Neighbors, join Halcyon Neighborhood Association’s Facebook group

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Halcyon Neighborhood Association E-News September 2020

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Items appearing in the HNA E-News are deemed to be of general interest to neighbors but do not necessarily reflect the views of Halcyon Neighborhood Association (HNA), its Steering Committee, or the Editor. The Editor’s introductory comments express her personal viewpoint.

* * * * * * * * * * * * 

Contents

1. Zoom Meeting with Director of Public Works re Neighborhood Trees, Thurs., Sept. 17, 6 p.m.

2. HNA Letter Regarding Deakin Trees and Related Policy Issues

3. Greenhouse Gas Equivalents of Removing Camphor Trees

4. HalcyonHelp.com: Halcyon Neighbors Helping Neighbors during COVID-19 Epidemic!

* * * * * * * * * * * *

Editor’s Introductory Note

This summer has been a difficult time for those of us in the neighborhood who’ve worked diligently to green our neighborhood and create a sense of place and community over three decades. Sadly, the halcyon bird sculpture in Halcyon Commons park, created by neighborhood sculptor Nina Lyons with an innovative nest pedestal created by neighbor Bruce Wicinas, was destroyed by vandals in mid-August. The sculpture was dedicated four years ago in honor of the park’s twentieth anniversary and involved numerous community design workshops, a lengthy City process for approval and permitting, and so much love and hard work on the part of the artists, as well as countless cumulative hours of participation on the part of neighbors and local businesses who contributed to the fundraising efforts to pay for installation. It’s a heartbreaking loss after two and a half decades in which the unique and artistic elements in Halcyon Commons have survived without major vandalism (occasional graffiti on signs is typically removed during our work parties). We’ll consider next steps in the new year. The COVID pandemic has sadly brought less-than-respectful behavior to many of our public spaces, including Halcyon Commons. But the halcyon bird sculpture, part of the original vision and design of the park, will eventually find another way to manifest!

It was bad enough to witness the vandalized sculpture, but even more disheartening than the act of disturbed individuals who destroy things in the middle of the night was the disrespect shown our neighborhood by our own City of Berkeley’s Department of Public Works in the light of day, when they slated seven mature camphor trees on Deakin Street south of Ashby for removal (along with four more north of Ashby). As one neighbor put it, coming while the skies were full of smoke and wildfires were raging throughout the State of California and the role of trees in combatting climate change is more important than ever, the sight of butchered healthy mature trees added to the apocalyptic feel. The City justified its actions as consistent with its Complete Street policy, which turns out to be a very incomplete policy that prioritizes easy sidewalk repair over trees. The camphor trees on Deakin are among the few remaining healthy mature trees in the Halcyon neighborhood. No prior notification was given to Halcyon Neighborhood Association of this major and devastating change to one of the key entryways to our neighborhood. Items 1, 2, and 3 relate to this issue. We have a chance to save the remaining healthy camphors on Deakin (there are ways to route sidewalks around trees and still end up with ADA accessibility) and other healthy mature trees in our neighborhood. Maybe this loss can even lead to some much-needed changes to the City’s policies and procedures around street trees. If you care about this issue, please consider joining us Thursday (see item 1).

Stay well, and stay connected!

—Nancy Carleton, HNA Co-Chair and E-News Editor, halcyon92@gmail.com

* * * * * * * * * * * *

1. Zoom Meeting with Director of Public Works re Neighborhood Trees, Thurs., Sept. 17, 6 p.m.

Editor’s note: In response to neighborhood concerns about the removal of healthy mature camphor trees on Deakin Street in the Halcyon neighborhood, incoming Director of Public Works Liam Garland has graciously set up a Zoom meeting at 6 p.m. this Thursday, September 17 (email halcyon92@gmail.com for link), to hear and respond to neighbors’ concerns. Representatives from Mayor Jesse Arreguin’s office, Councilmember Ben Bartlett’s office, and Councilmember Lori Droste’s office will also be present. Please join us if you want to help save the remaining camphors on Deakin that were slated for removal as well as other healthy mature trees in the Halcyon neighborhood. See also item 2 for the letter submitted by HNA in preparation for the meeting.

