Analysis shows fewer than 3% of “protected” trees were actually preserved under the city’s controversial 2023 ordinance.

Almost all urged the council to expand the city’s tree protection laws to be more ... prior to new home construction,” Julianne Frizzell, a landscape architect who lives in Palo Alto.

It turns out that all the city usually means when it lists a tree as “protected” is that during the construction process it had to be fenced off and 8½-by-11-inch “protection” signs ...