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On Oct. 5, nearly 40 community members from Menlo Park and surrounding communities came together to plant 15 trees in the Belle Haven neighborhood of Menlo Park. Canopy, a local nonprofit focused on growing the urban tree canopy in Midpeninsula cities, sponsored the tree planting in partnership with All Five, a Belle Haven preschool.
Five trees were planted on All Five’s campus at 1391 Chilco St., and another 10 were planted in the surrounding neighborhood.
These 15 trees are just the beginning of a tree boom that Canopy has planned for Belle Haven. Over the next two years, Canopy aims to partner with the Ravenswood City School District, All Five and the surrounding community to plant an additional 90 trees in and around the All Five and Belle Haven Elementary School campuses.
Canopy partnered with All Five preschool to ensure that the youngest residents of Belle Haven are experiencing the benefits of tree canopy coverage. Additionally, Canopy and All Five received a $612,000 grant through Cal Fire’s Green Schoolyards grant to plant trees on the school grounds.
The Green Schoolyards grant is aimed at “(creating) green schoolyards to protect the health, well-being and educational opportunity of children most vulnerable to increasing temperatures and extreme heat across California,” according to Cal Fire’s Green Schoolyards webpage.
The Cal Fire grant will cover the planting of the trees at All Five, as well as ongoing tree care and outdoor tree education for the students over the next two years.
The trees in the surrounding neighborhood are being planted with a grant from Lockheed Martin, according to Canopy.
Canopy volunteers and All Five preschoolers work together to prepare and plant trees on All Five’s campus on Oct. 5, 2024. Courtesy Jean-Paul Renaud. 
Canopy volunteers work together to prepare and plant trees on All Five’s campus on Oct. 5, 2024. Courtesy Jean-Paul Renaud. 
Canopy volunteers and All Five preschoolers work together to prepare and plant trees on All Five’s campus on Oct. 5, 2024. Courtesy Jean-Paul Renaud. 
Canopy volunteers and All Five preschoolers work together to prepare and plant trees on All Five’s campus on Oct. 5, 2024. Courtesy Jean-Paul Renaud.
Marla Romero-Sosa, All Five’s family director, said that she was excited that the students will be able to learn more about the environment from the new trees.
“It’s never too early to inspire our students to love our environment and build a shared vision of what it means to show up for community, for our schools, for our partners and for each other,” she said. “A special thanks to our trees, who are helping us build the foundation for our community.”
The trees planted included some fruit trees, such as a persimmon tree, a lemon tree and an avocado tree. Canopy also opted to plant several african fern pines, an island oak, an Engelmann oak, a western redbud and a strawberry tree.
Trees as a public health intervention
Jean-Paul Renaud, Canopy’s executive director, says Canopy hopes that the 100 trees that will be planted over the next two years will begin to help remedy some of the environmental inequities in Belle Haven that have been caused, in part, by disinvestment in the neighborhood’s urban canopy.
Belle Haven is the neighborhood in Menlo Park with the least tree coverage. While the city of Menlo Park has an average tree canopy coverage of 28%, Belle Haven’s trees only shade about 10% of the neighborhood, according to Canopy. Nearby, Atherton’s tree canopy coverage sits at just under 50%, according to an urban canopy mapping tool created by the USDA and Cal Fire.
Canopy sees trees as not just an aesthetic boon to neighborhoods, but as a public health investment. This is especially true in historically under-resourced communities throughout the Peninsula, where trees are often scarce.
Renaud said that trees provide numerous health benefits. Tree coverage provides shade to communities, which can lessen instances of heat-related illness like heat stroke during hot summer days. Trees can also help to improve the air quality near where they are planted.
According to a survey conducted by Menlo Park for the development of its Environmental Justice element, residents of Belle Haven were much more likely to report adverse environmental effects than residents of other neighborhoods in the city.
Fifty-one percent of Belle Haven residents reported experiencing extreme heat indoors compared to 34% of residents in other neighborhoods. Some 34% of Belle Haven residents reported experiencing extreme heat outdoors compared to 20% of residents in other neighborhoods.
The direct health disparities are outsized in Belle Haven as well. Asthma is a huge issue, with 50% of residents claiming that they or their family members suffer from the condition compared to just 17% of residents in other areas of Menlo Park. Heat stroke is more common in Belle Haven too, with 17% of residents saying that they have experienced the heat-related illness compared to 10% of residents of other areas in the city.
“We have to be like, ‘trees are a big deal,’” said Renaud. “They can’t just be taken as a piece of furniture in the background. They’re an important part of the solution and an important part of our communities.”
Renaud said that in addition to technological solutions to the climate crisis, like electrified appliances and solar panels, cities need to invest in nature-based solutions like trees to help address climate change.
“Nature has solutions to address climate change on its own,” he said. “Trees can hold water for stormwater capture, they can filter water. … They can provide shade and cool the air around you. Technology can do all those things, but nature has a role to play as well.”
A community-based approach
On the day of the planting, it wasn’t just Canopy’s staff members doing the work. Nearly 40 community members, including some of the preschoolers attending All Five, got their hands dirty as they helped plant the trees.
Renaud said that Canopy likes to have at least four people help plant each tree, so that the community becomes personally invested in its urban canopy.
“We believe that a tree will survive longer, and the community will thrive longer when they have a relationship with one another,” he said. “We believe that coming together and working toward a common cause is another really important benefit that trees give us.”
Canopy wants every Belle Haven resident who wants a tree in their yard to get a tree in their yard from Canopy.
“We will plant it and then care for it for three years,” said Renaud.“If tomorrow 10 more people signed up in Belle Haven and said I want 10 trees, we would be there.”
Renaud said that one of the biggest challenges to growing Belle Haven’s urban forest is that there is very little public plantable space left, so Canopy relies on interested residents who want to offer up their yards as homes for new trees.
However, Canopy is also working with the city of Menlo Park to identify areas where new trees can be planted, and to develop an urban forestry master plan.
Menlo Park recently adopted its environmental justice element, a section of the city’s general plan which seeks to address and remedy environmental health disparities within the city. As part of the environmental justice element, the city has committed to developing an urban forestry master plan by March 2028. This master plan will include identifying additional grant opportunities for urban forestry projects within the city, identifying the areas of the city that most need new trees and developing equitable canopy expansion procedures.
“Having an urban forestry master plan for a city like Menlo Park would be a huge policy win,” said Renaud. “It would really be a rallying document for policy makers, for funders, for community leaders and for us to focus on and keep as our North Star.”
Menlo Park aims to create at least 40% canopy coverage for Belle Haven and other areas of the city lacking in tree coverage by 2045. Studies referenced by the city suggest that this is the level of urban canopy that is required to alleviate the urban heat island effect, where areas with heavy development trap heat as pavement and buildings absorb warmth during the day.
“It’s hard work, but we have to do it,” said Renaud. “Canopy is committed to working in these communities and continuing to identify funding and provide support.”
