“The trees will replace those removed earlier this year under Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s gas pipeline safety program.”
“Workers from Our City Forest and the Martin-Fontana Parks Association will provide the new trees during two planting parties at the parks, one on Dec. 16 and the other on Jan. 6. Another couple dozen trees will be planted in the Shadow Brook neighborhood by the local neighborhood association with help from Our City Forest on Dec. 2, according to Councilman Johnny Khamis.”
According to Martin-Fontana Parks Association Director, Richard Zahner, the City’s Parks, Recreation, & Neighborhood Services has committed to provide the water needed to establish the 55 trees. Our City Forest has committed to watering the trees and providing care such as trimming and shaping to assure their survival through the first three years. At that time the trees should be established and should require no more than the routine care provided by PRNS. In practice the first year will the most demanding, requiring 15 gallons per week.
‘Tree Gator’, a type of plastic water bag
A ‘Tree Gator’, a type of plastic water bag, may be used to control and concentrate the water where it is most beneficial. Watering will be incrementally reduced over the second and third years to promote healthy roots and sustainable growth.
Richard also serves as the Park Planning and Improvement Chairperson for MFPA.
You may have seen green/blueand redirrigation flags in one area of Guadalupe Oak Grove Park between two of the main walking trails. These flags represent a project being done in cooperation with District 10. They mark a 30 foot-wide swath from trail to trail, and all the one-year old, baby Valley and Blue Oak shoots that are growing within. These shoots are to be ‘caged’ in chicken wire cages to protect them, watered and encouraged to live as they are to be the replacement trees for the Blue and Valley Oak trees we are losing to the extended drought and other issues. The flags are there because after the deciduous native oak trees drop their leaves they will be ‘invisible’ but for the subsequent caging. Blue and Valley Oaks will not regenerate due to the high-weed and grass load in the park and the out-competing Coast Live Oaks which are overtaking the open Savannah.
Replacement trees will be planted before the end of the year to replace all those removed from Almaden Expressway as part of the PG&E Gas Line Safety Program. Your Martin-Fontana Parks Association has negotiated for allocating 55 trees to the two parks and a few to replace dead street trees on adjacent streets.
All new trees will be selected and planted by Our City Forest, a non-profit dedicated to planting trees through out the City.
If you have room for a new tree, please send an email to SaveOurParkTrees@gmail.com to be considered. We have a limited number of trees for this program so please respond soon and get put on the list. Since the number of trees is limited there is no guarantee that every request will be fulfilled. We will submit a list to OCF soon – Do you want a free tree?
Martin-Fontana Park Association Board Members Linda Wilson, Rod Carpenter and Rich Zahner met with Don Hall and two other PG&E representatives recently to discuss two issues.
The MFPA agenda was our request that PG&E fund the proposed Sustainable Parks Initiative (SPI). We requested $20,000 from PG&E in 2017 to be matched by MFPA to plant trees and bushes, complement the PRNS Staff, and improve the appearance and utility of the Parks.
The PG&E agenda was to explain the Gas Transmission Pipeline safety program being conducted by PG&E. See the PG&E memo below for details. In summary they will remove about 150 trees along Almaden Expressway located over the gas pipeline that supplies all of the valley. The trees are on both City and County property (no private property as far we know) between McAbee Road and Rajkovich Way. PG&E is committed to replacing the trees. The question is where and they suggested planting a number of trees in both TJ Martin Park and Jeffrey Fontana Park. We did not object to the idea and talked generally about numbers, types and location.
PG&E held an Information Table at the Fontana Dog Park entrance on Saturday the 11th of February from 8AM to 11AM. The work to remove trees is likely to begin in late spring. We might get them to spread the wood chips as mulch for the Parks bare spaces.
PG&E’s memo on the program:
Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E) is working with the City of San Jose and Santa Clara County to help ensure safety crews have immediate access to natural gas transmission pipelines in case of an emergency or for important maintenance work. This gas safety work involves removing and replacing trees and structures that are located too close to the gas pipeline and could delay access for first responders or damage the pipeline. Work is expected to begin this spring on Almaden Expressway between McAbee Road and Rajkovich Way. Please note there is no work taking place at TJ Martin Park or Jeffrey Fontana Park. PG&E understands how important trees are to the local community, and will work closely with residents in close proximity to the work to offer replacement trees to be planted at a safe distance from the pipeline.
