Category Archives: Pat Lynch
Insist on Trees (First published in 2015)
Our mother insisted on trees. She made a little village under the Christmas tree every year, and the village had to be crowded with tiny trees. She was from the Midwest and said, “Believe me, you don’t want to live without trees.” This gave me the notion that the Midwest was a vast and barren Arabia-like wasteland where people moved listlessly, blinded by a burning glob of unfiltered sun. My little brother Michael liked to watch the Christmas village go up, and one year he was allowed to help put in the trees. Every little house had at least two trees, and taller trees were placed behind them, to suggest the nearness of a great forest. My mother said Michael was the best tree placer she had ever seen, and had made the village come alive. The trees, she said, turned plain little houses into snug beautiful homes.
When we went on vacations we would clamber into the station wagon and head to the Calaveras Big Trees or to our aunt and uncle’s cabin in the mountains. When we got there we ran around screaming, hiding, climbing, and having multiple false sightings of bears. We brought our high-pitched childish intoxication to the quiet, tall forest, but in time its grandeur subdued us, and we walked the little trails, waded in the thrilling chill of the river, breathed in the air of pine and fir. When we went home our parents eased our re-entry crisis by letting us camp in the back yard. We looked at the moon through the leaves of the apricot tree and told scary stories. By midnight we were back in the house, having terrified ourselves into seeing ghouls with glittering eyes crouching in the Toniola’s vegetable garden next door.
We knew to value trees. They shaded us, they brought natural beauty to the humblest street, they resided with stately permanence over our hectic comings and goings. We were never to put a nail in one, strip its bark, or let it go thirsty. I didn’t know then that trees filtered the very air for us, but I know it now.
It’s a commonplace but valid observation that you often don’t realize how much you love something until you lose it. We moved away from old, historic East Sac and into the burbs when I was twelve. Our new development had roomy houses and nice neighbors, but no trees. Lawns were being put in and there were numerous sticks with a frail leaf or two attached. Baby trees, my mother said. I asked how long it would take them to grow. Thirty years? I did a bleak calculation. I would be forty-two when the trees turned the stretch of bare houses into an East Sacramento-like street of shaded homes. “I’ll be nearly dead,” I said mournfully. This provoked considerable merriment from my parents who, I thought, were getting too much enjoyment from my sufferings.
The first treeless summer was hard. There was nowhere to hide from the sun. By now I had entered full and histrionic adolescence and become hypersensitive to everything, including the air itself which I claimed stunk like charred fish. I was somewhat right on this one: dust, continued excavation, exhaust, and the treeless void combined to make our suburban air putrid with toxins. It was the start of a life-long battle with asthma.
I moved back to East Sac in my forties, (not so decrepit as I imagined at thirteen) back to the world of large, sheltering, old growth trees. There’s a reason our area is so desirable, and those trees enveloping well-made craftsman and modern architecture houses are it. Yes, super-sized Mac-mansions, overbuilt to a grotesque degree, threaten us, but we have ways to resist. I think we should use them. I think if our shaded streets are preserved, our people will always want to come home. For this reason many East Sacramentans unstintingly support the coalition of citizens who fight to preserve the tree canopy.
Pat Lynch
East Sacramento Preservation—Year End Photo Gallery and Annual Report
East Sacramento Preservation wishes all our members and friends a Happy New Year. After more than two years working to help the neighborhood oppose McKinley Village, 2015 was a time to return to our roots. Below is a brief summary of what we’ve been up to this year and some plans for next year.
Our popular Speaker Series hosted three outstanding presenters with unique talents and deep historical understanding of Sacramento.
Paula Peper–Historian and author of several books about our beautiful park neighborhoods and trees
Bill Burg–State Historian, author and Sacramento trolley history expert
Wes Green–design genius and owner of Twigs Floral Design
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- Wes Green
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- William Berg
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- Paula Peper
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- Peper’s Books
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- Packed House
When ESP’s Judy McClaver started to volunteer at McKinley Pond three years ago she never imagined that she would become an award winning neighborhood icon. Her efforts have forced the city to address the issues at the pond. ESP supports her and the cadre of pond volunteers’ incredible dedication and hard work. She serves on the city pond committee and worked daily to clean and preserve the pond. (City Parks denied her use of the boat, so her garbage patrol and island work are curtailed.) However, park maintenance has stepped up and is now keeping trash cans empty on regular basis and the City reportedly has hired a pond maintenance company starting Jan 2016. We’ve set aside a portion of funds to donate to the rehab effort, once the city is able to create a workable plan. (At the end of this article is Judy’s “pondlife” list. Amazing what we have in the city!)
