the S Western Ave corridor, Chesterfield Square, Los Angeles, CA 90047
Plant a new street tree.
A planter digs a row of holes with a shovel at the S Western Ave corridor, sets each tree's root flare at grade, then mulches and waters them into formed basins. Read all of it
Not funded yet. Settles as earned credit, $380 proposed.
Proof it takes, the deadline, the level
- ProofGPS waypoint + before/after photos of root flare at grade + mulch/watering-basin confirm + species/staking record
- Open until2027-11-10
- Levelintermediate
All of it: the words, the place, the proof
Plant a right-sized street tree in a vacant tree well at the S Western Ave corridor, Chesterfield Square, Los Angeles, CA 90047. The survey is expected to find a vacant well along this corridor with no canopy at all, leaving pedestrians without shade on the hottest blocks, and the right species closes that gap. The parcel has no windbreak left, so wind erodes the soil and livestock and wildlife lack shade. For the payer: - Price: $380 per job, counted in trees planted. - Likely payer: City Plants and StreetsLA Urban Forestry, for street tree work. - No license is needed while the whole job, labor and materials together, stays under $1,000 (Business and Professions Code section 7048); at $1,000 or more, a CSLB C-27 Landscaping license for planting, and D-49 Tree Service for any pruning or removal.
Offer to pay $380. The receipt lands onchain once the proof is approved.
Safety, read before you claim
Start after the crew's safety orientation. The employer provides drinking water, shade and cool-down rests, and N95 masks when wildfire smoke puts the AQI at 151 or more. No other special training needed. STOP and reschedule, do not dig, if a buried utility is unmarked or suspected or no 811 locate is honored; reject dry, circling-rooted or wounded stock rather than plant it; wear safety-toe boots and leather gloves.
The full safety list for this job:
- Do not dig or drive a stake without an honored 811 locate, hand-dig within 2 feet of any mark, and if a buried utility is unmarked or suspected, stop and reschedule; reject dry, circling-rooted, wounded or root-bound stock rather than plant it. Never plant in the public right-of-way without the City's planting approval or under an overhead line, two people carry any tree over about 50 pounds by the root ball, and wear gloves, eye protection and closed-toe boots with water and shade within reach.
- Never plant into a right-of-way or overhead-line conflict; flag it for the site steward instead. Plant October to March; from May to September plant only with a named person and a hose or tank for the first summer, and never in a heat wave. Check the UC list for polyphagous shot hole borer hosts (box elder, willow, sycamore, liquidambar and others) before you pick a species where the borer is present, and never move wood chips or logs from a tree with pinhole entry holes and sawdust frass. Choose the tree for the space: mature height and width, roots near a sidewalk, and no fruit or limb drop over a walk. Pick up nothing from a hole that smells of gas.
- Site briefing: who to call, where the first aid kit is, who holds the 811 ticket (Title 8 section 3203).
- A quart of water an hour, shade at 80 degrees F and above, watch each other at 95 and above; digging a hole in July afternoon sun is this job's biggest heat exposure (Title 8 section 3395).
- Check the air quality index (AQI) for wildfire smoke; at 151 or more the employer provides an N95; plan the dig for another day (Title 8 section 5141.1).
- Call DigAlert at least two working days ahead, keep the ticket number, hand-dig within 24 inches of any mark; driving a stake counts as digging (Title 8 section 1541).
- Two people or a hand truck for any tree over about 50 pounds, carried by the root ball, never the trunk (Title 8 section 3203).
- Stay 10 feet from any overhead power line (verify the section in the high voltage orders); never plant or raise a tree pole under one (Title 8 section 2946).
- Eye protection when a root or a stake can flick up (Title 8 section 3382).
- No chainsaw, pole saw, ladder or climbing, and no pruning beyond dead or broken twigs at planting: tree work is Title 8 section 3420 and following, for a trained crew (Title 8 section 3420).
- Gear, Title 8 sections 3385 and 3384: safety-toe boots for root balls and stakes of 50 pounds or more that can drop; leather gloves for rough bark, stakes and ties.
How this work is done
How this work is done
A documented method, so this packet comes out the same whoever does it.
Bring
- hand truck or carry straps and a second person for any tree over about 50 pounds
- tarp for the spoil
- tape measure
- two stakes and wide flexible tree ties
- eye protection
- work gloves
- 5-gallon buckets filled half
- hat, sunscreen and a quart of water an hour
Steps
- Record the request that sends you before any tool touches the ground: a MyLA311 service request number for this planting site, or the work order, written scope or approval number from StreetsLA Urban Forestry, City Plants or the park's gardener. Write it at the top of your proof. With none of these, stop and ask the host to file the request on MyLA311 (the app, myla311.lacity.org or 311).
- Mark the tree positions for the row in a line on the parcel, and confirm that an 811 locate has been honored for the ground at every position. At each tree position, take a before photo of the bare ground and record a GPS waypoint inside the posting radius.
- Confirm the host's written okay for this spot, species and stock size; that the species suits the space (no overhead line in the mature crown, not a shot hole borer host where it is present); the 811 ticket number; and a named person who waters for three summers.
