The Bakersfield City Council approved the city budget on Wednesday night. During the public comment portion of the city council meeting, several community members spoke about the city budget, expressing concerns about the tree canopy.
In response to community comments, Councilmember Eric Arias suggested allocating $500,000 to the tree canopy budget. The funds came from the additional general fund options, which City Manager Christian Clegg presented to the council with suggested allocations to different departments and services. Vice Mayor Manpreet Kaur made a motion to approve, and it passed with Councilmember Ken Weir voting no and Councilmember Bob Smith absent.
Dr. Antje Lauer has spoken at the city council meetings throughout the budget process, asking for additional funding for the tree canopy in Bakersfield. After the city council meeting, she stated that she is grateful, but unfortunately, it will not make a large difference. However, she understands the budget restrictions.
“Well, this is better than nothing. And we heard that the budget is kind of tight, that Bakersfield has not enough money, so we are grateful that it was raised to half a million dollars. But when you think about how much that means regarding percentage-wise canopy cover increase, that’s not very much,” said Lauer.
She explained that the increased budget still will not get the city to the point of increasing the tree canopy by one percent.
“So the city says that planting a tree costs about $500, so with irrigation and labor, maybe even more than that. So when you divide 500,000 by 500, how many trees are those? That’s 1,000,” said Lauer. “But if you want to increase one percent tree canopy coverage in Bakersfield per year, you need 4,000 trees. That means you need $2 million per year. But of course, we cannot ask that because of the budget crisis. But you see, to set this in perspective, 500,000 sounds a lot, but I don’t think that it makes a dent.”
Lauer is also part of the Tree Advisory group and stated during the city council meeting that they are working on updates to the Street Trees Municipal Code 12.40 to help increase and maintain the tree canopy in Bakersfield.
“The Tree Advisory Group is working on an update of the Street Trees Municipal Code 12.40 that is lacking details, such as the protection of mature trees, and has very few specific goals or objectives, and those that are included, such as replacing dead trees within a certain time frame, are not enforced, as we have witnessed in the past without consequences. This has to change if our common goal is to increase Bakersfield’s tree canopy cover,” said Lauer.
After the meeting, she expanded on what maintaining the city’s existing trees should look like, which she said includes good oversight of the contractors who trim them.
“So that is even more important because those mature trees that are providing shade, that are absorbing CO2, that are filtering our dirty air, so those need to be protected that we don’t over-trim them,” said Lauer. “So we need to have good oversight with the tree-trimming contractors that go out and trim the trees, so that not more than 25 percent of canopy is being removed from certain trees that for some reason need to be trimmed. So that has to be much more carefully evaluated so that we reduce the amount of trees that are being trimmed, especially in parks when there’s no safety hazard.”
Eddy Laine with the Sierra Club spoke during the public comment portion of the meeting prior to the budget vote, asking for the $500,00 allocation to the tree canopy and the council to treat trees as a capital asset.
“Also, for budget purposes, trees need to be treated as capital assets according to the government code, such as fleet vehicles and road infrastructure. In fact, the lifespan of most trees far exceeds vehicles. Now the city treats trees as discretionary expense, funding for whatever’s left over. This is a policy choice, not an accounting requirement. The urban forest needs to have trees treated that way,” said Laine, asking the council to take money from the tree trimming and removal and instead allocate it to planting new trees.
