SC 11-21-19 Written CommunicationsFrom:Iris Fu
To:Sustainability
Cc:
Subject:Re: Grant Application
Date:Tuesday, November 19, 2019 10:01:51 PM
Hi Cupertino Sustainability Commission,
My name is Iris Fu. I am the youth leader of Little Masters Club is a 501(c)(3)
nonprofit organization that seeks to provide an encouraging environment for kids to
be learners, mentors, team players, and leaders. LMC promote “learning by doing”
through a multitude of fun projects. Past projects we have done consists of teaching
children how to read and bring children with autism hiking. Upon seeing the lack of
green in the yard outside of Cupertino Community Hall, We think that it would be an
amazing idea to create a dry garden in it. Not only would this make the community
hall more welcoming, it would also help the environment by decreasing the amount of
CO2 in the air helping the climate change crisis. It would also create an amazing
experience for the students planting by creating a fun interactive way to learn about
this world crisis.
Ever since the 1990s when IPCC produced the First Assessment Report shows the
change of the temperatures in the last century to Greta Thunberg inspirational speech
on the U.N. Climate Action Summit, this movement has been on everybody’s mind.
This September there was a worldwide climate strike, 7.6 million people from all over
the world uniting to protest and fight for their future. I think it’s time we bring
awareness of this important problem to Cupertino. According to Damian Carrington
an environmental editor, “Planting billions of trees across the world is one of the
biggest and cheapest ways of taking CO2 out of the atmosphere to tackle the climate
crisis”. Every tree and plant planted bring us closer to the goal. By having more
greens, the carbon and co2 levels decrease. As Renee Cho a staff blogger for Earth
Institute writes, “As plants and trees grow, they take carbon dioxide from the
atmosphere and turn it into sugars through photosynthesis. In this way, U.S. forests
absorb 13 percent of the nation’s carbon emissions.” By planting a dry garden in
Cupertino Community Hall, it helps this movement. Since it is a dry garden, it wouldn’t
take up to much water so it is less time consuming and economically straining but still
gets the job done.
Additionally to helping the environment, the plants affects the physical appearance of
the place. The variety of succulents and cactus would make the Cupertino
Community Hall less barren and provide the people there with plenty of plants to
admire while reading. Planting the dry garden would also give the children helping an
insight to the types of succulents as well as this environmental movement. Planting
keeps these students constantly engaged and interested while do so much good for
Scientific Name Common Name
Aesculus californica California Buckeye
Acer macrophyllum Big Leaf Maple
Cedrus atlantica 'Glauca'Blue Atlas Cedar
Cedrus deodara Deodar Cedar
Platanus racemosa Western Sycamore
Quercus Native Oak trees, including the following:
Quercus agrifolia Coast Live Oak
Quercus douglasii Blue Oak
Quercus kelloggii California Black Oak
Quercus lobata Valley Oak
Quercus wislizenii Interior Live Oak
Umbellularia californica California Bay Laurel
City Name Fee Replacement needed?
Sunnyvale Any tree circumference 38" or diameter 12"311.5 No
Los Altos Any tree circumference 48"
Any tree planted with development review application
Cupertino 11 types of specimen trees of 12" in diameter 231 Yes or in-lieu fee
Any tree planted with development review application
Privacy protection trees
Mountain View Any tree circumference 48"116 Yes or in-lieu fee
Oak, cedar, redwood of 12" in circumference
Santa Clara
San Jose Any tree circumference 38" 226 (dead or unsu Yes http://www.sanjoseca.gov/DocumentCenter/View/585
Saratoga Native species with a diameter of 6" or circumference of 19"125 Yes https://www.saratoga.ca.us/DocumentCenter/View/106/Tree-Removal-Permit-Application-PDF?bidId=
Any tree of 10" in diameter or 31" in circumference