Commitment to Nurture Nature

The poet Joyce Kilmer would have enjoyed UC Irvine’s Shade Tree Partnership.

The man who wrote the poem “Trees” is today honored mostly by a rest stop named after him on the New Jersey Turnpike. But across the country, folks who share his admiration for oaks and elms, sycamores and alders have a worthwhile plan to bring several thousand more trees to Orange County.

The university wisely has recruited volunteer help and donations from several corporations. Private grants have also helped. That’s a good example of partnership to benefit the community and will allow providing more trees than was possible when the program was funded only by the state.

The Irvine Ranch Water District, UC Irvine and half a dozen companies have built a nursery on a 3 1/2-acre plot at the school and expect to produce about 2,000 trees each year. The trees eventually will be donated to parks, schools and other public agencies that in a time of tight budgets cannot afford to buy them.

Several hundred trees will also be planted each year on the UC Irvine campus. That will aid Chancellor Laurel L. Wilkening’s plan to landscape the campus with trees native to California. That, too, is smart. California is open to trends, products and wildlife from all over; students should be able to separate the native items from the imported ones.

An automated irrigation system detects when trees need watering by measuring the humidity in the air, a big help in our desert climate. The nursery is also serving as a test station for different kinds of water. Half the trees will be irrigated with reclaimed water and the other half with potable water. Again, that can benefit everyone when the next drought occurs.

Researchers for private companies said it is important to try different irrigation systems on a small scale to see what works. There is no sense putting trees all over a park and seeing them wither and die for lack of proper watering or fertilizer. The small plot at UC Irvine is ideal for testing.

Trees and flowers, plants and bushes brighten the landscape in Southern California, in addition to cleaning the air and providing shade. The Shade Tree Partnership can do a lot to help maintain the quality of life so important to the county’s well-being.