- Judge the stock before it leaves the truck: moist root ball, trunk firm in the soil, one central trunk, no wounds, no thick roots circling the trunk base. Reject stock that fails. Photograph the bare site and the tag with species and container size.
- Scrape the loose soil off the top of the root ball to find the true root flare (in a container it is often 2 to 4 inches down), measure from the flare to the bottom of the ball, and dig that deep and 2 to 3 times as wide. Leave the bottom undisturbed, rough the sides with the fork, and keep the spoil on a tarp off the walkway.
- At each tree position, dig the hole by hand about two to three times as wide as the tree's roots and only as deep as the roots, so the root flare will sit at grade.
- Slide the tree out of the container. For a balled and burlapped tree remove the wire basket and all burlap and twine down to the root flare at least. Tease and straighten thin circling roots by hand, cut any root as thick as a pencil that circles or girdles with sharp pruners, and reject the tree when roots wrap the trunk base in tight spirals.
- Backfill with the native soil in layers and firm it with water, not boots. Do not bury the root flare, and add no fertilizer, gravel or pockets of compost; recheck the flare after the soil settles.
- Build a basin about 3 feet across and 3 to 4 inches high and water in about 15 gallons in slow passes. Mulch 2 to 3 inches deep, flat, with 3 to 6 inches bare at the trunk, using clean arborist chips only.
- At each tree position, form a shallow watering basin around the tree and water it in slowly until the backfill is soaked. At each tree position, spread mulch 2 to 3 inches deep around the tree, held off the trunk.
- Stake only if the tree cannot stand on its own, and only after the 811 locate (a stake is a dig). Drive two stakes outside the root ball with wide flexible ties at the lowest height that holds the tree up, set a removal date at 6 to 12 months and name who removes them. Take off nursery tags, trunk wrap and the nursery stake tie at planting.
- At each tree position, take an after photo showing the root flare at grade, the mulch and the watering basin. Enter species, GPS, before and after photos, root-flare-at-grade confirmation, mulch depth, the tag photo, container size, a photo of the stakes and ties, and the first water as a bucket count into the proof record; sign. No pruning at planting except dead or broken twigs.
What counts as done
- GPS waypoint recorded inside the posting radius on utility-cleared ground
- Before and after photos showing the root flare visible at grade
- Mulch applied 2-3 inches deep and held off the trunk, with a watering basin formed and watered in
- Species and any staking (with a removal date) recorded in the proof
- Close photo at the trunk base showing the flare at or just above grade against a ruler.
- Photo of the bare ring at the trunk, the tag, and the ties.
- Photos show no buried flare, no mulch volcano, no dished hole holding water against the trunk, no leaning tree and no ties tight enough to dent the bark.
- The request that sends you: the MyLA311 service request number, or the Urban Forestry, City Plants or park work order or approval number, written down before the first photo.
- Sign-off: the StreetsLA Urban Forestry or City Plants contact, or the park's gardener, signs off the finished work in writing. Write who signed and the date, or the date you asked.
- Photos: take the before photo and the after photo from the same point (stand where the first one was taken and match its frame), each with its GPS point and its date and time.
Proof is measured against these, not judged by taste.
The standard this serves
Tree Planting and Establishment. Planting a tree properly is a codified craft, and the arborists' standards are blunt about why: most young trees that die were killed at planting, by a hole dug too deep, a root ball left bound, a first summer without water. Mastery looks like trees you planted years ago still standing, which is the only measure arborists accept. The craft lives in exactly the steps this packet asks for: the wide shallow hole, the freed roots, the mulch kept off the trunk, the watering that follows. Plant one tree correctly and you know something real.
What is promised, and what is not
Three separate acts, never one: a vote is a free signed preference that moves no money; a pledge is free signed backing intent, balance-checked, that moves no money and never marks the packet funded; funding is a real payment, made by the payer straight to the worker, with no Vealth fee. Paying Vealth is closed: Vealth takes no new card or wallet payment for a job. To fund a job, offer to pay the worker directly, then pay them yourself when you accept the proof, from your own wallet or by your own card or bank. From a wallet: prepare_token_offer, sign, submit_token_offer; after the proof is accepted you pay the worker on chain and the worker records it (prepare_token_settlement, or POST /labor/settle for USDC on Base). By card or bank: prepare_direct_offer, sign, submit_direct_offer; you pay the worker yourself and the worker records it with prepare_direct_settlement. Both are free, need no gas, and move no money through Vealth.
Claiming is free. You sign to prove the wallet is yours: no card, no deposit, no fee. Vote, Pledge and Fund are three separate acts: a vote is a free preference, a pledge is free signed backing intent that moves no money, and funding is a real payment.
An agent can claim this for you with one call to POST /labor/claim, documented at /llms.txt.
Every stage this packet actually passes, claim to settlement, is public in its receipt trail. A stage that has not happened is not claimed.
Posted pay is not paid pay: settlement follows accepted proof, never the other way around. Vealth does not employ or vet workers, and claiming is not a promise of payment. See how proof and receipts work.
Other acts: vote, pledge, fund
Packet WORK_1794292664774_5xfsh4q