Photos by Doug Mandel
Two successful Saturdays in October with work by many volunteers, putting in a lot of time and energy led to many shade trees being planted in the front yards of Redding residents. This was nearly a year in the making and with a grant from The Bower Charitable Foundation, SEA and volunteers have successfully started the process of building Redding’s tree canopy and helping homeowners create habitat for wildlife and eventually save them money on their energy bills.
Over two weekends we had many volunteers from the community and the California Conservation Corps (CCC) helping SEA dig holes for the trees, plant the trees properly, and brace the trees! SEA President, David Ledger, led the challenge to ensure everything was done to ensure proper placement of trees, and having utilities mark underground lines to ensure that we wouldn’t harm any underground sewer lines, water lines, cable TV, etc. when digging the holes.
All of the trees will eventually provide ample shade for their homes, cooling their homes in summer, reducing the heat island effect, and sequestering carbon. A special thanks goes out to SEA members Yojiro Sadohara, Terry Swanson, Kathy Grissom, Derle Gilliam, and Doug Mandel for helping with the grunt work and the young CCC guys showing all of us up. Rico Montenegro, an experienced arborist provided the “how to” of all the planting. And a special thank you to McEntire Landscaping who donated the planted trees!
A huge thank you again to all of the volunteers, the homeowners, The Bower Charitable Foundation, and McEntire Landscaping for helping this come to fruition!
