20th Annual (!) Dunbar/Spring Neighborhood Rain, Tree, & Carbon Planting, December 5, 2015

Time: Join Dunbar/Spring neighbors Sky Jacobs, Brad Lancaster, Omar Ore-Giron, Rocky Yosek, Ezra Roati and others at 7:30 am for a planting demonstration, then keep going to various parts of the neighborhood.

The demonstration will show you how to plant the rain to maximize its potential, how to plant food-bearing native trees by seed and/or with nursery stock to maximize passive shading/cooling, and how to recycle/plant prunings and leaves as fertility-building/carbon-sequestering/pollutant-filtering/water-harvesting mulch. Check the blackboard on the porch at the meeting spot if you want to join in on the planting later in the morning—we’ll leave a note with an idea of the morning’s planting route. End time of noon is approximate.

Initial meeting spot: 813 N 9th Ave, Tucson AZ 85705

Come join us in planting native shade trees within water-harvesting earthworks in neighbors’ yards and along the neighborhood streets. The idea is to plant food-producing, flood-controlling, wildlife-habitat-producing, beautiful, air- and water-filtering, living air conditioners. Mature shade trees on the east, west, and north sides of a home can reduce summer temperatures around the building by up to 20ºF compared to homes without such shade trees. In addition, street trees that shade up to 75% of the street’s surface can also cool summer neighborhood temperatures by up to 20ºF. This enhances the walkability and bikeability of our neighborhoods, which improves health and drops crime. When we harvest street runoff to irrigate the street trees, we also reduce water consumption as we reduce downstream flooding. Thus far this annual event has resulted in over 1,300 trees being planted in our neighborhood—let’s keep going!

For more information on tree orders: Contact Rocky Yosek at rocky@treesfortucson.org or (520) 250-8220 for all tree orders except screwbean mesquite. For screwbean mesquite-order questions only, contact Brad at bradlank@gmail.com.

To RSVP for the tree-planting: Send an email to admin@DesertHarvesters.org with your name, cell number, and number of people joining you.

ALL TREE ORDERS AND PAYMENT MUST BE IN BY NOVEMBER 30, 2015.

For Dunbar/Spring-only tree-order forms: Click here. The prices of these trees have been reduced/subsidized thanks to Trees for Tucson and Sky Jacobs

Native Shade Tree Order Form 2015 needed for trees to be planted on private property

Native Community Tree Order Form 2015 along with Community Tree Maintenance Agreement 2015 needed for trees to be planted in public right-of-way

NOTE: You can contact Rocky directly if you want a Fig, Pomegranate, Chinese Jujube, or Loquat tree ($12–$20 each) for plantings on private property only (ideally you set up a greywater-harvesting system for these fruit trees first as they will require more water than native trees and regular watering in the hot and dry seasons). Only native trees are to be planted in the public right-of-way (ideally within stormwater- and mulch-harvesting earthworks).

What to bring: Work clothes, sun hat, gloves, and water as we’ll be working outdoors. A pointed shovel and/or hard rake.

To RSVP for the tree-planting: Send an email to admin@DesertHarvesters.org with your name, cell number, and number of people joining you.

See you there!