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Palo Alto Online

'Urban forest' awards for tree lovers

by Jay Thorwaldson

Six awards for people and organizations who helped preserve and enhance Palo Alto's "urban forest" were presented at a special reception Wednesday evening by the non-profit group, "Canopy -- Trees for Palo Alto."

The recognized community volunteers included two Gunn High School students and a lanky Australian-born tree trimmer, Straun Edwards, who enhanced a walkway along San Francisquito Creek.

The pharmaceutical firm Roche Palo Alto was recognized for "contributing to a healthy local environment" through its "innovative partnership with Canopy" that includes volunteers (including a Roche employee serving on the Canopy board), financial support and "countless in-kind donations."

Edwards, with a Castro Valley-based firm called Arbor Well, was recognized for his skilled, careful supervision of a massive tree-trimming project that extended from El Camino Real to the historic "Governor's Lane" area of Stanford, including trees that hadn't been trimmed for at last a century.

City Arborist Dave Dockter, who nominated Edwards and Arbor Well, said the scope of the project was immense and the work on the sometimes massive trees had to be delicate: the pruning of the historic area "would be the most important activity the trees would ever experience," he noted, adding that "any wrong cuts by workmen could ruin past and future characteristics of the area forever."

Dockter said Edwards promised that "'not one errant cut' would be allowed to destroy what nature had spent a century growing" -- and the promise was kept.

Susan Rosenberg, a founding board member of Canopy who now has a key role in fund raising, as well as serving as co-chair of the Trees for El Camino project, was recognized for her "vision, tireless energy and willingness to do whatever is necessary" to enhance "our urban forest."

Three "Out-on-a-Limb" awards were shared by four persons:

o Chris Holstrom for his work on a new "tree database" for Canopy, being a tree-planting leader and computer tech support for the group.

o James Imahiro, a Canopy volunteer for the past year who has illustrated Canopy's Web site with hundreds of photos, entered data from a special tree survey now being compiled and planting work.

o Julie Luu and Talia Bender, both students at Gunn who helped with a tree-care survey during the summer that examined the health of more than 100 young street trees, finding that many of them needed more water.