State grant funding brought more than 170 trees to New Cuyama’s Richardson Park in a project that aims to help residents beat the summer heat and offset the effects of climate change in the rural community southeast of Santa Maria.
Residents and county delegates will celebrate the opening and ribbon cutting ceremony for the New Cuyama Greenway at Richardson Park on Dec. 10 at 11 a.m., hosted by the county of Santa Barbara Community Services Department, Sustainability and Parks divisions.
Richardson Park is one of the only active recreation spaces in the Cuyama Valley, and the greenway was designed to respond to climate change concerns, said Frank Chen, senior program specialist of the Sustainability Division.
“New Cuyama experiences a lot of extreme heat events being a semi-arid region in the county. In Richardson Park, a lot of the existing trees have been truncated as a result of [a] mistletoe parasite. The tree canopy is pretty lacking, we saw that as an opportunity to plant new trees to increase the shade cover for the park,” Chen said.
State grant funding for the project came from the California Natural Resources Agency—an agency that leads efforts to steward California’s natural environment and advances Gov. Gavin Newsom’s key priorities. The funding comes through legislation AB 1550 that ensures 25 percent of climate investments directly benefit low-income communities, Chen said.
“New Cuyama is one of the more underserved communities here in the county; we saw that there was a need for a project like this,” he added.
The 2018 grant was worth $716,863, but Chen said the project was under budget with construction only costing an estimated $350,000. The leftover funds will be reallocated for future state projects.
In response to Cuyama’s dry, hot climate, the Greenway project features 175 drought-tolerant trees throughout the park, specifically chosen to maximize carbon sequestration.
“Tree planting can be an effective strategy for climate mitigation in the sense that trees provide this benefit of sequestering and storing carbon and creating a cooling effect to the surrounding area,” Chen said. “In an area like New Cuyama that experiences extreme heat events, it can be a place for people to seek refuge from the summer heat.”
Adding trees can also improve the soil of the surrounding area, allowing the soil to act as a sponge to trap and filter water, Chen continued.
“I’m not saying that the 175 trees will solve water availability in that region, but trees can have that effect of improving soil quality,” he said.
The project’s been widely supported over the years, and Chen said it will be a “wonderful amenity” for the community.
“In the next five years when the trees begin to mature more, folks will begin to see the benefits of the design. We chose smaller trees, and that was done intentionally; from an environmental perspective, it’s more sustainable to plant [trees] when they are younger because they are able to adapt to the local conditions,” he said.
“You don’t get the feel of the intent behind the project, but once trees begin to mature, you will start to see benefits of tree canopy and it will start coming together,” Chen explained
The greenway is open for public use, and the County Parks Division will transition into ongoing park maintenance and care. Richardson Park is located just off Highway 166 between Hubbard Avenue and Escuela Street in New Cuyama.
This article appears in Dec 9-16, 2021.
