Willow Glen Resident

Cover Story

Photograph by Vicki Thompson

Eco-Friendly: Willow Glen resident Rhonda Berry, president and CEO of the nonprofit Our City Forest, believes the organization's mission should be a marriage of social work and urban planning. Berry's goal is to create a consciousness about the benefits of trees.

Berry's Quest

Our City Forest president's goal is to plant 1 million trees in San Jose

By Alicia Upano

There's nothing that represents Willow Glen better than a tree-lined street. From sycamores to redwoods, Willow Glen trees form a community canopy that shades historic houses and streets from the summer sun, evoking the sense of a neighborhood that is deeply rooted.

Rhonda Berry, the founding director of Our City Forest, lives on one of these streets. With Berry at the helm, the Park Avenue-based nonprofit group has added 2,063 trees to Willow Glen's urban forest.

Berry has run the organization for more than a decade and says Our City Forest is about more than planting trees. It's about planting a seed in a community that will bring residents together and empower them to protect their neighborhoods, she says.

The nonprofit group provides free trees and trains residents how to properly care for them. Our City Forest volunteers and neighbors who want to roll up their sleeves and get dirty plant the trees. Most recently, Our City Forest planted trees on Roycott Way, at Willow Glen High School and in the North Willow Glen and Gardner neighborhoods.

Kim Guptill, who lives in Willow Glen, participated in the plantings on Roycott Way and Willow Glen High School. Guptill and her Roycott neighbors were involved in three tree plantings that were sponsored through Our City Forest. Today the residents are reaping the benefits of these trees that are in different stages of growth, but are flourishing. The tree plantings are also a way to bring people together, Guptill says.

"It's a lovely feeling of working together for something that's absolutely right," Guptill says.

Not only are they beautiful, she says, but the trees add oxygen to the air. Studies also show that trees can slow traffic and aid in crime prevention and healing, according to Our City Forest.

In addition to tree plantings, Our City Forest has provided input on the city's proposed revisions to its illegal tree removal policy.

San Jose City Councilman Ken Yeager prompted the city to review the policy after several trees were illegally removed in Willow Glen in 2005. The proposed policy will double fines from $500 to $1,000 to deter illegal removals. Our City Forest and Willow Glen neighborhood leaders are working with the city in hopes of creating an even stricter policy.

In this way, Willow Glen Neighborhood Association president Ed Rast says Our City Forest makes a difference. The organization is respected throughout the city because its work includes plantings, education, research projects and policy change, he says.

"You're either part of the solution or part of the problem," Rast says. "I see Our City Forest as part of the solution."

Just a seedling

Berry first began working with neighborhoods shortly after she graduated from UC-Berkeley with a bachelor's degree in social work, with a focus on environmental justice and community organizing, and a minor in race relations. She then joined Volunteers In Service To America (VISTA) as a volunteer in Dallas, where she organized community development projects, built neighborhood parks and planted trees.

She returned to California to complete her graduate work in city and regional planning at CSU-Fresno. Berry worked full time as nonprofit consultant while working toward her master's degree. Although Berry completed the coursework, she did not receive her degree because she began working for Fresno County as a senior management analyst.

During the decade she worked for the county, Berry also indulged in musical theater. As a performer with Fresno's Good Company Players, Berry shed her public administration role to become Roxie Hart in Chicago, among other lively characters.

But even with this theatrical outlet, Berry began to realize her day job was not as fulfilling as she wished.

"I didn't feel like it was feeding my soul," she says. "When I look back at that time of my life, it was like the color gray. What I knew was that I was anything but the color gray."

After some soul searching, Berry found another color that would paint her future: green.

Berry realized she missed working in the nonprofit world and rediscovered her love of the environment. She volunteered in Fresno, planting 500 trees, which eventually seeded her way to San Francisco, where she began working with the Trust for Public Land.

As the organization's outreach director, Berry frequently visited California cities, encouraging them to set tree-planting goals.

In the early 1990s, she went before the San Jose City Council and urged it to adopt a goal of planting 1 million trees, which the city continues to work toward.

