Throughout an over 20-year career in forestry, Peter Provenzale played a pivotal role in maintaining and fostering thriving urban trees. During his eight years working as an Urban Forest Supervisor in Santa Monica, he tended to trees on every single street in the City.
"For anyone who lives in Santa Monica, all those trees really look the way they do because of Peter and his hard work and passion," said Public Landscape Manager Matthew Wells.
Provenzale passed away early this year, a loss that has been felt deeply by the community.
"Everyone always said that he was incredibly positive and such a nice person to work with," said Wells, who was his supervisor during his time in Santa Monica. "He just had a really good energy, so that came out really strongly."
Born in Brooklyn, Provenzale grew up on the East coast between New York and New Jersey. He graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Forestry and Plant and Soil Science from the University of Massachusetts Amherst in 2001 and soon after got a job as an arborist and tree climber/pruner at the New York Botanical Gardens.
From there, he transitioned to a role as a forester for the NYC Department of Parks and Recreation and then became a Tree Coordinator for the Central Park Conservancy. It was there that he met Wells, who was also working in New York at the time.
"Peter was the primary person just literally inspecting trees, climbing trees, making sure that they were safe," Wells said. "That’s really the primary skill set of urban forestry, is having beautiful trees, but trees that don’t pose risks to people or property…and I would say he was one of the very best."
When Wells moved across the country to join the Public Works department in Santa Monica, Provenzale was the first person that came to mind when there was an opening for an Urban Forest Supervisor in the City.
"I was very fortunate, not just for me, but for the City of Santa Monica, to be able to recruit him over here," Wells said.
In addition to his degree and work experience Provenzale also earned one of the top qualifications in the field, becoming a Board Certified Master Arborist.
"With all that experience, all those education qualifications, we were very lucky to bring him in," Wells said.
During his time in Santa Monica, Provenzale oversaw the City’s tree pruning program, constantly negotiating homeowners’ desires for the trees surrounding their property with the wellbeing of the urban forest.
"Peter did a great job of helping them but without damaging the tree," Wells said. "It’s that fine balance between having as big and healthy street trees as we could, but also being respectful of people’s property and what they were trying to do on their property as well."
Provenzale responded when nine ficus trees were illegally and harmfully pruned on Georgina Avenue last fall, and worked to educate community members on the harms of doing unauthorized and improper work on trees.
Provenzale was also the go-to person in the case of any tree-related emergencies. Something Wells said he loved and excelled at, no matter the conditions or time of day.
"For whatever reason, trees always fall down in the middle of the night, never during business hours, it’s always on a Saturday, or on a Sunday or early in the morning, but Peter would be out there at all all hours in the morning, working with our police department and fire department," Wells said. "When there were storms and everyone else was inside, Peter was out there."
His work ethic and passion earned him recognition from other City departments as well.
"We have a lot of trees in this beautiful city, but they can sometimes be problematic for buses because they can stick out at the bus stops, they can damage our buses," said Liseth Guizar, Transit Safety and Training Manager for Big Blue Bus. "He’s the person that we would contact to trim our trees to do all this work for the Big Blue Bus, anything tree-related, Pete was the guy."
Guizar initially met Provenzale, who was a loyal NY Giants fan, outside of work and said that they bonded over a shared love of football. She said beyond being an exceptional colleague he was also a great friend.
"I’ve never met anyone who had an unkind word to say about him," she said. "He was just always there for his friends, always there for work."
She said they were in a fantasy football league together every year.
"His fantasy football name was Tree Pete, and he lost every year he was terrible because he always picked Giants players," she recalled with a laugh.
Wells said that Provenzale frequently spent time with friends, biking on the beach, hiking in Malibu, going to concerts and that he also had his own company, Pete Pro Tree, through which he offered professional arborist consultations.
Wells and Guizar said that his passion and love for trees shone through constantly and will continue to live on through the impacts of his life and work.
"You know when you arrive in Santa Monica because you go from, unfortunately, LA and surrounding places that don’t have as many street trees, so when you drive into Santa Monica and see these big, beautiful trees everywhere, and you know they’re well looked after, and they look healthy, and then they’re not overpruned, that, in my mind, is Peter’s legacy," Wells said. "And I hope people will always remember him for that and we will be able to, as a City, to carry on in those footsteps and just keep doing what he was doing, which was enhancing the urban forest resource and protecting it."
"He made our city just so beautiful," Guizar added. "If you walk around the city he’s pretty much worked on or touched all the trees that are here… he was very loved and he did so much for us."
She and Wells said he truly put his heart and soul into caring for trees, even those that took significant time and effort, including one in Palisades Park for which he had to install supports to keep it standing upright.
That tree will now serve as the site for a public event scheduled for Friday April 28th, Arbor Day, to celebrate Provenzale’s life.
"He liked working with the troubled trees," Guizar said. "That was one of his troubled trees, and I think he would love the fact that the City is dedicating this to him, it’s so perfect for Pete."
The event begins at 11:00a.m. at Palisades Park, south of Idaho Avenue. Anyone is welcome to attend.
