It's hard to imagine the southbound lanes of the 2 Freeway are about 15' away from the urban hikers of The Big Parade 2009 on Corralitas Walk.
Don't expect to see new trees planted here. CalTrans is under water restrictions imposed by Governor Brown. If we're lucky, we might get some ground cover to help prevent erosion. I've spoken to two CalTrans representatives who have told me, on multiple occasions - even before the Silver Lake Fire, trees planted on freeway parkways do not clean the air, control dust, mitigate sound, provide psychological benefits or provide a safety barrier. I guess trees lose their ability to do those things when they're planted on freeways.
Yes trees planted today won't mitigate much right now. However, that is no reason to ignore the long term effects of tree planting.
Earlier this year Doug Brown, Senior Landscape Architect for CalTrans was quoted in a Scientific American story, "When managed properly, trees are proven cost-effective mitigation measures that sequester carbon.” (Sequestering carbon is how trees remove pollutants from the air and store it underground.)
CalTrans is concerned about the safety of drivers, not the safety of those who have chosen to live next to a freeway because it was affordable. Until the Silver Lake Fire, and CalTrans' subsequent removal of trees their landscape experts deemed necessary, trees made living across the narrow street from the freeway tolerable.
