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Right Tree, Right Place

Planting and caring for trees increases environmental awareness and empowers our citizens as stewards of our community, country, and planet.  Planting trees is fun, but there are also lots of benefits! Trees reduces pollution, provide cooling shade, brings neighbors together, increases property values, reduces crime, fosters community cooperation, and provides habitat for local wildlife. To enjoy these benefits, it’s important to plant the right kind of tree in the right place. This ensures the tree will live a long and healthy life! Read more in our Right Tree, Right Place guide.

Download our guide to learn about specific trees that fit best in Davis.

Looking for information about a specific tree?

Our favorite tool to look up tree information is SelecTree developed by the Urban Forest Ecosystems Institute at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. With this tool you can look for trees by common name or species and find information such as drought tolerance, water needs, branch strength, litter, use, etc.*Remember Davis has highly alkaline soils. This means that the soil PH is very basic (the opposite of acidic). So, some trees that grow in Sacramento may not grow as well here. We recommend checking SelecTree to make sure your tree can tolerate highly alkaline soils.

 More Tree Lists

Tree Care Videos

Check out our tree videos on how to care for your young tree as well as informational videos about climate ready trees in Davis: 

For more videos please like and subscribe to our YouTube channel @treedavisinfo!

What about water usage?

We recommend planting trees that use low water and / or are drought tolerant. If you are looking for water usage on a specific tree or plant, check out Water Use Classification of Landscape Species. Here you can download a spreadsheet containing many trees and plants. The column labeled ‘2’ represents estimated water needs by the plant in the Central Valley (H indicates ‘High’ usage, M is for ‘Medium’ usage, L is for ‘Low’ usage and VL is for ‘Very Low’ usage). And for best practices on watering your tree. Check out our Tree Watering guide!

Help your trees survive drought

We may not be in a drought now, but California climate trends indicate that we will likely see another drought in the next 10-15 years. Trees are a long-term investment that benefit us in many ways, including shading our homes and reducing energy costs, raising our property values by upwards of 10-20%, providing beauty, and more (We just enjoy sitting under one!). We are encouraged by those who are working to remove grass areas from their yards in order to conserve water, but remember that your tree needs care during the drought to stay alive. Here are some great tips for helping trees survive times of water scarcity (i.e. summer time) in drought or non-drought years.

The ongoing drought is causing severe stress to the trees in Davis and other communities. Stressed trees are more susceptible to disease, pests, and death. Learn how to care for your trees and help them survive the drought!

Thank you to California Urban Forests Council for producing this infographic for our community! Want more tips for helping your plants survive the drought? See 7 tips for landscape survival during drought.

Help your trees survive the drought

 

Benefits of Trees

Trees are an incredible asset to our communities. Not only are they beautiful, but there are ways to quantify exactly how much money they are worth! Read up on Cost v. Benefit of Trees!

How to care for trees

Take a look at our comprehensive tree guide “How to care for trees” guide

Former Tree Davis Board President, David Robinson, teaches volunteers how to stake a tree using a Reddy stake
Tree Davis Emblem Sculpture in Downtown Davis created by Gilbert Menke. Photo credit: Katherine Graham

Downtown Davis Tree Walk

Tour downtown Davis on this fun, informative Tree Walk!

Learn about some of the oldest, biggest, and most interesting trees in downtown Davis. Start at the Tree Davis leaf emblem sculpture at 2nd St. and D St. Pick up a guide at the kiosk or come prepared by downloading and printing your own guide here.

 

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