Friends of the Urban Forest

Greening San Francisco

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        • Silliman and Woolsey streets win San Francisco’s “Most Greenified Block”
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        • Friends of the Urban Forest to Launch Large-Scale Tree Planting in the Excelsior
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        • Tenderloin wins San Francisco’s “Most Greenified Block”
      • 2015 Press Releases
        • Ney Street “Neyborhood” wins annual “Most Greenified Block” award
        • Save Our Water and Our Trees! campaign offers tips to help trees thrive
        • Friends of the Urban Forest to plant 50,000th tree August 1
      • 2014 Press Releases
        • San Francisco’s in trouble when mild rain fells trees
        • #TechPlantsSF engages tech community in greening San Francisco
        • Broderick/Hayes wins “Most Greenified Block”
      • 2013 Press Releases
        • City’s “Most Greenified Block”: Pennsylvania Street Gardens
        • City to Install 11 Blocks of Sidewalk Gardens in SF Neighborhoods
      • 2012 Press Releases
        • Urban foresters to hold Great Tree Count
        • Friends of the Urban Forest Transforms Neighborhoods
        • Wells Fargo to plant 160 street trees for 160th anniversary
        • Applications due November 26 for subsidized fruit trees
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        • Will our next mayor improve our streets and parks?
        • Urban Wood Movement to Hold First Conference in San Francisco
      • 2010 Press Releases
        • 150 Cherry Trees mark 150th Anniversary of Japanese visit
        • “Green Christmas Trees” better than dead ones
        • New sidewalk gardens beautify neighborhood and protect City sewers
        • Save a tree by logging it… into the Urban Forest Map
        • Friends of the Urban Forest to hold 1000th planting Feb 20
        • New trees for Nob Hill to echo nineteenth century glory
        • Big San Francisco tree planting planned for Tu B’Shvat
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Home About Us History

People holding shovels

History

Friends of the Urban Forest started with five men: George Williams, Brian Fewer (who had recently retired as San Francisco’s superintendent of trees), Keith Davey, Jack Spring, and Fred Smith. After the City and County of San Francisco cut funding to urban forestry in the late 1970’s, they decided to take matters into their own hands. With some leftover funding from city grant money, George Williams hired Michelle Anderson to “get something going” by organizing neighborhoods to plant and care for their own trees.

Group planting a tree

Our first planting, March 7, 1981 on Sanchez Street in Noe Valley.

Ms. Anderson asked Isabel Wade, the Urban Forestry Consultant for the California Department of Forestry at the time, to join the five original founders and form a dedicated board. They immediately voted for officers and elected Ms. Wade as the first board president.

The newly formed organization reached out to community members to organize their neighborhoods and start planting trees. FUF’s first tree planting took place on March 7, 1981 – California’s Arbor Day – in Noe Valley. Relying entirely on volunteers, FUF planted approximately 50 trees that day in empty street-tree-basins.  A Glossy Privet (Ligustrum lucidum) at 3909 24th Street was the first one planted. Celebrity Eddie Albert participated, as well as State Senator Milton Marks, Jr. whose son, Milton Marks III, later became FUF’s executive director.

Mayor Dianne Feinstein August 5, 1986

Surrounded by board members of Friends of the Urban Forest and city officials, Mayor Dianne Feinstein signs the San Francisco Urban Forestry Ordinance, August 5, 1986.

Shortly thereafter, neighborhoods across the city began to organize their own tree-planting events with FUF’s leadership and support. FUF hired Ruth Gravanis as its first executive director.

Like the trees it planted, FUF grew. The first edition of FUF’s guide to street tree planting and care, “Trees for San Francisco,” won the Communications Honor Award from the American Society of Landscape Architects in 1985. In the early nineties, FUF developed a dedicated Tree Care program led by an ISA-certified arborist. In 1995, FUF launched its Youth Tree Care program (now called Green Teens), one of the nation’s few paid urban forestry vocational skills training programs. By 1996, FUF had planted over 20,000 trees. In 2007, FUF began creating sidewalk gardens and expanding street tree basins as a pilot project to develop the understory of San Francisco’s urban forest, which led to the launch of our Sidewalk Gardening program in 2010.

Before and after images show a neighborhood gaining trees

Street trees have transformed the intersection of Fell and Buchanan streets. Images: (top) San Francisco Public Library, (bottom) Hoodline.com

Today, FUF is a thriving nonprofit organization committed to revitalizing San Francisco’s urban forest, building community, and taking a local leadership role in mitigating global environmental problems through the simple act of planting trees. FUF has planted more than 60,000 trees, has a strong partnership with the City and County of San Francisco, is well loved among San Franciscans, and has an outstanding reputation among urban-forestry organizations nationwide.

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I have been a supporter of Friends of the Urban Forest since my arrival in San Francisco in 1981. I organized tree planting on Funston between Lake and California. Most of the trees are still flourishing."
— Dr. Robert Squeri

We just can't say THANK YOU enough! This has been such a life-changing, street-transforming, neighborhood-lifting experience."
— Lori Hébert & Thaddeus Homan

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