City fails to acknowledge health benefits of trees
By Alan Hirsch Alan@DavisLorax.org
On Wednesday, 7/14 the City Planning Commission approved a request by Sutter Davis Hospital to remove an additional 63 mature trees. If you missed the fact the city had already OK’ed the removal of 142 tree for solar panel panels you are not alone: the Tree Commission and Tree Davis were unaware either. City staff revealed at meeting that they had quietly issued permits for the removal this small forest of trees two years ago. Sutter claims this location is cheaper than installing them on the roof, but did not discuss how much, or why they couldn’t install the panels in treeless area between Sutter and Communicare Clinic, or the largely treeless parking lots in the far north.
At the meeting the city defended Sutter and argued that the permits were all “legal” even though they never ran it by the citizens on the Tree Commission that have legal authority to review all tree removals.
The relative size of the cutting (205 mature trees) is huge: the City of Davis only plants 200-500 new saplings a year and they don’t all survive and mature.
Davisite 