CalFire Tree Grant

City of San Leandro Receives $1.5M from CalFire to Plant Trees

The $1.49M grant will cover trees for planting, tree supplies, and hiring of part time staff to target planting in frontline neighborhoods experiencing socioeconomic challenges or environmental pollution. The City will be partnering with Common Vision, a Black-led non-profit specializing in school gardens, urban agriculture, and community building for the project management and tree planting. The goal is to plant 5000 trees across the community from 2022-2026, in parks, public medians, and private property.

Paired with this year’s development of the Tree Master Plan, this will kick off concrete steps to addressing climate adaptation, air pollution, urban shade, and urban heat islands, particularly in frontline communities that currently experience the brunt of environmental injustices. 

Find the full list of approved tree species for the CalFire project here.

The Urban Heat Vulnerability Assessment maps below indicate the priority census tracts for planting based on indicators such as heat severity, tree equity score, disadvantaged and low income communities, and concentration of impervious surfaces.

Urban Heat Vulnerability Assessment 2022

To get people participating in planting and maintenance of those trees, and to model that behavior for young kids and get them to do it – that's my favorite picture of resilience. We all need each other. If we're working in the soil, planting trees, we're also hand to hand, and we get acquainted and familiar. We learn that we're not all so different from one another. And it's those kinds of understandings between people that will build resilient communities. 

- Wanda Stewart, executive director of Common Vision

Want to get involved? Here are a few ways:

• Get onto the email list for volunteers to join tree planting or outreach events
• Sign up to get a free street tree or back/front yard tree in your residential or commercial property. Owners are expected to water and care for the tree for the first 3-5 years of the tree's life. 
• Check out the list of available native, drought tolerant, and climate resilient tree species for the project.
• Partner with the City as a community-based organization by emailing Dr. Hoi-Fei Mok at [email protected]