The City of Saratoga has partnered with San Jose-based nonprofit Our City Forest to subsidize the cost of tree planting in residential areas.

Private property owners in Saratoga will soon be able to get a five-gallon tree for free or 50 percent off up to two trees, the result of a new two-year contract the City Council approved with Our City Forest at its Aug. 21 meeting.

The contract calls for a $50,000 payment to the nonprofit organization that provides urban forestry programs and services in Silicon Valley. Our City Forest will provide the trees and planting service.

“If successful, this program will be continued until 2030,” says the staff report on this point.

Saratoga’s partnership with Our City Forest comes after the city set a goal in 2016 to plant 2,020 trees by 2020 after severe drought caused some tree canopy loss. That effort, which the city implemented through 2019, included a program that provided Saratoga residents with up to $105 in grants to plant up to two trees in their yards.

The latest initiative is aligned with Saratoga’s 2030 Climate Action Plan (CAP), a roadmap that outlines the city’s efforts to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions.

“Saratoga’s CAP will help focus on activities that will deliver the greatest emissions reductions in the most cost-effective manner,” the city’s website states.

Saratoga has also been named a “Tree City USA” for 17 consecutive years by the Arbor Day Foundation, an award given to cities that have a tree board or authority and a municipal tree preservation ordinance, spend at least $2 per capita on urban forestry, and celebrate Arbor Day.