Twenty-five volunteers showed up on Saturday, July 27 to water over 100 trees along Foothill Boulevard and Sunland Boulevard in Sunland. This was a project organized by Pat Kramer of the Crescenta Valley Group of the Sierra Club with the help of Council District 7 Deputy Ricardo Flores. The volunteers were each assigned four trees to water though some folks watered as many as 10 trees, each volunteer getting 10 gallons of water to deep-water the roots. 

During the local hot months the trees get no precipitation, which creates stress for them. In addition, many have agriperm around them, which adds an obstacle to watering as volunteers must find a chink in the pavement to get the water to the roots. For the “lucky” trees that have no agriperm around them (due to its ongoing removal by a team of volunteers), they received a well-needed drink on a day when the temperatures reached over 95 degrees.

Several teams of volunteers showed up the following weekend to water the remaining 35 trees with volunteers as young as 4 years old and some as old as 80, with all ages in-between. In the City of Los Angeles, which Sunland-Tujunga is a part of, trees do not get watered beyond the first three years after they are planted. In normal conditions, trees require five gallons a week of water, but in very hot temperatures they need 10 gallons and even 15 gallons a week. 

Anyone interested in volunteering to help water, weed or mulch these trees that make the community more welcoming, lower the temperatures by 10-15 degrees, provide a home for different birds and insects and help improve air quality can contact Pat Kramer at: patkramerstnc@gmail.com.

Contributed by Pat KRAMER