Happy Earth Month: Tip #4 Adopt and Care for a Tree

We’ve been celebrating Earth Day all month long right here on the blog with a few of our founder Andy Lipkis’ simple sustainable solutions — from his home to yours. So far, he’s shared his tips for installing rain barrels, his best practices for your sprinklers, and his passion for California native plant gardens.

But now April’s winding down, and it’s time for Andy’s final and most important tip: Adopt and Care for a Tree.

Andy’s been the tour de force behind tree care in Los Angeles for 40 years, but this year ensuring the well being of our trees is more important than ever. The drought isn’t just stressful for us, it’s stressful for our trees, too. And while it may seem counterintuitive to water our trees when we need to be conserving water, healthy trees aren’t the enemy. In fact, they’re actually a big part of the solution to the drought.

Why? Lots of reasons! The shade from trees slows water evaporation from thirsty lawns, and, as trees transpire, they increase atmospheric moisture. What’s more, trees reduce water runoff by breaking rainfall so that water can flow down the trunk and into the earth below. This prevents stormwater from carrying pollutants to the ocean. When mulched, trees also act like sponges that filter water naturally and use it to recharge groundwater supplies. And that’s just for starters. Click here to check out a whole slew of great tree benefits.

Earth Day’s come and gone, and Earth Month is almost over as well, but that doesn’t mean the sustainable solutions have to stop. Take responsibility for the drought, and make every day an earth day by caring for the trees in your yard and on your block:

Tree Facts, Guides, and Resources

Tree Buying, Planting, and Caring 101

See How Trees and Water Add Up with TreeMapLA

Los Angeles Based Arborists and Tree Care Professionals

By Victoria Loustalot

Victoria Loustalot comes to TreePeople by way of New York City, but she's a Californian at heart, having been born and raised in Sacramento, "the City of Trees."