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Our Vision
The vision of the Sacramento Tree Foundation is to grow healthy, livable communities in the Sacramento region by building the best regional urban forest in the nation. We want to optimize the social, economic, public health, and environmental benefits of trees by achieving maximum tree canopy and ensuring the tree canopy is healthy, safe, protected, and well maintained in Sacramento, Yolo, Sutter, Yuba, Placer, and El Dorado counties.
We see our organization as an agent of change in a social movement to advance our urban forest. We want to motivate citizens, businesses, and governments to plant and steward more trees, volunteer their time toward the urban forest cause, learn more about trees, advocate for policies that protect and preserve trees, and support the Sacramento Tree Foundation in its mission. This urban forest social movement is supported by a regional framework known as the Greenprint. The Greenprint is supported by official resolutions from 22 jurisdictions and 6 counties in the Sacramento region. By signing on to the Greenprint, these entities have agreed to invest in their urban forests by managing their public trees, protecting their trees through policies and ordinances, and building sustainable community partnerships.
The Sacramento Tree Foundation will ignite this mobilization of resources and people by: delivering high-quality education and outreach programs that empower our community members to understand, appreciate, support, and advocate on behalf of trees; providing tree planting, monitoring, and stewardship services that start with the right trees and result in maximum tree survivability; supporting our volunteers in everything they do to serve in the best interest of trees; and translating sound science into urban forest best practices and model programs. These efforts will be supported by fee for service contracts with governments, businesses, and nonprofit organizations; sponsorships and special events; memberships and donations; and grants.
To support our vision, we have set a goal to plant and steward 5 million new trees in the Sacramento region by the year 2025. One million of these trees will replace those in decline and 4 million trees will be newly added to our region. The Sacramento Tree Foundation expects to directly and indirectly influence the planting of at least 2.5 million trees, with the remaining trees planted as a matter of course by private property owners and businesses.
As a result of mobilizing the community to plant 5 million more trees in the Sacramento region, nearly $7 billion in net benefits will be realized over the 40-year lifetime of the trees by significantly increasing energy efficiency, lowering air pollution, reducing storm water runoff and improving water quality, sequestering carbon, and improving property values. In addition, human health and well being will be improved by reducing stress, increasing community cohesion, reducing the risk of skin cancer, increasing physical activity, increasing access to healthy food, and accelerating healing time after surgery.
Our region quite simply cannot thrive without the benefits that trees provide, and our trees need informed and active citizens to create a legacy of healthy, livable communities for many generations to come. This is the passion of the Sacramento Tree Foundation, and we are committed to building and sustaining healthier places for families to live, work, and play.