ANAHEIM : Tree-Planting Effort Ceases Temporarily

The city’s volunteer tree-planting operation has come to a crashing halt--well short of its goal of planting 20,000 trees by the year 2000--but officials hope to revive it by summer.

Releaf Anaheim, a program which used 1,053 volunteers to plant 895 trees in the past 20 months, last week ceased operations, at least temporarily, because of management and fiscal problems, city officials said.

Its coordinator, Maria Cover, quit to take a similar statewide job, and the program has already exhausted a $40,000 state grant intended to purchase trees through June, said Steve Edwards, the city’s tree services manager.

More than 100 people had been showing up regularly at the group’s monthly tree plantings, which targeted parkways and other public areas. Two weeks ago, the group planted 135 trees near the intersection of Orangethorpe Avenue and Landfair Street.

“We were so successful planting trees that we used up the grant money quicker than we thought we would,” Edwards said Tuesday.

But Edwards said he is working with the city’s Utility Department on a new tree program aimed primarily at conserving electricity.

Under the new program, the Utility Department would pay for the planting of trees on private property to shade homes, Edwards said. “That would cut down on the amount of electricity used for air conditioning,” he said.

Called Shade Tree, the new plan would have to be approved by the City Council. But in the last seven months, the council approved spending $40,000 for fertilizer and other supplies for the Releaf Anaheim plantings, making Edwards hopeful that the council may also approve funds for the new program.

The part-time coordinator position, paid for by the local Rotary Club, will be filled if Shade Tree begins or Releaf Anaheim is resumed, Edwards said.

Edwards said the city will apply for another state grant, which, if approved, would allow the Releaf Anaheim program to resume sometime after July. He also hopes that Shade Tree will be approved by that time.

Cover, the former Releaf coordinator, was hired by California Releaf, a nonprofit foundation that helps local programs such as Anaheim’s. In her new position, she will seek federal grants for the state.

“I think that Releaf Anaheim has been a success because 895 street trees have been planted that might not have been planted otherwise,” Cover said. “So I don’t think the program can be perceived as a negative, even though it’s stopped for the time being.”