The city of Goleta celebrated Arbor Week with the planting of seven trees at Rancho La Patera and Stow House near Lake Los Carneros.

Six olive trees were installed along the historic driveway leading up to the Stow House, and a native coast live oak was planted to replace a large oak that died several years ago.

Goleta Mayor Paula Perotte, Lisa Potter, Goleta Valley Historical Society director of operations and the city’s Parks and Open Space Division did the plantings.

The Goleta City Council opened Arbor Week at its March 5 meeting with a proclamation presented to Ken Knight, Public Tree Advisory commissioner, and Richard Jenkins, Parks and Recreation Commission chair.

“Arbor Week is a special time of year when we reflect on all the wonderful things trees do for our community,” said George Thomson, Goleta Parks and Open Space manager.

“We took this opportunity to look at the unique collection of trees at the Stow House and ensure we’re replacing historic trees that were recently lost,” he said. “The new olive trees and the native oak are important cultural and environmental parts of this landscape and we’re so pleased we can help improve this area for future generations.”

The Rancho La Patera and Stow House grounds include a collection of exotic and native trees that are open to the public during daytime hours. The gardens have been nominated to the National Register of Historic Places for Cultural Landscapes.

Some highlights of the tree collection include the largest brush cherry (Syzygium australe) in California and the largest Spanish fir (Abies pinsapo) in the nation. To learn more, visit https://goletahistory.org/visit/.

There are more than 14,000 publicly owned trees along our streets and parks managed by the city’s Public Works team.