We envision a green, leafy park with top-notch athletic fields being used from morning to night by people of all ages and athletic abilities.  Athletes will be drawn to MLK for the high quality fields and parents will enjoy watching their childrens’ sports activities while sitting in the shade.  We envision older folks strolling on the new encircling path while enjoying the leafy greenery and occasional shade.

MLK Park will be a place where neighbors are drawn in order to relax and be refreshed in the beautiful, green surroundings; a place where kids love their summer camp because of the combination of athletic facilities and cool, green respite under the trees, away from the sun. In 20 years, the next generation will thank us for having the foresight to plant such gorgeous trees.

Please look at the current MLK tree plan commissioned by Sausalito Beautiful and developed with Sausalito’s Director of Parks & Recreation.  Imagine how gorgeous our park could be, and the benefits trees would bring. We hope you are as excited as we are!

Outside of the typical reasons to plant trees, many benefits arise from trees at the MLK Park site in specific.

• Trees serve as a wind break, enhancing the fairness and enjoyment of the softball, soccer, and lacrosse games at the park. The average mean daily wind speed in Sausalito varies from 7.1 to 9.4 miles per hour, which is significant to an athlete.
• All park-goers need the option to have relief from the sun, whether they are walking on the path, watching a game, or participating in a summer camp
• Traffic sounds from the nearby 101 highway and Bridgeway Boulevard can be quite loud, and trees muffle sound thereby allowing the athletes to communicate better during games.
• Excess storm water historically creates problems at this park, and trees can soak up excess rainwater.
• After regrading, the soils will be more unstable and trees will stabilize these soils especially on the new hillside.
• Athletes deserve clean air and oxygen, as do residents of the neighborhood
• The MLK site represents 50% of the public green space in Sausalito, and one of the few areas where fire concerns do not prevent a dense planting of trees.

As of February 2022, we completed the both phases of planting for a total of 97 trees and 37 shrubs. Thank you for all the volunteers who helped make the planting days a success!

Mature shade trees have been a prominent feature of MLK Park and Coloma Street for decades.  All public green spaces need trees, even if athletic fields are a primary function of that green space.  Athletes directly and significantly benefit from trees that serve as a wind break and sound barrier. People watching athletic games enjoy sitting in shade, and athletes of all ages and levels of intensity want protection from the sun.  Several summer camps are headquartered at MLK Park—these camps are much less interesting when kids are forced to be inside because there is no protection from the heat and UV rays. Neighborhood kids use the park to play pickup soccer and frisbee, then want to flop on the ground in the shade to rest.  Trees are definitely needed in this multi-purpose park.

Athletes come in all shapes, sizes, ages, and desired level of activity—but their goals are similar: increased physical health, mental health and camaraderie—all of which are enhanced by trees. For those who cannot sustain high levels of activity but want to use the encircling walking path or the new age-friendly athletic equipment, trees have proven physical and mental benefits.

The majority of the trees in Sausalito Beautiful’s Tree Plan lie outside the walking path encircling the athletic fields, thus are in no danger of interfering with athletic activities.  In fact, our first phase planting will only involve those trees outside the path.  After the athletic fields are marked, the design team along with the Parks & Recreation Director will verify in-situ the rest of the trees inside the path to ensure that no athletic activities are compromised.

Historically, mature shade trees have been a prominent feature of MLK Park.  The site held Sausalito’s grade school and athletic fields, and had trees planted all around the edges and at strategic spots.  Over the years, the site has been used in different ways and now holds two schools, athletic fields, several businesses, basketball courts, pickleball courts, and tennis courts. Residents and park users have seen some trees die over the years, yet look to the renovation as an opportunity to plant the right trees in the right places in order to beautify and enhance their neighborhood.

No one would confuse MLK Park with Yosemite Park, but trees are still needed for functional, environmental, health, and aesthetic reasons.

When we were raising money to plant the trees, people had an opportunity to memorialize a loved one, give the gift of a tree, celebrate a milestone, or honor someone with a tree simply because they cherished nature. For a donation of $500 or more, one could dedicate a tree with the dedication text being identified on on a single plaque at MLK Park.

A plaque, which commemorates the donors has been inset in stone and placed just west of the athletic fields . The donor-specific trees are identified on the Sausalito Beautiful website, and will be filed with the City of Sausalito.

Several cork oak trees were planned along the hillside north and upslope from the fields. Oaks are gorgeous trees, are native to this area, and fit in well with the Sausalito tree-scape.  Unfortunately, our native oaks would not do well on the flat grassy areas at MLK because these will be irrigated regularly for the athletic fields. Oaks hate receiving summertime water—fungal diseases such as oak root fungus (Armillaria mellea) and crown rot (Phytophthora spp) are often caused by high soil moisture and can kill the tree.

While planting fruit trees may sound like a  noble pursuit, they are not the best choice for urban public landscapes. Fruit and nut trees tend to be very messy, with dropped flowers and fruit, which can become a hazard for athletes. Rotting fruit can attract insect pests, and inspire children to use them as projectiles. In addition, fruit trees often need more careful pruning, spraying and fertilizing.

Unfortunately, conifers such as pines, cypress, cedars and firs are thought to be more fire-prone than most deciduous trees and we wanted the new trees to follow the most up-to-date firesafe standards. Several broadleaf evergreen species (Olive, Melaleuca, Chinese Elm, Cork Oak)  provide year-round green canopy at MLK, but they are more fire resistant than conifers, whose high resin content ignites quickly and burns intensely. Broadleaf evergreens have tough leathery leaves that will scorch before catching fire. Considered even more fire safe are deciduous trees whose thin, moist leaves  simply shrivel when exposed to extreme heat instead of spreading fire.

For more information on trees in a fire-safe landscape, read this article in Pacific Horticulture. Here is the List of fire-safe and fire-prone trees as specified by Fire-Safe Marin.

It’s often very disappointing to see mature trees being taken down!  In order to fix the drainage and enlarge the playing fields at MLK, however, some healthy trees needed to be removed.  For example, fixing the drainage required regrading the entire field but the new soil level would not be appropriate for many existing trees.

In addition, over the years, several trees were not in very good health, perhaps they weren’t the right type of tree in the right place.  Other trees had died years ago and just their stumps remained.

All told, 44 trees and stumps were removed at MLK for the renovation—so we needed to replant those trees and add even more where it made sense.

Fires are a perennial hazard in California, and but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t plant trees!  Much of Sausalito is located in areas called the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), in which fires are especially difficult to fight thus the fire department has specific recommendations for planting in these areas.  MLK Park is one of the largest non-WUI in Sausalito, thus offers the greatest opportunity to plant trees in our city.

While the Marin Fire Marshall is asking residents in WUI areas to keep tree branches at least 10’ apart on flat land (and 30’ apart on a moderate slope), this does not apply to MLK Park because it is not in a WUI. In fact, since residents in WUI areas are being advised to remove trees that are too close, we have an obligation to plant lots of trees in the non-WUI areas where it makes sense.

All the species of trees planned for MLK Park have been approved by the Southern Marin Fire Department, even as being appropriate for WUI areas—thus the MLK trees meet a stricter standard than required.