By Phoenix Tso/LAist
Originally published Sep 30, 2021
Hollenbeck Park is a beautiful place for people in Boyle Heights to enjoy nature, but it’s lost a bunch of its trees to disease lately. In response, L.A. planted 20 Jacaranda, Tipuana Tipu and Brisbane Box trees at the park Thursday in partnership with the nonprofit Los Angeles Parks Foundation.
The trees will help alleviate pollution from the neighboring 5 freeway, said Carolyn Ramsay, the foundation’s executive director.
“We’re planting the trees along the freeway side of the park to reduce the pollution and exhaust from all the cars and trucks that go by, but also reduce the noise and provide a habitat for the wildlife that live here,” she said.
The trees are native to continents like South America and Australia. They were chosen because of their ability to withstand climate change in L.A.
Thursday’s planting is part of the foundation’s L.A. Park Forest initiative, which aims to restore the tree canopy in city parks. The L.A. Parks Foundation has planted seven forests so far and plans on three more this year. Its goal is to install 100 park forests in the next 10 years.
As part of its efforts to bring more trees to L.A., the city plans to hire a forest officer to oversee the planting of 90,000 trees by the end of this year.
