Want a Street Tree?

Do you want a street tree for your parkway (between the curb and sidewalk)?

Palisades Forestry Committee (PFC) will facilitate the planting of street trees in neighborhood parkways for homeowners who want a tree.

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Our goal is to fill street tree vacancies where there is space to do so, to increase the tree canopy coverage along our streets, to shade and beautify our neighborhoods, and to offer the life enhancing benefits of trees in our public spaces.

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PFC was formed to research, make recommendations, and facilitate the planting of street trees that enhance and sustain the health and beauty of our neighborhood urban forest. PFC includes landscape professionals and local tree advocates, with the advice and cooperation of representatives from the LA City Urban Forestry Division (UFD) and LA City Councilmember Traci Park’s staff.  We created a database of functional and aesthetic plusses and minuses of various tree species in order to determine the best possible tree choices by location.

Specific trees to be recommended for a street will depend on the size of the planting area (width of the parkway x length of plantable area), the compatibility with the existing street trees, and the micro-climate of the block.  We may recommend native trees or other low or medium water trees that are growing space and climate appropriate.  Our goal is the largest canopy for the space, for the greatest shade area, whether evergreen or deciduous.  We know the current LA City guidelines for the planting of street trees in order to protect city infrastructure like sidewalks and utility lines.

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Fire tolerance (or fire resistance or fire resilience) is now an important consideration in tree selection. We've settled on "fire tolerance" as the best label, concurred in by Prof. Matt Ritter at Cal Poly SLO.  We compiled a list of fire tolerant trees (Resources tab).  It is a selection of trees that are generally seen as fire tolerant.  Well hydrated and well maintained trees can act as shields in an urban fire storm by catching embers that would otherwise be blown further toward homes.

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Many other well maintained and well hydrated trees may be able to tolerate and survive fires, but there are no guarantees for them or for those listed. Proximity to structures is a better predictor of whether trees burn, and street trees generally have some distance from structures.  The higher water content of the tree, the more fire tolerant it is.

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Many of the existing street trees are not appropriate any more with our changing climate. Some species are too big for their space, causing root damage, and others are too thirsty for our climate.  We may recommend riparian trees where appropriate, such as canyon bottoms.  We want to preserve and care for all of our existing trees and not remove them.  We plant where there are vacancies.  Palisades Forestry Committee plants the right tree for the right space.