New growth for Modesto’s urban forestry division

New growth is taking root in Modesto’s community forestry division after years of budget and staffing reductions cut into its ability to care for the city’s tens of thousands of trees.

Forestry is hiring workers, trimming trees – and attacking the tree-killing parasite mistletoe – more frequently, and restarting the city nursery. It also will be planting trees in sizable numbers for the first time in about a decade.

Solid Waste Manager Jocelyn Reed, whose duties include oversight of forestry, said Modesto planted about 90 trees last year at Arbor Day and other celebrations. She hopes the city plants 15,000 trees over the next three years.

The renewed emphasis on community forestry is part of Modesto’s recent citywide reorganization, in which forestry was moved from the Parks, Recreation and Neighborhoods Department to the Public Works Department.

The reorganization includes reallocating about $290,000 from community forestry’s $3 million budget. That money had been spent for such expenses as temporary workers and administrative oversight. The city is using it to hire six permanent maintenance workers. That will increase forestry’s staff from 23 to 29 employees. Forestry had 33 employees in 2002 before the budget cuts.

The reorganization includes a top-to-bottom review of forestry. As part of that, Reed said, the Finance Department found a $250,000 account developers had been paying into for forestry. She said that money will let the city start replanting trees and restart the city nursery this year.

Modesto also has applied for a $327,000 California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection grant to plant 5,000 trees and is looking at partnering with Pacific Gas and Electric Co. on the nursery.

Reed said Modesto had been planting about 2,000 trees a year until 2004 when that funding was cut.

The city closed its Jennings Road nursery in 2008 because of budget cuts. Modesto had been growing its own city trees, such as the Modesto ash and Chinese pistache, and replanting them along city streets and in city parks.

Reed said the effect of the budget cuts along with the drought and disease is that the number of city trees declined from about 91,000 in 2002 to 81,000 in 2014.

“Mistletoe, disease, and the drought, coupled with the age of the trees in the older neighborhoods, have resulted in a mass die off of trees,” Reed wrote in a report to the City Council. “Staff is currently undertaking a major tree removal project in several neighborhoods, with the goal of replanting once the drought conditions lessen.”

Reed said she is optimistic the city can regrow its urban forest. She added that the changes in forestry include more training and employee development, and morale is better. And she praised the leadership of longtime city employee Mike Hoesch, who was named forestry supervisor-city arborist as part of the reorganization.

“Our customers are going to see a better level of service delivery,” she said. “We are really excited.”

The reorganization includes a stable funding source for forestry.

Until the current budget year, which started July 1, forestry had received much of its funding from the city’s general fund and a big part from the surface transportation fund, with the balance coming from green waste fees on city garbage bills.

Reed said forestry had to compete among a variety of city services, including public safety, for scarce general fund dollars and saw its general fund support cut over the years. Forestry now is funded by green waste fees after the city raised them several months ago.

City officials have said that despite the fee increases, Modesto’s garbage bills remain competitive with surrounding and similar communities.

A single-family residence saw its monthly trash bill increase from $27.34 to $29 per month. The charges for commercial users vary based on the size of their bins and how often their trash is picked up. For instance, a business or apartment complex with a 2-cubic-yard bin emptied once a week saw its garbage bill increase from $60.52 to $72.60 per month.

This story was originally published January 3, 2015 at 7:27 PM with the headline "New growth for Modesto’s urban forestry division."