Belmont Needs More Trees

Protect our Belmont Trees, our Wooded Settings and our Environment!

Protecting our trees provides many benefits for our “Beautiful Mountain” city. Trees play an important role in energy conservation by reducing heat buildup, and providing shade and wind control. By absorbing runoff and stabilizing soils they protect property and reduce the burden on storm drains. Trees absorb air pollution and produce the very air we breathe. They provide habitat for a variety of wildlife and keep the birds chirping throughout our neighborhoods! They enhance our lovely wooded settings, reduce noise, and increase our property values by 20% according to the US Forest Service. But most of all, trees are our leading defense against Climate Change.

Check out this tree calculator that monetizes your benefits in terms of energy air quality, property value and storm drains.
http://www.treebenefits.com/calculator/index.cfm

Belmont’s Urban Forest Lags Behind Neighboring Cities

Central Belmont vs Burlingame

Belmont’s Tree Ordinance should be Simple, Equitable and Educational.

Keep the Tree Ordinance Simple:

  1. Urge Council to protect ALL species of trees, not only “Heritage” trees (Coast Live Oak, Valley Oak, Redwood, Madrone, Bay Laurel and Buckeye). A large healthy Maple or Cedar is no less valuable than a “Heritage” species; ALL species of healthy trees benefit the urban forest, which needs diversity to thrive.
  2. Urge Council to simplify the rule by setting one uniform standard: Protect trees 10 inch or larger DBH (Diameter at Breast Height – about the size of a telephone pole.) These large canopied trees make the greatest contributions to our urban forest. (The Council is considering allowing healthy trees up to 14 inch DBH to be removed without permit and replacement.)

Keep the Tree Ordinance Equitable:

  1. Urge Council to eliminate FEES for permits to remove dead, damaged, high-risk, diseased or infested trees as defined in “criteria supporting removal”, Section 25.7 (A), (B) and (C) in the current Tree Ordinance. (as proposed by City Council – June 2017.)
  2. A 15 gallon replacement tree should be required on a 1:1 basis. The replacement tree should provide a comparable environmental benefit: for example, an oak tree cannot be replaced by a lemon tree!

Keep the Tree Ordinance Educational:

  1. Urge Council to create a citizen’s Tree Advisory Board. The focus of the board should be to educate residents about species of replacement trees that will thrive in their zone, with the goal of creating a diverse and better suited ecosystem.
  2. Urge Council to grant authority for the Tree Advisory Board to provide a free-of-charge arbitration for residents seeking a 1 time exception to a tree removal policy.
  3. Keep Belmont a “Tree City” as defined by the National Arbor Day Foundation and National Association of State Foresters.

Voice your concerns and keep Belmont a beautiful “Tree City”.

Read about some misconceptions of our current Tree Ordinance:
https://patch.com/california/belmont-ca/shedding-a-little-light-on-belmont-tree-ordinance

Please email:
citycouncil@belmont.gov
Urge them to protect ALL species of trees with diameters as small as 10 inch DBH because Belmont needs more trees!

Please also copy-paste the same email message for the public record via the link below:
Click here to provide comments for public record.

Protect your property values, your neighborhood character
and your quality of life.