Coincidentally, at the same time the San Jose City Council developed the idea to found and partially fund a tree-planting nonprofit organization. San Jose was following in the footsteps of several major cities across the country that realized the environmental significance and economic benefits of implementing tree-planting programs.

In 1994, Our City Forest was created as nonprofit agency with San Jose seed money. Berry was chosen to head it. From the beginning, Berry wanted to create an organization that married social work and urban planning.

Those first years were rough. Berry worked 16 hours a day, seven days a week, to get Our City Forest off the ground. She applied for grant money, enabling the organization to offer trees and services free.

Today, more than a decade later, Our City Forest has planted nearly 40,000 trees throughout San Jose. It has done all of this with only a handful of full-time employees, who juggle several tasks, and a devoted corps of volunteers, or "tree amigos."

Further growth

Now Berry wants to push the envelope. Our City Forest is launching an initiative, Eco-Silicon Valley, that will broaden the organization's mission to include all aspects of the environment. Berry envisions Eco-Silicon Valley as a grassroots, neighborhood effort that protects the environment, one block at a time if necessary. The organization will provide information and resources to help neighborhoods became more eco-friendly.

Under the initiative, neighborhoods can became certified green neighborhoods. Environmentally friendly practices can include reducing pesticides and energy usage and promoting toxic waste recycling.

Our City Forest can also serve as a conduit, as it did in the Rose Garden neighborhood several years ago by finding a way to create balance between mass transit organizations such as Caltrans and the community it serves. Caltrans wanted to cut down 100 redwoods, and neighbors wanted to save the trees. Ultimately, the neighborhood saved 70 trees.

"The neighborhood unit is so powerful," Berry says. "Eco-Silicon Valley is helping people realize the value of nature and their place in the world."

One of the neighborhoods currently on the organization's radar is North Willow Glen. On April 27, Our City Forest recognized the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association for "outstanding civic engagement in the development, care and protection of their community forest ... one tree at a time."

Berry was particularly impressed with the association's "quality of life" statement that urges developers to consult with neighbors before cutting down a tree taller than 10 feet.

"What a perfect model for other neighborhoods," Berry says. "It's putting trees at the forefront, as a symbol to protect the neighborhood."

In the past few years, the North Willow Glen Neighborhood Association has planted more than 100 trees in its vintage section of San Jose. The neighborhood is filled with mature sycamore, redwood, oak, walnut, pecan and ash trees, and the association's goal is to have a tree in front of every home.

Fuller Avenue resident Ken Eklund has become the neighborhood's "tree guy," who organizes the neighborhood plantings. Eklund and his neighbors first began working with Our City Forest in the late 1990s to plant nearly 20 trees at Fuller Park. Beginning in 2003, the neighborhood association staged one major tree planting each year. This year's planting took place on May 13.

"It seemed like a gift for the neighborhood, a long-term investment that would grow into a dividend for all of us," Eklund says. "Before you know it, the neighborhood is green."

Eklund says Our City Forest comes out to each home and recommends a tree based on the homeowner's needs. The organization also tracks the tree to ensure its well-being.

Our City Forest arborist Christian Bonner often works with the neighborhoods at the Saturday tree-planting events. The day begins at 9 a.m. at a resident's home for a tree-planting demonstration.

"It's not unusual that people are meeting their neighbors for the first time. It's a great catalyst to generate other community events," Bonner says.

Eklund agrees, and has seen the tree plantings build rapport in North Willow Glen.

"It's a way for people to get acquainted with the neighborhood association," he says.

Working together, residents can create a better street and better quality of life, he adds.

That's exactly what Berry continues to do. Her dedication has remained as strong as is was nearly 15 years ago when she asked the city to plant a million trees--a goal she's living out today.

If Berry had her way, San Jose would not only be the 10th largest city in the nation, but the10th greenest city, too.

"Of course my goal would be the No. 1 greenest city," Berry says, always looking forward.

For more information on Our City Forest, call 408.998.7337 or visit www.ourcityforest.org. United Neighborhoods of Santa Clara County has a list of tree-related resources at groups.yahoo.com/group/UN SCC-NEWS/links.