Guadalupe is taking a long-term approach to bringing more trees back into the city after officials found the community has lost a noticeable amount of tree canopy in recent years.
City staff is working on a 40-year Urban Forest Management Plan funded through a CAL FIRE grant awarded in 2022. The plan is designed to map where trees are now, track where canopy has been lost, and set yearly goals for planting and maintaining new trees across Guadalupe.
Diandra Cruz, an engineering technician for the City of Guadalupe, said the plan starts with understanding where the city currently stands.
“So homeowners or businesses have reduced their canopy,” Cruz said. “And so ideally, we would like to at least go back to, like, where we were before. I believe our kind of canopy cover in the city used to be about 12% of the city’s land had canopy cover and now we’re down.”
Using GPS and mapping data, the city has created an inventory of its trees to better understand which neighborhoods need more shade and where future planting would make the biggest impact. The plan also lays out long-term goals for how many trees should be planted each year and what kind of maintenance they’ll need to survive and grow.
Cruz said the goal isn’t just to plant trees, but to make sure residents benefit directly from them.
"[It's] something that we want residents to have access to in their neighborhoods,” she said. “So yeah, the plan kind of outlines having more trees planted on private land, educating people, encouraging people to plant trees that they would want.”
City officials say most of the canopy loss has happened on private property, which is why community involvement is a big part of the plan.
The city is encouraging residents to take part by planting trees at home and using recommended species that are native, drought-tolerant and better suited for the local climate.
Looking ahead, officials hope to start getting new trees in the ground as soon as this year. That could begin with small planting events, possibly around Arbor Day, while the city works to secure more funding and equipment.
As Guadalupe continues to grow, city staff say this plan is meant to make sure trees remain part of that growth, bringing more shade, environmental benefits and greener neighborhoods back to the community over time.
