Street Tree Planting Guide for Eureka Neighborhoods

Planting trees along your street can have a very beneficial effect on air quality, streetscape and beauty, and can help in calming traffic and noise. Keep Eureka Beautiful (KEB) is committed to helping anyone who wants to have a tree-lined street. KEB will help you through the City’s approval process, help with funding and labor (digging holes) and with organizing your neighborhood to get the trees planted. KEB has planted over 500 trees and will work with those who are interested to create a more beautiful and healthful Eureka by planting street trees.

There are several ways that street trees can be planted, described below:

A. On streets that already have planter or boulevard strips, i.e. grass strips along the edge of the curb, all that is needed is a permit from the City and trees (from an approved City list) to plant. Trees vary in price from $17 to $400 depending on the type of tree. The only other costs are a few bags of soil to supplement the existing soil and stakes and ties to support the trees. City fees have been waived. While forming a group is not necessary, it makes more of a neighborhood project and visual result if a group plants on a street.

B. On streets where there is no planter strip, the sidewalk must be at least nine feet wide in order to accommodate a planter strip for trees. In such cases a contractor approved by the City must be hired to cut the holes or the owners are charged an even larger fee to do it themselves. If a group of home owners organize a group to plant trees, the cost of cutting the holes is greatly reduced. For this reason and to eliminate City fees, we encourage people to form a group to coordinate their planting effort.

C. On streets where there is a sidewalk with no planter strip but the sidewalk is less than nine feet in width, a planter strip will not be allowed. Then we suggest that trees can be planted just inside the sidewalk without the need for a City permit. The only costs are the cost of the trees, soil amendments and stakes.. Furthermore, the trees do not have to be on the City list of approved street trees.

KEB is committed to helping to plant trees in each of the scenarios described above. Additionally, cutting planter strips for planting shrubs, flowers and grasses is also encouraged.

If you have noticed street trees in other cities and want to see more green in Eureka, talk to your neighbors. Take a look at the trees already planted on C Street between 8th and Wabash and along Wabash Street between Pine and B Streets. Look at the street trees that have been planted Downtown and in Old Town. Start noticing individual properties where trees have been planted along the sidewalk or in a planter strip. If you feel that the trees have a positive impact and that you would like to extend the green feeling to your street, call Michele McKeegan of KEB or me, Xandra, and we would be delighted to help you bring trees to your street. I am currently working with my son Monty Caid in his native plant nursery getting ready to bring more trees to Eureka. His plants are currently sold in the plant rack in front of the Eureka Coop on 4th and B Streets.