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>There are apple, pear and some prune trees located in the following parks; <br /> >Morse Ranch, Bond Lane, Trainsong, and Amazon Parkway. <br /> And their successful deployment there confirms that they could also be <br /> successfully deployed elsewhere. <br /> > Previous City experience <br /> >with the growing of fruit on park property met with limited success due to <br /> >the lack of volunteers and follow through. <br /> A critical mass of trees is required to sustain such an effort. One or two <br /> here or there are not sufficient to sustain general public interest. Moreover, <br /> I've heard no attempts to publicize or clarify how members of the public can <br /> become involved in helping to maintain these trees. <br /> >The main ingredients of a successful attempt includes a group of highly <br /> >committed volunteers, equipment for maintenance and distribution, materials <br /> >such as mulch and fertilizers, a secured area and the availability of and a <br /> >system to provide water. The suggestion from experienced individuals is to <br /> >have a program where the fruit is grown in one location and distributed in a <br /> >different location rather than allowing individuals access to pick their own <br /> >fruit. This would provide more security, less liability and a more central, <br /> >easily accessible location for fruit distribution. <br /> Deployment of dwarf or semi -dwarf trees would eliminate harvest - related risks <br /> (they can be picked from the ground with a wire fruit grabber attached to a <br /> pole for some of the larger semi - dwarfs). <br /> If by "security" we're referring to theft of fruit, I don't think I'd worry <br /> about it. If you want some apples and there are some that can be harvested <br /> and used, why not let that occur? <br /> I am ill impressed with the desire to do everything possible to make it <br /> easy for people who are down on their luck to subsist perpetually on the <br /> public dole. We should not do for people what they can do for themselves, <br /> and moreover, if you do pick your own fruit you'll damn well appreciate it <br /> more than you would if it was another government give away. <br /> >There are a number of <br /> >issues to be worked out if a project like this were to move forward. Issues <br /> >like the use of chemicals for disease and insect control, either organic or <br /> > industrial, <br /> Simple: don't use chemicals. Plant exclusively disease /insect resistant <br /> varieties. <br /> > maintenance activities, <br /> Counter cyclical tasks that can be used to fill in slow work times <br /> > liability problems, <br /> Plant dwarfs /semidwarfs that can be harvested exclusively from the ground <br /> >and resource generation and allocation. <br /> I assume this means "money." The trees can be purchased cheaply as bare <br /> root stock, and volunteers can help plant them. <br /> > In addition, staff would need to be assigned the <br /> >work of coordination, design and implementation of the program. Given all <br /> >of these factors, this approach may not prove to be a cost effective way for <br /> >the City to provide fruit for the community. <br /> Page 6 <br />