Jerry Cisneros grew up in the 1970s in Lynwood and loved riding his green Schwinn bicycle around his neighborhood’s tree-lined streets with friends from school. He remembers how they often raced when they heard the familiar tune from the ice cream truck, having begged their parents for 25 cents for a Popsicle.

“Some streets had so many trees arching over them it was like riding through a shady tunnel,” he said.

Cisneros recently drove through Lynwood, a visit that was part of his job as a supervisor for the state of California. Gone were so many of the trees and the familiar places he knew so well from the perspective of his bike seat.

Lynwood was transformed from a green suburb to an industrialized city after the construction of the 105 Freeway in 1993. Now, the city in southeast Los Angeles County has the 710 Freeway on its eastern border, the 105 running west-east through the city and the Alameda truck corridor on the western border.

Vehicular emissions from the freeways — and toxins from local factories — have combined to create exceedingly dirty air. As business growth brought jobs, it also put pressure on real estate prices, leading homeowners to sell and making way for more industrial uses. With this transformation, many trees were removed and more areas were paved, leading to what’s known as the urban heat island effect.

Trees are part of the solution, in addition to shifting away from diesel- and gasoline-powered vehicles. Lynwood was the first to take part in Southern California Edison’s Charge Ready program, an important step in the evolution of the vehicle fleet. Adoption of electric vehicles will continue, and tree planting will also make a difference in helping clear the air and reduce heat. With a recent grant from the California Resilience Challenge, trees chosen for lower water needs and size will help restore shade in Lynwood and the nearby cities of Paramount, Vernon and Montebello.

The California Resilience Challenge is an initiative of the Bay Area Council Foundation, partly sponsored by SCE, which recently announced the 12 winners of its $2 million climate resilience grants program. The winning projects will help diverse communities across California prepare for droughts, wildfires, floods and extreme heat made more severe by climate change.

In SCE’s service area, grants were awarded to: the Western Riverside Council of Governments for an energy resiliency plan; city of Santa Ana for a microgrid for transit plan at the Santa Ana Regional Transportation Center; and the Gateway Cities Council of Governments in collaboration with TreePeople and Loyola Marymount University for a tree canopy assessment.

“Having a thoughtful, expertly developed plan will help hugely in raising funds for planting trees,” said Stephanie Cadena, assistant planner for the Gateway Cities Council of Governments. “TreePeople has the expertise that will allow the cities to plant trees that will succeed — which species, which sizes.

“The tree canopy plan will be developed using LiDAR and other technologies, along with data science and community input, to determine the number and locations of trees,” she added. “We will make sure to capture the lessons learned so they can be applied in other Southern California communities.”

Cisneros was thrilled to learn about Lynwood’s participation in the tree canopy study.

“I look forward to seeing how the tree plan takes shape and how funders respond. The future of Lynwood will be green again, and cooler,” he said.