TREE THINKING MAYOR'S GOAL: GIVE L.A. A DASH OF GREEN.

Byline: DANA BARTHOLOMEW Staff Writer

They'll scrub the air. Purify the water. Reduce urban stress. Cool homes and businesses under leafy boughs. And potentially raise property values across Los Angeles.

A million trees planted under the direction of Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could also turn drab schools and streets into verdant, shady hangouts.

``We need to imagine a future in which Los Angeles is the greenest and cleanest big city in America,'' Villaraigosa proclaimed during his first State of the City speech last week.

``We'll be breaking ground shortly on our initiative to plant a million trees.''

A million trees?

That's 10 percent more than the 10 million magnolias, palms, sycamores and other trees that now grow in L.A., according to the city.

That's enough trees to:

- Produce a year's supply of oxygen for 666,667 residents.

- Absorb the carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas attributable to global warming, from 16,666 cars on a 25,000-mile journey around the globe.

- Absorb 80,000,000 gallons a year of urban street runoff now polluting the Pacific with such contaminants as motor oil, heavy metals from cars and herbicides and pesticides.

The mayor's Million Tree Initiative, the details of which will be announced early this summer, aims to root enough trees around schools and along city streets and the Los Angeles River to allow residents to experience what a difference a tree makes.

``The scope of it, the vision of it, the promise of it,'' said Paula Daniels, commissioner on the Board of Public Works and chairwoman of the mayor's Million Tree Task Force. ``The environmental benefits are key: What we want to do is to plant trees in the right places.''

The initiative will attempt to fill holes in the cit's urban forest with a range of drought-tolerant trees, she said. Priority would be given to schools, poorer neighborhoods and the river.

A study of ultra-sharp satellite images of Los Angeles will determine what gray areas must be made green.

Though most trees will likely be planted in public areas or rights of way, Daniels said residents and businesses will be encouraged to plant them in their own yards.

In addition to cleaning the air and water, mature trees save energy by cooling buildings as much as 11 degrees and can cut air-conditioning costs by 50 percent, advocates say.

They also can slow traffic, reduce urban stress, protect pedestrians against harmful solar rays, provide fresh fruit, offer homes to birds and wildlife, prevent evaporation from thirsty lawns and increase property values by as much as 15 percent.

``A million trees in our city would be absolutely transformative from every point of view,'' said David Nahai, director of the Los Angeles Regional Water Quality Control Board and vice president of the Department of Water and Power. ``The benefits are priceless.''

But the question remains: Who will bear the cost of the trees, their water and decades of upkeep?

``I can't give you the overall cost,'' said Daniels, who was authorized by the mayor to discuss the initiative. ``There's bond money, and we're developing strategies to pursue grant money.''

A million trees may not come cheap.

It now costs the city Division of Urban Forestry $15 to $20 for a 15-gallon tree, according to the Department of Public Works. A million trees, if purchased by the city, could run $15 million to $20 million.

Then there's upkeep and the workers needed to perform it.

Urban Forestry now spends $10 million a year to plant, inspect, trim or remove some of the 680,000 trees along 6,500 miles of city rights of way.

Trimming each tree once every five to 12 years costs $80 to $350 each. So trimming a million new trees could cost $80 million to $350 million.And that doesn't include the cost of recycling the resulting green waste, now at 10,000 tons a year.

``The Bureau of Street Services doesn't maintain the trees we currently have,'' said Deborah Murphy, Founder of Los Angeles Walks, a pedestrian advocacy group, who called for a systematic plan to make the city green. A million new trees, she said, ``would take a serious effort.''

Nahai, whose DWP is a member of the Million Tree Task Force and whose agency has launched a campaign to buy thousands of new trees, asked what the cost would be of not planting a million trees.

He pointed out that air pollution causes asthma in Los Angeles children. Water pollution from perchlorate and other contaminants threatens residents. And urban runoff imperils the Southern California coast.

``We're not at the point where environmental measures can be considered a luxury, some utopian ideal,'' he said.

TreePeople, a Million Tree participant that for 30 years has advocated planting trees to stretch the urban canopy with such trees as California bay laurel and coast live oaks, praised the mayor's plan.

``For decades, we've been looking desperately for help in addressing a divided and polluted city,'' said Andy Lipkis, founder and president of TreePeople, located in the hills above Studio City.

``Well, that special and powerful potential partner has been there all along: Nature. Let's join forces. Let's heal the city.''

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CAPTION(S):

14 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 2 -- color) Above, Chelsea Eddy, 5, runs along tree-lined Lopez Street in Woodland Hills on Friday. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa last week announced his goal of planting 1 million trees in the city, many in shade-starved areas such as Parthenia Street in North Hills, below.

Tina Burch/Staff Photographer

(3 -- color) Members of TreePeople on Saturday help plant and maintain many of the jacarandas, evergreen pears and Brisbane box trees along Morse Avenue in North Hollywood

Gene Blevins/Special to the Daily News

(4 -- color) no caption (tree planting)

(5 -- 6 -- color) Coast live oak

(7 -- 8 -- color) California Bay

(9 -- 10 -- color) Western sycamore

(11 -- 12 -- color) Valley Oak

(13 -- 14 -- color) Southern California Black Walnut 

Box:

California Native Tree Protection Ordinance

Source: Department of Public Works

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