Anne Fenkner is a modern-day Johnny Appleseed, but she doesn't just spread apple tree seedlings.
This week she coordinated the planting of 100 olive, fruit, incense cedar, elm, maple and oak trees at Lindhurst High School in Yuba County. About 160 students grabbed shovels and hard hats, dug holes and planted the trees, part of a Sacramento Tree Foundation campaign to lower the average temperature of the Sacramento air basin.
"These trees, along with 65 planted in November, have transformed the campus," said Fenkner, regional coordinator for the foundation's Greenprint Initiative, which aims to plant 5 million trees in the area.
She said adding leaves to the tree canopy in the Sacramento Valley could eventually lower the area's average peak summer temperature by 3 degrees.
The regional effort, funded primarily through a $750,000 grant from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, has put thousands of trees in the ground in the six-county area to boost the economy and improve the environment and public health.
"They're small trees now, and we recognize it will be about seven years until we see them mature, but this is an investment in our future," said Lindhurst High Principal Bob Eckhardt.
He said students in the school's agriculture, ornamental horticulture and biology classes volunteered to plant the trees.
"It's uplifting to see the amount of work the kids and volunteers put into the site," he said.
Colleen Cadwallader, development director for the tree foundation, said the foundation set the 5 million-tree goal in 2001, and the mission got a lift when it was awarded federal stimulus funds in 2009. That grant created jobs by adding staff, and went toward buying trees and equipment.
Cadwallader said the money has helped the foundation plant 15,000 trees in 300 public places, including schools.
"We get the kids to do the work, they learn how to plant trees, and they hopefully take the information about the benefits of planting trees back to their parents," Cadwallader said.
The foundation has approached elected officials in 22 cities and six counties, asking them to sign the Greenprint Initiative, and almost all of them have pledged to plant trees.
"Everyone loves trees, people think they're beautiful, but they are more than that," Cadwallader said. "They provide direct economic, environmental and public health benefits to our community."
With the federal grant set to run out by March 31, the foundation is looking for money to continue its planting projects, including partnering with Sacramento Municipal Utilities District and other corporate sponsors.
Mayor Kevin Johnson this week announced a plan for community volunteers and businesses to plant 30,000 trees in 30 days beginning March 7, with the launch coinciding with Arbor Day and the 30th anniversary of the Sacramento Tree Foundation.
Since 1982, the foundation has helped plant 1.5 million trees in the region, Cadwallader said.
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