The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

The Student News Site of Sacramento City College

The Express

Decades of Shade: A look at City College’s oldest trees

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With many community college students juggling extracurricular responsibilities ranging from careers to childcare, it can be a challenge for some to stop and notice the surroundings often taken for granted.

How many students, for example, have the time and mental bandwidth to appreciate something as simple as the trees dotting the City College campus? In fact, many might not be aware of the history of the canopy that offers shade on brutally hot days, a history that reaches as far back as the campus itself.

As City College approaches its 100th anniversary, some of its trees have survived nearly as long — despite the tide of development and expansion — thanks to the work of campus groundskeepers and faculty.

English major Evangeline Rey, 25, says she notices the trees, even as she scrambles to make a history exam on the American Revolution. She says she also notices areas with a scarcity of trees.

“There are a lot by the café and along Freeport, but then there’s not that many at the entrance by the gymnasium,” said Rey. “On really hot, sunny days, it would be nice to see more trees for shade.”

Rey says she doesn’t get attached to trees anymore after seeing her favorites at Cosumnes River College ripped out in favor of development.

“There were some really beautiful trees there that I fell in love with,” she said. “But then one day I came to school and saw their dead bodies piled up on the ground where they used to stand. It broke my heart.”

City College’s Redwood Grove, located on the west side of Rodda Hall North, is home to the oldest and largest trees on campus.
City College’s Redwood Grove, located on the west side of Rodda Hall North, is home to the oldest and largest trees on campus.

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While that does happen as campuses expand and renovate, some trees have managed to outlive their neighboring buildings, according to historical records. Peter Bowman, grounds supervisor of the Los Rios Community College District, explored the campus recently to determine which trees have stood the test of time — and the meddling of humans.

“I have no idea [how] to gauge the age of these trees,” Bowman says.

But he has some informed suspicions. Bowman estimates that the stately grove of coastal redwoods — Sequoia sempervirens — along Freeport Boulevard at the western entrance are among the oldest on the campus.

Coastal redwoods are among the longest-living trees on the planet, and some in Northern California reached maturity thousands of years ago, according to experts.

As to when these trees were planted, City College Archivist Caroline Harker discovered a notice of the 1989 commemoration of the City College Redwood Grove. This notice states that the grove was planted in January 1927 — about one year after the current campus opened — by former botany instructor Herbert Faulkner Copeland, who retired in 1966.

“It looks like that grove was planted around the same time as some [across the road] at Land Park,” Harker says.

The campus grove of coastal redwoods has weathered many dry spells, but the current drought rivals the worst in recorded history. This season’s expected rain may come just in time for City College’s oldest living residents.

Bowman says the redwood grove is struggling due to mandated water rationing. But, he says, “It’s hanging in there.”

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