ALAMEDA — A visionary, eco-friendly, tree-planting project will soon take root in Alameda as “Project Tree” gets underway.
Alameda Backyard Growers (ABG) will provide between 30 and 40 fruit trees, free of charge, to various community members who will plant and care for them to help fill their fruit bowls and donate the excess to the Alameda Food Bank.
Marla Koss of ABG, who is spearheading the program along with Amanda Bruemmer, sees the project as a type of victory garden for the new millennium to nourish what she calls “fruit tree enlightenment.”
Koss cites a need to bring street smarts to baby boomers and post-baby boomers who may want or have fruit trees in their yards “but don’t even know how to cull them.”
“My father taught me all these things,” Koss said, and Project Tree seeks to help restore what she says is “the fruit heritage of Alameda” and to build a “community fruit bowl” for the new demographics.
Seed money and inspiration for the program came from Alameda Sun Publisher Eric Kos, who said he feels angst over using massive amounts of newsprint to publish his paper while witnessing what he calls the “loss of urban canopy,” and the reduction of “pollinator havens” in Alameda.
To make his “longtime dream come true,” Kos, who holds a deep passion for trees, donated $1,000 in seed money to ABG and joined with Koss to handle the logistics of the program.
ABG contacted Gretchen Doering, the garden overseer at Boys and Girls Club of Alameda, who arranged to “receive a mandarin tree in the fall and an apple and a plum in late January or early February” 2017, Kos said in an email.
Encinal Nursery, Ploughshares and Pollinate for Gardens will team up to procure the trees to be donated.
Alameda residents who wish to plant and care for a tree in their backyard, public space or median strip may apply on Earth Day, April 23, at ABG’s booth in Washington Park where Koss will detail the available tree types and application steps and specifics.
As in the search for top-quality fruit, applications will be culled based on a variety of merit-based factors, and qualified recipients will receive tree growing and maintenance education.
“Project Tree” is an integral part of ABG’s plan to establish a fruit orchard at the new Jean Sweeney Park and Forager’s Lane.
As for the trees that are going to the Boys and Girls Club, “This is a chance for kids to fall in love and take care of that orchard,” Breummer said.
Koss echoed that passion, citing the need for “filling bellies successfully.
“I want people so much to have fruit,” Koss said. “We have got to make this the best possible outcome.”
