emerging as the "Felicia Marcus of 2006"?

It is a compliment to be mentioned in the same sentence as her! Felicia Marcus has big shoes to fill; my shoes are different. I'm pleased to know that I'm following her path, but I wouldn't say that I could fill her shoes.

It's been some times since TPR has covered the L.A. Board of Public Works, to which you were appointed a year ago. What did you find, and what are the present priorities of the board?

There are quite a few priorities here. We're looking at increasing the amount of recycling we do and diversion from landfills. We've been working on TMDL development and compliance with all the requirements for storm water quality. We've also been looking at septic tanks. The Million Trees is obviously a big initiative for the board.

Are your current responsibilities as rewarding as leading Heal the Bay?

Heal the Bay is my family; I love working with them. But it's a great privilege to work on the board and to be able to work on these issues. And it's exciting to be part of this administration, because there's a great team-everyone from Robin Kramer to Nancy Sutley to the other commissioners at Harbor and Water and Power and Planning. They're all engaged, active, and incredibly bright, and they're working hard to make a difference. To be a part of that and take part in the changes that are coming is really exciting.

If we talk a year from now, what achievements will you be sharing?

More trees planted-over 100,000. This is going to happen as a ramp-up, so there will be exponentially increasing numbers of trees each year. We'll be moving forward with Prop O projects. We'll be addressing some of our pollutant requirements. And something else that I didn't mention before: recycled water. Looking at our water management and maximizing the use of reclaimed water in industrial areas and commercial landscaping are high on my list of priorities. All of those things will be well underway.