Public Works Admin is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Deakin Street Neighbor Meeting

Time: Sep 17, 2020 06:00 PM Pacific Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82856410411?pwd=QkhsN09KVUVSOXlaaTRtcDIzMkVwQT09

Meeting ID: 828 5641 0411

Passcode: 031873

One tap mobile

+16699009128,,82856410411# US (San Jose)

+13462487799,,82856410411# US (Houston)

* * * * * * * * * * * *

2. HNA Letter Regarding Deakin Trees and Related Policy Issues

Editor’s note: After hearing from dozens of neighbors upset by the removal of healthy, mature camphor trees on Deakin Street, HNA Co-Chairs Nancy Carleton and John Steere submitted the following letter.

September 14, 2020

TO: Director of Public Works Liam Garland

cc: Mayor Jesse Arreguin, Councilmember Ben Bartlett, Councilmember Lori Droste, and the Berkeley City Council

Dear Director Garland:

As you know, we were shocked, saddened, and outraged by the removal, without notice to our neighborhood association, of four healthy mature camphor trees along Deakin Street between Ashby and Prince, one of the key gateways to our neighborhood, as well as the planned removal of several more healthy trees on Deakin. While we greatly appreciate that the removal of trees on Deakin was put on hold, as unhealthy smoky air, orange skies, and nearby wildfires remind us of the perils of climate change, coming home to the further apocalyptic reality of unnecessarily butchered trees has been deeply painful both for us personally as leaders in efforts to green our neighborhood over three decades, and for the many other neighbors who have expressed their shock, sadness, and anger at the loss of these beautiful trees. If removing healthy street trees is viewed as an acceptable trade-off by those implementing the Council-passed Complete Streets policy, then either the policy itself or its interpretation is deeply flawed and contradicts both Berkeley’s green values and its Climate Action Plan, as well as the health, beauty, and well-being of not only our neighborhood but neighborhoods citywide. In recent years, mature trees have been removed on Prince Street in our neighborhood and elsewhere. We see vacant tree wells throughout our neighborhood and nearby areas. The current situation represents a crisis in the City’s relationship to its neighborhoods and community members, as we have witnessed Public Works staff repeatedly violating the community interest and the policy goals of the Council’s Climate Action Plan in the matter of our street trees.

In preparation for our Deakin Street Neighbors Zoom meeting this Thursday, September 17, we want to be very clear about our priorities as co-chairs of Halcyon Neighborhood Association (HNA). HNA includes neighbors from Telegraph to Adeline and from Ashby to Woolsey, comprising approximately 840 households in the Halcyon neighborhood of South Berkeley. HNA was founded in 1992, bringing neighbors together to create a small park, Halcyon Commons, where there was once a parking lot on Halcyon Court (see attached proclamation honoring the 20^th anniversary of the creation of the park). In addition, we have been guided by principles that focus on bringing neighbors together around areas of broad general agreement, including disaster preparedness (our neighborhood has been awarded two disaster supply caches, and the OES can attest to our ongoing CERT efforts over nearly three decades); community building (through community potlucks, work parties to maintain Halcyon Commons, and picking up trash and removing graffiti in the larger neighborhood; the Parks department and our City Councilmembers and Mayor can attest to our consistent follow-through in caring for the park and neighborhood in the decades since the park was dedicated); crime watch (with annual participation in Ice Cream Socials for National Night Out as well as organizing other crime-watch community meetings, to which the BPD can attest); and neighborhood-wide greening efforts, to complement the creation of Halcyon Commons, which have included helping plant over 120 trees in our neighborhood, as well as helping gain approval for, installing, and helping maintain several landscaped features in the neighborhood, including tree islands on Deakin at Prince, Halcyon at Webster, Webster between Telegraph and Halcyon, and Woolsey at Wheeler.

Here are the key issues we want to be sure get addressed at Thursday’s meeting:

1. Save remaining street trees on Deakin and throughout the Halcyon neighborhood, and revise sidewalk work to accommodate their long-term well-being. Healthy mature street trees should *not* be sacrificed for sidewalks!

ACTION ITEM: Agreement that no further trees will be removed as part of the Deakin Street sidewalk repairs or other sidewalk repairs in our neighborhood.

