Tree Planting to Spruce Up Ventura Boulevard

Next year, the sidewalks along Ventura Boulevard will be a little greener and shadier for passersby and local businesses.

On Monday, Los Angeles City Atty. Jim Hahn presented representatives of TreePeople, a nonprofit environmental organization dedicated to the greening of Los Angeles, a check for $10,000 earmarked for a tree-planting project along a four-block stretch of Ventura, west of Woodman Avenue.

The group will be working in conjunction with the Sherman Oaks Homeowners Assn. to purchase and plant palm trees and shade trees, said TreePeople spokeswoman Leslie Mylius.

“We’re going to use this check to work with the association to continue improving Ventura Boulevard and help bring greenery and fresh air to the busy street,” said Mylius, who attended the check-presentation ceremony at TreePeople’s headquarters in Beverly Hills.

Matt Epstein, vice president of the association, who also attended the ceremony, referred to the donation as “a great windfall.”

Last spring, the association raised $15,000 to plant trees along a three-block stretch east of Woodman, Epstein said.

“Our goal is to do three or four blocks a year along Ventura from east of Coldwater Canyon and west of Sepulveda Boulevard,” Epstein said. “As a community, we’re trying to make it better and better by making our major thoroughfare, Ventura Boulevard, greener and prettier.”

The joint project is scheduled to begin in March, Epstein said.