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- Volunteers Claudia, Jeremy, Annette and Alice
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- Judy McClaver
This year’s National Night Out was a packed bonanza. SWAT, canine, car patrol, bike patrol, fire, politicals—they all came, as did the neighborhood. It was a party.
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- Our Mercy Hospital Officer
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- Future Officers
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- Great PR
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- National Night Out
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- Life Long Friends
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- No Flack Please
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- Yum!
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- East Sac Canine Patrol
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- Ready For The Call
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- In Waves More Than 50 People
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- National Night Out
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- ESP Table
Essays, provocative and informative, tackled East Sac issues with humor and insight. Our most popular essays were Airbnb, Pond Update, Exact Spot, Insist on Trees, No Permit, Illegal Building Draws East Sac Neighbors’ Ire.
ESP has joined multiple neighborhood associations in the effort to preserve Sacramento’s tree canopy. We are cosigners on numerous comments and letters to the city and support the healthy preservation of our canopy. We also promoted the retention of snag habitats, whenever it is safe to do so.
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- Neighborhood pine
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- East Lawn Cemetery
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- Sycamore bark
When the city sends us information, we share it. From parking, palm pruning, to events and meetings, we send it your way. When neighbors ask for help with city issues, we step up.
ESP supported the Ethics and Transparency movement led by the League of Women Voters and Eye on Sacramento. We stand firm with Eye on Sacramento and know there is much more to be done. However, we offer kudos to both groups for their work.
ESP featured Nextdoor in an article on the web site. The fun of this was that we drove to San Francisco and visited the start up. What a great group of innovators.
For more than seven years East Sacramento Preservation has been the pour and clean up team at Pops in the Park at East Portal. In 2016 we’re helping out at East Portal and Bertha Henschel Parks. If you’d like to pour with the team, send us an email!
Supporting SCUSD and school events is a pleasure. We post and spread the word about fundraisers, events and surveys.
Locals send us information about community events, farmers’ market, volunteer days, health and safety, river danger issues and individual efforts. We post all that come our way.
Traffic is an on-going concern in East Sacramento and our flag program on 33th and H is in its third year. Although flag theft makes the effort a little tricky, we know this is a great safety benefit to the community. ESP also distributes the Drive Like Your Kids Live Here Signs.
33rd and H Streets
East Sacramento Preservation, Inc. is proud to support the designation of the Maple Avenue/38th Street Historical District that has been presented to the City of Sacramento’s Preservation Director. We should hear soon how the city will act on the application. These two blocks of 38th Street between J Street and Folsom Boulevard are a showcase of early 20th Century residential structures and the history of their occupants is long and important to the development of Sacramento. Many of the original occupants were captains of industry that have left a legacy of contributions to the city.
We are hopeful that this first historical district in East Sacramento will lead to other deserving portions and individual structures in the neighborhood being similarly designated. This is essential so that these resources are not lost to the speculative fever that is currently resulting in the wanton destruction of the residential fabric and character that helps make this community special.
News for 2016
An ESP High School Scholarship is under discussion. Our student board member, Emiliano Gómez, will be leading the study.
In the coming year we will work to improve the web site set up and delivery system. We love all feedback, positive and negative, and have read all your comments.
Our popular speaker series will continue with new and exciting speakers.
Please consider year-end donations to ESP. We’re an East Sacramento charity that works in your neighborhood. We spend money in no other place. All donations or membership will go to our established programs and is 100% tax deductible. All ESP community workers, writers, project organizers, forum and speaker series participants are non-paid volunteers.
Judy’s Pondlife List
Birds
Black-crowned night herons
Wood ducks
Mallards/mixes
Canada geese
Greater White fronted geese
Cackling geese
Coots
Cormorants
Egrets
Hawks
Barn owls
Swallows
Bush tits
Robins and other common Sacramento birds
Miscellaneous migrating birds
All the domestic ducks and geese were relocated by Judy to help preserve the pond and protect wildlife’s health.
Reptiles
Turtles—99% are red-eared sliders
Fish
Koi
Goldfish
Carp
Bluegills
Catfish
Mammals
Bats
Raccoons
Opossum
And, of course, the ubiquitous, squirrel (most are Fox Squirrels with a few Grays)
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