ACTION ITEM: Change-order to concrete work to ensure existing trees will have the best possible chance to thrive (see the City of Albany’s sidewalk work around several dozen mature camphor trees north and south of Marin east of San Pablo for examples of how this can be accomplished while also achieving ADA standards).

2. Revise concrete work around tree wells for the trees that were removed (and any other vacant tree wells on the block).

ACTION ITEM: Change-order to concrete work to ensure future trees will have sufficient wells to have the best chance of thriving (see Professor Peter Bosselmann’s email of 9/4/20 recommending larger wells for new trees, including the need to narrow sidewalks around those wells).

3. Plan for prompt replanting of the street trees that have been removed (as well as re-planting of any vacant tree wells in the affected blocks) during our upcoming rainy season. These need to be addressed in a comprehensive way on Deakin, not piecemeal. This is the only way to mitigate the harm done through the violation of our neighborhood’s sense of place; it isn’t just about individual property owners but the larger cumulative impact of that grouping of mature canopy trees on Deakin, and the beauty of mature trees elsewhere in the neighborhood.

ACTION ITEM: Follow-up meeting with Forestry staff to reach agreement regarding appropriate canopy trees for replanting on Deakin, aiming for a similar feel to the removed camphor trees. This needs to be accomplished in a timely fashion (planned in advance of the upcoming rainy season, so the trees can be planted at the start of that season).

4. Deakin Street and other Halcyon neighborhood property owners should incur no additional costs because of these changes.

ACTION ITEM: Letter to Deakin property owners concerning change orders and affirming no additional costs will be passed on to them.

5. Review the way the current Complete Street Policy is being interpreted at the staff level and make policy and procedural changes as necessary. The current process is definitely *not* working for our neighborhood, and the problem appears to be systemic and citywide, as opposed to merely an oversight in the case of the Deakin Street trees, based on the loss of prior mature trees on Prince Street in recent years without good cause, and all without adequate consultation with nearby residents or our neighborhood association, and without the trees being replaced in a timely fashion. This policy flaw likely needs to be resolved at the City Council level. Issues to be addressed include (a) clarification that mature, healthy trees are of intrinsic value as part of the City’s Climate Action Plan and the livability of our neighborhoods and city, bringing benefits including a sense of place, shade, relief to heat islands, remediation of greenhouse effects, noise buffers, beauty, habitat for wildlife, enhanced property values, positive impact on mental health, etc.; their value needs to be included in any Complete Streets policy that claims to be truly complete; (b) clearer and broader standards regarding who gets notified when trees are slated for removal for anything other than an immediate hazard; tree removal should no longer be treated piecemeal, as if it affects only the property owner(s) associated with a nearby address, some of whom are absentee landlords or not attuned to broader community well-being, but also needs to include notification of other nearby residents (including tenants) and official neighborhood groups; there should be a clear process in place when neighbors or neighborhood groups have concerns, and there should be requirements for the City to facilitate the replacement of mature trees that are removed rather than placing the onus solely on nearby neighbors and/or property owners.

ACTION ITEM: Consult with City Councilmembers and Mayor regarding the best means to address these policy issues and others related to our urban forest and the integration of the Climate Action Plan with the Complete Street policy, including but not limited to the possibility of setting up a Task Force similar to the one that responded to the issue of allowing trees to remain in traffic circles and that provided guidance on future planting and maintenance of them, which the City Council approved in November 2019 (see attachment).

Thank you for keeping these issues and recommended action items in mind as we all prepare for Thursday’s meeting.

Sincerely,

Nancy Carleton & John Steere

Co-Chairs, Halcyon Neighborhood Association

Attachments: Proclamation on the 20^th Anniversary of Halcyon Commons

City Council minutes re the Traffic Circle Policy Task Force

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3. Greenhouse Gas Equivalents of Removing Camphor Trees

Editor’s note: Jeanne Panek, a Halcyon neighbor who lives around the corner from the healthy mature camphor trees that were removed on Deakin Street, is an expert in the field of greenhouse gas equivalents. She prepared a pdf demonstrating the impact of the removal of the four trees in the Halcyon neighborhood (there were also an additional four that were removed in the block of Deakin north of Ashby, magnifying the impact), and demonstrating the loss if additional trees are removed. While I’m not able to send attachments with this newsletter, email halcyon92@gmail.com if you’d like a copy of her pdf. Meanwhile, here is an excerpt of the introductory statement she sent to me and to City officials.

