TREES, PLEASE! It’s Not Nice To Fool Mother Nature
- k-england
- 5 days ago
- 4 min read
By Tim Clancy, for Let's Talk Plants! January 2026.
It’s Not Nice to Fool Mother Nature
Down at the City of Encinitas (COE) headquarters (HQ) the bureaucrats have been busy creating policies and legislation about trees. They are currently debating the finer points of …
A) a Native Plant Ordinance,
B) a Mature Tree Ordinance and
C) updating the parking lot shade requirements for commercial projects.
Starting with the native plant ordinance that the COE is proposing for multi-residential and commercial projects that 50% of all new plants installed meet the COE definition of native. Interestingly enough the city has adopted a rather loose version of native in my opinion and allows many plants not native to COE to be used and meet the requirements. As a matter of fact, it is entirely possible to have a new landscape project that is comprised entirely of plants not native to Encinitas yet still be in compliance. Where this may be a problem is with species diversity of the urban forest.
What we want in a well-managed urban forest is species diversity.
Unfortunately for Encinitas, according to the Urban Forest Ecosystem Institute (UFEI) the city is home to very few native trees. A grand total of five are available for use. They are Pinus torreyana (Torrey pine), Platanus racemosa, California sycamore, Salix gooddingii (Gooding’s willow), Salix laevigata (red willow), and Salix lasiandra (shining willow). Four of these are what’s known as riparian. Meaning that in a native setting they grow near water. The problem here is twofold. First, there are limited locations for riparian trees in COE and those are even more limited in development scenarios. Second, more importantly, insisting on using native trees risks having a species overrepresented from an urban forestry perspective. When it comes to diversity it has been suggested that no species comprise more than 5% of the total tree population. There is no guarantee that the diversity component will suffer but it is foreseeable. Imagine Torrey pines on new developments around town. We’ll be talking more about Torrey pines in a future article.
COE is so enamored of trees that it has decided to create an ordinance aimed at protecting all mature trees in the city irrespective of property ownership. Meaning that they are going to require the retention of trees on private property. This of course will create obstacles to development. The ordinance defines a mature tree as one whose diameter is at least 11” unless it falls into the “native” category. Interestingly enough even though the UFEI has definitively demonstrated the native trees of Encinitas to total five species this ordinance includes several trees in the category of native. That category has a stricter definition of a mature tree and requires only a 9” diameter at breast height (DBH). Furthermore, included are a few species of shrubs whose requirement is a 4” diameter. It doesn’t take too much contemplation to arrive at the conclusion that perhaps the ordinance is designed to make development difficult. The city may have fooled me had they discussed the ecosystem services provided by mature trees and how those are vital to the city. But nope, no such discussion. As of this writing, the ordinance has not been passed and hopefully it will not see the light of day. In my opinion it is not well thought out and will cost the city a lot of money for litigation.
A plot device often employed in the Little Rascals movie shorts was the spectacular failure of the schemes they cooked up. In some ways the parking lot shade scheme is reminiscent of those failures. Many parking lots have trees. Ostensibly to provide shade. As a matter of fact, the city of Encinitas requires 1x15 gallon tree for every five parking spaces. This design requirement was enforced when the Home Depot was built in Encinitas around 30 years ago. As you can see from the above 2023 photo, even 30 years of growth barely creates shade in that parking lot.
Unfortunately, this is the case throughout the city. The idea of parking lots shaded by trees is enticing and I can understand why we have tried. It is time however to abandon the idea that our parking lots can be shaded by trees and try something new.
So, let’s see what happens down at COE HQ in 2026. The shade policy is still in discussion, and I have not seen anything that looks like we can expect shade in our parking lots any time soon. Maybe the mature trees ordinance will quietly die and perhaps after several years of working on a native plant ordinance we will get the finished product.
Tim Clancy & Associates LLC
Cardiff-by-the-Sea, CA 92007
International Society of Arboriculture Certified Arborist No. WE-0806A
International Society of Arboriculture - Tree Risk Assessment Qualified
