Trees were a California city’s salvation. Now they’re a grave threat.
The power had just gone out in Eben Burgoon’s Sacramento home earlier this month when, all of a sudden, he heard three thuds. He opened his door, expecting to find a fallen tree branch, only to discover that a massive redwood had crashed down on his home, breaking over his roof and smashing his neighbor’s car.
Burgoon, his wife, Jessica, and the neighbor — whose bedroom wall was sheared off — were uninjured. But the damage done by the 100-foot redwood was “catastrophic,” he said. The tree removal service that hauled it away estimated it was planted 106 years ago, when Burgoon’s house was built, and probably weighed 65,000 pounds.
“I couldn’t really picture that weight,” Burgoon said, so he looked it up. “It’s like five circus elephants. Or 50-something grand pianos.”
“It was a beautiful tree, it really was,” he added, “but I kind of have a difficult feeling about it right now.”
Sacramento has long prided itself on its extensive urban canopy, which is one of the densest of any city in the Golden State.
The city is estimated to have about 1 million trees, some of which were planted as early as the 1850s.
More than 1,000 trees have come down in Sacramento since a major storm tore through Northern California on New Year’s Eve. Residents have reported more than 2,000 tree-related incidents in January, according to the city.
Weakened by years of drought, many of the city’s grander trees succumbed to the extreme weather, damaging homes, flattening cars and pulling down power lines as they fell. Two homeless people died after trees fell on their tents. Some trees were ripped out of the soil, roots and all.
“It looks a little like a tree carnage, to be honest with you,” Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg said in an interview with The Washington Post. “You go out into the parks — Land Park, one of our quintessential beautiful regional parks — there’re just trees all over. And so it’s going to take some time to recover.”
Fallen Italian stone pines lie on the ground in Land Park. Arborists cut the trees to prepare them for removal.
Fallen Italian stone pines
lie on the ground in Land Park.
Arborists cut the trees to prepare
them for removal.
Fallen Italian stone pines
lie on the ground in Land Park.
Arborists cut the trees to prepare
them for removal.
Fallen Italian stone pines
lie on the ground in Land Park.
Arborists cut the trees to prepare
them for removal.
The damage caused in recent weeks by severe storms — driven by what are known as atmospheric rivers — is a preview of what is to come, climatologists and arborists say. Across the country, hotter temperatures have awakened city leaders to the importance of preserving trees and greening neighborhoods in desperate need of shade. But severe heat, drought and heavy rain, all of which are becoming more extreme because of climate change, are making it more difficult to keep old trees alive and grow young ones to maturity.
“Trees are incredibly resilient regarding weather and wind; they can take a lot,” said Frank Rodgers, executive director of the West Virginia-based Cacapon Institute. “But with climate change, the new normal is beyond their species’ capacity.”
Causes: Extended drought, rebel winds and new construction
Known originally as the “City of Plains” because of its treeless vistas, Sacramento has been called the “City of Trees” for at least a century — the outgrowth of decades of work by arborists and city leaders to nurture a lush canopy. The conditions were right. The city has a warm climate and it sits at the confluence of two rivers, so drought wasn’t a concern. All of that is changing now.
As the climate changes, trees are paying the price. Stressed from years of severe drought, tree roots naturally die back. When this is followed by day after day of big storms and the soil becomes saturated, the weakened roots fail as anchors. Trees whose roots have already been damaged by construction, such as fresh concrete sidewalks being laid down, are especially at risk of collapse. So are trees with shallow roots that rely on sprinklers for irrigation.
During the recent storms, the Sacramento Tree Foundation found that wind direction compounded the problem. In the city and the surrounding suburbs, trees are accustomed to dealing with winds from the south, and they have built-in defenses. But when strong northerly winds arrived on New Year’s Eve — with gusts that reached more than 60 miles per hour — they pummeled the trees on their most vulnerable side.
The foundation also noted that certain tree species appear to have suffered more than others because of their shape. The wet weather hit evergreens especially hard, weighing down their foliage and causing their canopies to be whipped about by every gust of wind. Many of the trees felled were evergreens, including eucalyptus trees, cedars, redwoods, pines, evergreen oaks, Italian cypress and acacias.
Redwood (evergreen)
Cork oak (evergreen)
Redwood (evergreen)
Cork oak (evergreen)
Incense cedar (evergreen)
Bay laurel (evergreen)
Chinese elm
English elm
Redwood (evergreen)
Cork oak (evergreen)
Incense cedar (evergreen)
Bay laurel (evergreen)
Chinese elm
English elm
Redwood (evergreen)
Cork oak (evergreen)
Incense cedar (evergreen)
Bay laurel (evergreen)
Chinese elm
English elm
“It’s going to be a setback,” said Jessica Sanders, the foundation’s executive director. “Not only in the number of trees but also in people’s willingness and attitudes toward planting new trees. If you’re a homeowner who had a very large tree fall on your house, even if you love trees, you’re probably not going to be an advocate for more trees on your property.”
More climate-resilient trees
As the city’s Department of Public Works continues to clean up after the storms, it’s clear that Sacramento’s iconic canopy has suffered a massive blow. But experts said this moment could also be an opportunity to replace fallen trees with species better adapted to Sacramento’s hotter, drier and potentially stormier climate.
Scientists at the University of California at Davis have identified certain types of trees that hold promise. But they will need to be studied over a 20-year period to determine if they’re truly more resilient in different parts of California. Some of the species they have identified as growing well in the Sacramento region include the desert willow, netleaf hackberry and the Texas ebony.
And in a positive sign for the city’s landscape, Sanders said the foundation has recently seen a “huge uptick” in the number of residents asking for new trees to be planted on their property.
“It is a very resilient city,” she said, “and the residents really do embrace that moniker, City of Trees.”