Trees Shade Habitat

I just read the excellent and timely article in the Independent on the Urban Mini-Forest by Dennis Allen. The City of Santa Barbara is creating an urban heat zone by removing and not adding trees at the Central Library and De la Guerra upgrades. The city is also getting ready to cut down 35 mature trees with amazing canopies at the corner of Santa Barbara and East Cota streets, where we are also losing the Saturday Farmers Market to the new police station.

Think of the rich and abundant mix of nature — plants, trees, birds, and insects — that will vanish after 20 more years. Where does nature find a home as large as this? The city will arrange tree plantings to replace the Urban Forest, but where? The Amazon?

I photographed some of the trees in the parking lot tied with a blue ribbon to give notice of the trees and all the habitat that will be cut down. In the northern forest area in the U.S. this is what the locals call the Blue Line Disease — it is fatal, with no recovery.

We need to gather as a community to honor the life of these trees and the gifts of nature before they are cut down sometime after September 2024.