As a forest physiologist for 30 years, including over a decade of research at UC Berkeley and forest climate policy work at the California Air Resources Board, I know that urban street trees can play a significant role in mitigating climate change.

To convince the City to protect the Deakin St camphor trees for global warming mitigation reasons, I have quantified the actual climate benefit of the trees. I used a Carbon Calculator developed at the Center for Urban Forestry Research at UC Davis with parameters measured on the Deakin St trees.

The Deakin St camphor trees are massive, old trees that have taken up and stored a huge amount of CO2 over their lifetimes. The resulting CO2 calculations are attached.

At a time when California is facing unprecedented wildfires as a result of global warming, and in this year 2020 when the Berkeley Climate Action Plan goal was to achieve 33% emission reductions, the City should be prioritizing climate mitigation strategies. Instead of felling Berkeley’s mature trees, the City should be doing everything it can to help the biggest street trees thrive and continue their ecosystem service of removing climate warming gases from the atmosphere.  

To summarize the results:

· Deakin St had 14 camphor trees of various ages, including 10 mature trees (70 years or older). Four mature trees were felled.

· The Deakin St camphor trees stored the CO2 emissions equivalent of driving 108,717 miles, or 4.4 times around the earth.

· The City of Berkeley felled 4 of the oldest trees, which stored 17MT CO2, the equivalent of driving 48,819 miles or 2 times around the earth.

· Besides the loss of future sequestration, possibly another 50 years, the felled trees will decay and return CO2 to the atmosphere, creating additional CO2 emissions in the short term.

· Replacement trees are small and store very little carbon for many years. Each camphor tree that was cut is equivalent to 720 replacement trees. Thus, restoring the CO2 storage capacity of mature camphor trees is a long-term, expensive project.

In conclusion, to protect the climate and support the City of Berkeley’s Climate Action Plan, the City of Berkeley should cancel their plans to cut down Deakin St’s healthy camphor trees. While camphor trees are known to grow large and damage sidewalks, it is exactly their ability to become massive that makes them good at storing carbon and mitigating rising CO2 levels. The City of Berkeley should provide support and protection of their large street trees so they can continue their ecosystem service of mitigating rising atmospheric CO2 levels. Narrowing sidewalks to accommodate large trees rather than the current approach of cutting large trees to preserve sidewalks is one such strategy.

* * * * * * * * * * * *

4. HalcyonHelp.com: Halcyon Neighbors Helping Neighbors during COVID-19 Epidemic!

Editor’s note: For years our neighborhood has prepared for working together in the aftermath of a big earthquake. But the COVID-19 epidemic has demanded a different kind of emergency preparedness. How can we support one another when we’re supposed to maintain physical distance? Fortunately, back in March HNA-CERT quickly mobilized to develop a tool to help. If you’re a Halcyon neighbor (Telegraph to Adeline, Ashby to Woolsey in South Berkeley) or live nearby, you can sign up if you need help (grocery delivery, pharmacy pickup, a cloth mask, a chat buddy, etc.), or if you’re willing to volunteer (some of the volunteer needs can be handled completely from home even if you’re self-isolating). Here’s a brief notice from Halcyon Help’s co-organizer, Bill Swartz.

Put together with the goal of matching neighbors in need with those who could lend a hand, HalcyonHelp.com has grown to over eighty volunteers. HalcyonHelp volunteers are open to all kinds of reasonable requests for help, but the most common matches are:

Pickup: medicine and groceries

Masks: matching neighbors who are making cloth masks with neighbors who need them

Chat Buddies: matching neighbors for nice phone chats

Please go to HalcyonHelp.com for more information

Text or call: 510-200-8082

Email: hnacert@gmail.com

There’s also a flyer you can post or drop door-to-door to help us reach more neighbors.

* * * * * * * * * * * *