The City of San Luis Obispo is celebrating 40 years of being a Tree City USA community on Saturday, Nov. 4. In honor of this year’s Arbor Day, a celebration is taking place at French Park from 10 a.m. to noon and will be free to enter.
To qualify as a Tree City USA community, cities must maintain a tree board or department, have a community tree ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry and celebrate Arbor Day.
SLO City Arborist Anthony Whipple said “we’re shovel ready” in advance of the city planting 40 trees during Arbor Day.
According to Whipple, the city plants an average of six to 10 trees every year to celebrate Arbor Day, but with tree donations from PG&E, the city is able to plant a lot more this year.
The event will feature booths set up by the city council, the tree committee, city staff and different community partners including ECOSLO and One Cool Earth. There will also be guest speakers from Cal Poly, Cal Fire, PG&E and Parks and Recreation.
Earlier this month, community members submitted their artwork for the Arbor Day Art Contest, and winners of the contest will be awarded a certificate, T-shirt and their work will be on display.
The city will promote the event at their booth at the Farmer’s Market on Nov. 2 where they will begin giving out free one-gallon trees. The remaining trees will be given out at the event on Saturday.
Cal Poly donated 200 trees to be handed out to the community for Arbor Day, according to Whipple. Each tree will have a QR code which will allow people to register their tree with the 10 Tall Initiative, through which the city hopes to plant 10,000 trees by 2035.
