Pastor Rick was inspired by this spoken word delivered by Christian Paige. He used it as an illustration in his message on Sunday, February 16 titled Incarnate in Sacramento the City of Trees.

Sacramento was initially called the “City of Plains” because it was mostly void of trees — but that quickly changed: A miner stuck 12 cottonwood trees in the ground near his tent. “That was the first planting in Sacramento.”

After, it was a community effort. Eucalyptus trees were among the first imported, helping to dry out swampy areas. Later, the city’s elite, including Margaret Crocker and C.K. McClatchy, influenced the planting of trees, including in Capitol Park.

By the 1930s, Sacramentans were planting one tree for every two residents, which sparked talk that the city had a more robust canopy than Paris. “We don’t have more trees than Paris,” experts said. “We have more trees per capita.”

Sacramento’s top city arborist, Kevin Hocker, says, “We have one of the top urban forests — in terms of numbers of trees, shade coverage, diversity, in terms of distribution of trees. “In every measure that you can measure, we’re up in the top.”

But as Hocker notes, the city can still do better. Land Park, a heavily canopied neighborhood, is also very affluent, and that’s mostly how it works in Sacramento: The wealthier the neighborhood, the more trees. Other ZIP codes in the city have tree coverage below 10 percent.

Apart from aesthetics, one reason experts say it’s important for cities to have urban forests as large as Sacramento’s is because people who live in tree-rich areas are generally healthier and happier overall, according to studies.