One of the principles promoted by the Community Environmental Council’s (CEC) Ecological Framework for Revitalizing Santa Barbara’s City Core is creating a rich and abundant mix of nature — plants, trees, birds, and insects. The preference is for native plants because these require less water and less maintenance, and because they are hardier. The CEC document states, “This will lessen the effect of the urban heat island, provide visual attraction and enjoyment, and have beneficial effects on the physical and psychological health of citizens.” In addition to the beauty, pleasure, and improved air quality that nature provides us, strengthening our link with nature downtown offers one of the best strategies to offset the growing challenges of the unfolding climate crisis.
Unfortunately, our city is moving in the opposite direction. To conserve water and reduce maintenance budgets, it is creating plazas and public gathering places with large areas of hard paving. Take the soon-to-be-opened Towbes Library Plaza. The extent of unshaded concrete will exacerbate the heat island effect and deter citizens from gathering there in the ever-increasing and intensifying hot days we will be facing. The planning for a new De la Guerra Plaza seems to be heading in the same direction.
The principle in the CEC document is based on the mini-forest movement. Thousands of these forests have been created in cities around the world, some as small as five or six parking spaces. The approach, developed by the Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki, follows nature’s forest succession steps but quick starts the process by densely planting selected native canopy trees and understory shrubs. Native groundcovers or flowing perennials are allowed, but no lawns.