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46 | CITY OF PLEASANTON URBAN FOREST MASTER PLAN <br />CONTEXT <br />Founding and Development <br />In the mid-1800s, as agriculture took over, some marsh and <br />wetlands were drained via a series of modified channels. <br />The City was officially founded in 1894 and was a thriving <br />community by 1900. By 1912, few wetlands remained in the <br />Pleasanton area. Most trees grew along edges of the canals <br />and written accounts document that most remnant oaks <br />visible on historical aerial photographs (Figure 2-2) occur <br />at such low densities that the area was best classified as <br />grassland (SFEI 2013).The City likely lost additional trees <br />growing in the grasslands as these areas were converted to <br />ranching, dairy farms, hop fields, and vineyards. In the 1930s <br />sand and gravel mining became an important and profitable <br />industry, which likely would have impacted riparian trees and <br />vegetation. Pleasanton experienced a large population boom <br />in the 1960s and 1970s, resulting in a conversion of much of <br />the agricultural land to residential and commercial land uses, <br />and beginning the establishment of the City’s urban forest. <br />Another important event was the construction of the 850- <br />acre Hacienda, a large business park, in the 1980s, which <br />was built on old swampland, and established many trees in <br />this important economic center of Pleasanton. <br />Figure 2-2. Historic photograph of Pleasanton showing scattered oaks and other trees <br />Source: San Francisco Estuary Institute, 2013 <br />Page 277 of 348