Bringing Canopy Equity to Unincorporated Neighborhoods
Canopy equity maps often stop at city boundaries. Here is how we are extending the conversation into unincorporated neighborhoods that have been left out of urban forestry investment.
Kyle D. Peczkowski
Board Certified Master Arborist & Urban Forester
If you look at a canopy cover map of Santa Clara County, the pattern is familiar. Wealthy cities have lush streets. Low-income neighborhoods have sparse cover. And the unincorporated areas are often just grayed out because no one measured them.
That gray space matters. Unincorporated neighborhoods can be just as hot, just as paved, and just as tree-poor as the urban areas next door. But they rarely have the tax base, the municipal structure, or the grant eligibility of a city.
Our Office of Sustainability is treating canopy equity as a countywide issue, not a city-by-city issue. That means mapping unincorporated canopy with the same resolution, identifying heat-vulnerable census tracts, and designing planting programs that do not require a city partner to function.
The first pilot is focused on four unincorporated communities with combined canopy cover below 10%. We are working with county service areas, schools, faith organizations, and residents to plant street trees, shade schoolyards, and protect existing mature canopy.
Equity in urban forestry means reaching the places that have been easiest to overlook. The unincorporated county is one of those places, and it is where some of our most important work is happening.