The Cleaner Air Partnership Quarterly Luncheon, hosted on November 4th, featured speakers from area tree foundations discussing the benefits of urban forests.

Cindy Blain of the Sacramento Tree Foundation provided an overview of the "Greenprint" program, which is a roadmap for mobilizing and empowering community partners and volunteers to plant 5 million trees in the Sacramento region by 2025 to create healthy and livable communities. While the benefits of trees include reduced air temperatures, increased shade, and reduced winter wind to curb energy use, Cindy advised "it's not just about planting trees - it is about building a better community" by bringing volunteers together to plan, plant, and maintain the trees.

As part of the region's plan State Implementation Plan (SIP), which outlines measures to help meet the federal clean air requirements, the Sacramento Tree Foundation is working closely with the Sacramento Metropolitan Air Quality Management District to include trees as a voluntary control measure. This measure proposes to improve air quality by shifting 86,000 of the current 6.9 million tree inventory to tree species which emit fewer Biogenic Volatile Organic Compounds (BVOCs). In order for the U.S. EPA to approve the inclusion of tree plantings in the SIP, there needs to be demonstrated support from cities and counties in the region. The City of West Sacramento was the first to adopt an air quality and trees resolution where they committed to "increase the proportion of lower biogenic emitting tree species by up to 30%, where the tree planting does not conflict with native oak tree mitigation projects."

Dena Kirtley, Urban Forest Manager for the City of West Sacramento provided an overview of the City's Free Shade Tree Program and commented that they joined as early adopters of Greenprint because they "believe regional participation and support of tree plantings are necessary to help meet Federal and State air standards to improve public health."

David Wilkinson from the Woodland Tree Foundation and David Robinson from Tree Davis emphasized the importance of collaboration, and in particular, their positive working relationships with their respective cities where they provide a valuable service with their ability to plant trees cost effectively using a volunteer workforce.

In closing, Phil Tretheway, a participant in the 2011 Leadership Sacramento class encouraged attendees to join a tree planting event on Saturday, December 10th at 8:30am at Florin Road Bingo as part of their support of the Sacramento Tree Foundation's "Cover Your Asphalt" parking lot retrofit program.