For more information about the planned safety work, please contact PG&E customer outreach specialist Emily Sloan at 1-650-737-2001 or emily.sloan@pge.com. You can also learn more about all of PG&E’s ongoing gas safety efforts at pge.com/GasSafety.
MENLO PARK — The city claims the heritage oak as its symbol, but the actual trees that line its streets might not feel particularly adored.
The leader of the city’s Fire Department says some trees along his route are in such sad shape that he recently brought up the idea of forming a task force to make sure they’re getting enough water during the drought, now in its fourth year. He even broached the idea of sending firefighters out in a truck to water threatened trees along the rights of way if the cities in its coverage area were unwilling to set up a system to monitor the trees’ health.
Our evaluation team consisting of Pier Maggiani and Patrick Pizzo, have walked the park and marked all the trees that need to be trimmed, or removed because they are dead or diseased. Martin-Fontana Parks Association (MFPA ) annually shares the cost with the City’s Parks, Recreation and Neighborhood Services (PRNS) by using the City contractor to work on our trees. Soon tree crews will be at work to complete the trimming/removal for this winter. Trees will be evaluated again after nesting season is completed.
Stressed Trees
Pier and Patrick have also identified 43 trees as severely stressed by our last three years of drought. MFPA has contracted to pay Our City Forest (OCF) $15 per tree for mulching services. OCF will clear the area around each tree and heavily mulch the tree in an effort to capture and retain as much water as possible. This will be completed in February.
From the left, Sunny & Pat Wagstaff, Johnny Khamis, Linda Wilson and other guests
Our City Forest celebrated Twenty Years of Volunteers by honoring two decades of volunteer spirit & dedication by passing out these beautiful framed awards. Attending the event were MFPA President Linda Wilson, Secretary Pat Wagstaff and her husband, Sunny. Also in attendance was San Jose Councilmember Johnny Khamis. The ceremony was held on August the 2nd. at the Camden Community Center.
You’ve seen them in both of our Jeffrey Fontana & TJ Martin parks: bright green ribbons fluttering in the spring breeze, decorating trees. What do they mean? How did they get there?
The answer: Members of our Martin-Fontana Parks Association are helping Our City Forest celebrate their organization’s 20th anniversary, and are honoring their site stewards, MFPA, Scout Troop 262, TJ Martin Neighborhood Association, the Daisy Brownie troop from Los Alamitos, Scout Pack 340, and other volunteers, by marking almost 200 trees we have helped plant since Dec 2010.
Ribbons have been placed in both Jeffrey Fontana & TJ Martin parks to thank everybody and raise awareness of the importance of our urban forest. And for our Green Amigos out there, don’t worry, sustainability is a main priority at Our City Forest, and they’ll be reusing the ribbons for further projects after they come down in the fall. If you’d like to volunteer with this program, or learn more about Our City Forest’s programs and services, contact them for more information!
Around the 15th of May our large Willow tree decided to shed more branches. This is the Willow tree in the northeast corner of Jeffrey Fontana Park not far from Alamden Expressway. Back in 2010 it used to look like this:
In Dec of 2012 the Willow shed the first branch.
Then this month two more limbs were shed.
It looks like one of the limbs broke off from the top & it then smashed into a bottom limb, breaking it off too.
The Parks Department has been notified. We hope to see about arranging to have this tree fully trimmed of all it’s dead branches.
…who is making unauthorized removals of branches from our Heritage Trees.
Did anyone see someone cutting branches off the Oak Trees near the south entry to The Villas of Almaden over the weekend of the 1st & 2nd of March? Parks employee, Louie Anaya, discovered a large limb had been removed on Monday. He thinks it may have happened over the weekend. The fact that the cut looks like it was done professionally and that the limb was taken, suggests that it was being taken for a purpose other than just someone doing some pruning for the benefit of the tree. Now that the trees have been nicely pruned by PRNS, the beautiful trunks are very visible and are unfortunately now exposed. We are very concerned that this might happen again.
If you see any unauthorized person removing tree branches, other than PRNS employees, could you please contact the Martin-Fontana Parks Association with the information? Reporting it will give us a better idea of when it might have been done. We can be contacted via email at SaveOurParkTrees@gmail.com. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.
MARTIN-FONTANA PARKS ASSOCIATION 