| AUTHOR
Tree Hugger BY BRIAN SCHWARTZ
B
estselling award-winning author Matt Ritter, PhD is a distinguished biology professor at Cal Poly. With five titles to his name, he has recently released the newly revised edition of “A Californian’s Guide to the Trees Among Us.” It is both a natural history and widely considered to be “the Bible” of reference guides (with over 30,000 copies sold) to urban planners and arborists throughout California. Ritter likes to think of his work as ‘the gateway drug’ to caring for trees.
For eight years, Ritter led the Tree Committee of San Luis Obispo. Today, more than 20,000 trees exist in SLO and they continue to be a key ingredient to our quality of life. And, as the drought worsens, knowledge matters. Which trees to plant when, where they will grow, consideration for insects and disease, and ultimately avoiding contact with power lines can literally be a matter of life or death.
connected when he wrote “Something Wonderful,” the award-winning children’s book published in 2021 illustrated by Nayl Gonzalez, a former Cal Poly student. Ritter spends his summers working on grants and running the #1 tree selection website in the world (with over two million page views per year). Sponsored by the US Forest Service and Cal Fire, SelecTree (selectree.calpoly.edu) draws from a database of over 3,000 species to guide the visitor on what to plant where based on parameters set by the user. There are real-world implications more visible in other areas of the country. Poorer communities tend to have fewer trees and more crime. It turns out that trees may do far more than add curb appeal, they bring beauty into the world, and, as the theory goes, with more beauty comes more love and less hate.
If you’ve ever wondered why you are drawn to certain parts of a city, take notice of the density of the trees. It’s not a coincidence. More desirable cities have more trees. City planners know this as do savvy real estate investors.
Trees also play a key role in reducing carbon, so for the sake of our warming planet and quality of life, trees are the local answer to a global problem. It makes financial sense, too, plant more trees in an impoverished part of town and watch property values go up and crime go down.
Ritter’s purpose is to bring greater awareness and appreciation to the abundance found in our natural world. It was also his goal to plant a seed—pardon the pun—in the minds of children that everything’s
Don’t just hug a tree, plant one! But do a little research up front and you’ll be rewarded for years to come (and you’ll make the world a better place too). SLO LIFE
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SLO LIFE MAGAZINE
| AUG/SEP 2022