Twenty-two volunteers joined Benicia Tree Foundation’s Tree Care Day on October 21 at Benicia High School. Volunteers included airmen from the 60th Civil Engineering Squadron at Travis Air Force Base, members of the BHS Tree Club and other students, and a former board member visiting from Oregon. The weather was perfect to work on the trees that BTF has planted around campus.
One task involved mulching 50 trees that were planted around the upper parking lot. Volunteers cleared out weeds and soil around the base of the trees and added wood-chip mulch provided by the City of Benicia’s Parks & Community Services Department. The trees can now capture as much runoff as possible from the approaching winter rains.
The other task involved trimming the Coast live oak trees planted by BTF in 2011 south of the ballfields. Early fall is a good time to prune Coast live oak trees since they are still dormant after a long dry summer. Their growing season is during the wet months of winter and spring. Volunteers raised the canopies of 17 oaks, primarily over sidewalks and parking areas.
This was the fourth Tree Care Day organized by BTF at Benicia High during 2023. Earlier Tree Care Days involved weeding around trees last spring and planting new trees in the west parking lot. Check the website for other Tree Care Days scheduled until the end of the year, including the city’s Arbor Day tree planting on November 18 at Overlook Park.
Trees planted on the hillside above the parking lot are checked by volunteers.
High school students stand by a Coast live oak planted from an acorn several years ago.
Volunteers stand with their pruning tools by a pile of tree branches.
The trees were pruned to raise the tree canopy over the sidewalk.