Canopy
Overview
Windsor Square Canopy is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of the original Windsor Square parkway tree planting design. The Windsor Square parkways are the public right of way areas between the sidewalks and the streets.
In the 1970s the Windsor Square Tree Committee organized a massive parkway planting of tulip trees along Third Street and South Larchmont. In the years since then no significant parkway tree plantings occurred until 1996 when the Windsor Square Tree Committee was reactivated to address the issues of neglect, dead or dying trees, and the injurious removal of parkway trees by homeowners, who, heedless or unaware of proper street tree designations, would often replace original trees with inappropriate species.
The Windsor Square Tree Committee was renamed Windsor Square Canopy, and in the years since 1996, all parkways fronting the eleven hundred residences of our neighborhood were comprehensively inventoried.
Following this inventory, the Master Plan of Parkway Trees for Windsor Square was created and hundreds of trees were planted in Canopy’s ongoing effort to restore the parkway forest of Windsor Square. Canopy is dedicated to the protection, care, and planting of parkway trees within Windsor Square.
Contact Canopy if you want by emailing canopy@windsorsquare.org.
The Parkway Tree Project
The Parkway Tree Planting Project is a joint venture between the Windsor Square Association and the Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services (BSS). Canopy has worked efficiently and successfully with the Los Angeles City Bureau of Street Services Tree Division toward the common good of reforesting the parkways of Windsor Square. Saplings and installation have been provided in the past by The Windsor Square Association, the Hollywood Beautification Team (HBT), and currently by The Windsor Square Association.
The Benefits of Parkway Trees
Trees clean and cool the air.
- Remove carbon dioxide and produce oxygen.
- Provide shade, moisture, and windbreaks.
- Decrease energy used to cool and heat homes.
- Trap dust and pollen.
- Reduce storm run-off and prevent soil erosion.
- Reduce urban noise.
- Provide homes for birds and other wildlife.
- Provide color, form, and texture to naturally soften our cityscape.
- Beautify, enhance our well being, and reduce stress.
- Protect us from harmful sun rays.
- Provide opportunities to nurture nature in urban areas through care and planting.
- Projects unite neighbors, and foster community pride.
- Provide cool places for children to play.
- Planted strategically reduce energy consumption by 15% to 35%.
- Increase property values as much as 20%
Windsor Square Master Plan of Parkway Trees
The Master Plan of Parkway Trees for Windsor Square is an official city document approved, recorded and certified by the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services Tree Division. The Master Plan indicates the legally approved species that can be planted on a given block, and was founded on a detailed inventory of all existing parkway trees in Windsor Square undertaken in 1999 by Windsor Square Canopy and its dedicated volunteers. The Master Plan of Parkway Trees for Windsor Square was endorsed by the Board of Directors of the Windsor Square Association and the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Street Services Urban Forestry Division in 2000. The Master Tree Plan was updated in 2018 to reflect changes in climate, disease and parkway width. It was endorsed by the WSA Board in January 2018.
The Larchmont Median
Two medians between Third Street and First Street on Larchmont Boulevard are landscaped with twenty-eight jacaranda trees in a project that was initiated by neighbors in 1998 and completed in 2002. The Windsor Square Association Canopy and the City of Los Angeles collaborated on the project. Funding was provided by generous donations from neighbors, local organizations and a grant from the Metropolitan Transportation Authority. Much appreciated maintenance donations can be made by sending an email inquiry to canopy@windsorsquare.org.