Big-Money City Project in California Has Begun and Has Lofty Goals To Achieve

Hanford, California has begun a major project to help improve quality of living in the area for humans and wildlife.

People planting trees at Hanford Softball Complex as part of the Hanford Goes Green project. / Mandatory Credit - City of Hanford

In 2023, the city of Hanford, California was awarded $1 million courtesy of the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Grant Program. It came via the Inflation Reduction Act.

One of the goals of the Hanford Goes Green initiative is to plant 600 trees around the community. The project recently got underway, as they are hoping to achieve improved air quality and provide more natural shade for when temperatures heat up.

There is a large contingent of groups that are involved. As shared by Robert English of The Cool Down, “Organizations involved in the scheme include GreenLatinos, Forest Service, Sequoia Community Corps (CSET), Urban Tree Foundation, Hanford Joint Union High School District, and Tree Fresno.”

The first place to receive some of the new planted trees is the Hanford Softball Complex. The Hanford Sentinel shared that new trees needed to be planted because of the bark beetle destroying the area and a drought.

They are necessary for the area because of how hot it can get during the summer. In July, average temperatures in Hanford are 98 degrees fahrenheit, exposing people at the complex unnecessarily to extreme heat.

"Shade is sparse, and that's especially hard on the visitors who come during our triple digit summers that we have here in Hanford," said Parks and Community Services Director Brad Albert. "There are approximately 100 trees around the entire complex that are dead. … But we're not here to be sad. We're here to celebrate today. We're going to replace these trees with many trees … that we will plant in Hanford throughout the next three years."

There are a lot of benefits to trees being planted. A community can feel its temperatures drop by as many as 10 degrees per the Arbor Day Foundation. Several heat-related conditions can arise from extreme-heat the area is susceptible to, including heat stroke and exhaustion.

Not only can trees help limit heat, but they also provide clean air for humans to breath. In addition, they can become home for the diverse wildlife in the region.

"It's not just something aesthetic that we want in our communities," said Urban Greening Initiative Coordinator for GreenLatinos, Amanda Pantoja. "It's a necessity. Every neighborhood deserves the access to the benefits that trees provide, regardless of income and race but for far too long, our communities have been left out of these efforts, and the result has been leaving them vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. Our work here today is going to make sure that we change that, and this is what climate justice looks like."

Other cities around the country have joined Hanford in an effort to clean things up by planting more trees. Andover, Massachusetts are doing just that at Bald Hill-Wood forest as communities look to improve conditions in their areas.