Tell Council on June 24: Dedicate Support to Adopt the Urban Forest Plan

Tonight, June 24, the City will vote on approving the Urban Forest Plan, which calls for a very ambitious effort to nearly double the city’s tree cover over the next 20 years! But implementation and funding is lacking. We will need widespread community participation and funding if we hope to achieve this goal.

Our Ask

We support the adoption of this plan alongside ReWild Sacramento and Trees 4 Sac (Read our joint comment letter). We also ask the City to do the following:

• Dedicate additional funding each year to make sure this Plan can be implemented.
• Establish a collaborative working group of City staff implementing the plan and key stakeholders doing community tree canopy work.
• Work with Transportation Planning to include in the Street Design Standards update a requirement for sufficient planting space for trees in every new or redesigned street.

How to Help

1. Submit an E-Comment: By 5 PM Tuesday (earlier is better)
   Write an online comment in support of the adopting the Plan and emphasizing the need to dedicate funding and to work alongside community stakeholders to make sure the Plan can be implemented.
   Your voice matters, and this is an easy and effective way to make it heard.
   
   • Item #15: Sacramento Urban Forest Plan
     Select the Position: Support
     
2. Attend the Council meeting and comment with us in person: Tuesday evening
   We will hold an Advocacy Power Hour at Sana’a Cafe on 9th & K from 4-4:40 PM to prepare for our public comments. Then we’ll walk over to the 5 PM City Council Meeting together.

Talking Points

• The Urban Forest Plan is a big step forward for the city and should be adopted.
• In a world of ever increasing extreme weather, trees should be treated and funded as essential, life-saving infrastructure.
• Meeting the canopy goal will require the participation of the community, and the city should establish a working group to foster this collaboration.
• Street design standards should require every new or redesigned street to include sufficient planting space for trees, which are essential for the safety and accessibility of active transportation.
• Fostering a more complete tree canopy produces a net positive ROI in ways that are directly measurable according to modeling results in the SUFP, but as Strong SacTown we also want to highlight that a street tree canopy produces additional externalized financial benefits beyond what modeling software is configured to account for.  These benefits include positive impacts to property tax revenues, localized incentives for tax-bolstering infill development, and slower wear on asphalt surfaces. These benefits can be significant and cost almost nothing to sustain indefinitely.