Tree San Diego

Tree San Diego is a 50l(c)(3) tax-exempt organization that works to benefit the greater San Diego region by helping provide a healthier place to live, work and play. Our mission: TreeSD's mission is to significantly impact the quantity of quality urban forest in San Diego County and beyond. Quantity means increasing the percentage of urban forest. Quality means the right trees, in the right places, properly maintained. Our partners: TreeSD collaborates with interested regional municipalities and public entities, including many organizations that work for human and environmental sustainability and justice. Our Board of Directors: Laurie Broedling - President and Chairperson; Tony Endress - Secretary; Cynthia Irmer - Assistant Secretary; Emma Hosmer - Treasurer; Members - Melanie Conomikes, Michael Bostwick, Mike Palat, Chris Roesink. Tree-plantings and reforestation planning: With a $750,000 CAL FIRE grant, TreeSD is planting and maintaining 1,200 environmentally beneficial trees in under-served neighborhoods of San Diego, Chula Vista and El Centro. California ReLeaf has funded projects enabling us to plant trees in under-served San Diego and National City neighborhood parks. We advise and collaborate with communities to enhance their tree canopy, selecting species that increase air quality and green house gas sequestration, and reduce storm-water runoff while being drought-tolerant, disease-resistant, and biodiverse. We are currently advising the Rancho Santa Fe community on their initiative to improve their forest’s resiliency. Inventories, Mapping, and Benefit Assessment: An essential part of urban forest management is the ability to track the trees and assess their various benefits to human and environmental health and well-being. We provide technical advisory services in these areas and apply these methods to our own tree planting and care projects. Our core tool is the San Diego Tree Tracker, a state- of-the-art GIS-based system which not only maps specific trees but also quantifies various environmental benefits. www.sandiegotreetracker.org. Wood re-utilization: We received a $750,000 CAL FIRE grant to implement a prototype, scalable business model to foster re-use of wood from dead urban trees for products such as lumber, furniture, fuel pellets and biochar (a soil enhancement). Re-using our urban tree material instead of sending it to landfills keeps its carbon sequestered and decreases the amount of carbon emissions due to transporting lumber and other wood products from far distances. Tree Stewardship: With a combination of private and public funding TreeSD is developing the San Diego Regional Tree Stewardship Program. Tree Stewards are volunteers trained to be competent in various skills enabling them to care for trees and teach others. The intent is to build numerous corps of volunteer tree stewards in various locations around our region. Community Involvement: We sponsor and participate in public planting and tree-care events to engage and educate community members, including in Chula Vista, San Diego, El Centro and Rancho Santa Fe. Mayors, other government officials, and many enthusiastic volunteers have participated. Recognition: California Urban Forest Council's 2015 Everyday Heroes Award to TreeSD Board members Laurie Broedling and Mike Palat. San Diego Regional Urban Forest Council’s 2016 Award for Best Community Tree Planting/Arbor Day Event to Tree San Diego.