We envision San Francisco covered in healthy trees and sidewalk gardens.
Sadly, for decades San Francisco’s municipal urban forestry program was under-funded. San Francisco has one of the smallest urban forests of any major city in America, and according to a city-wide street tree inventory completed in 2016, only 25% of our street trees are in in good or better condition. 29% of them are in poor condition, critical condition, or dead. The rest are merely in “fair” condition.
The urban forest needs advocates — people who can “speak for the trees” and hold elected officials accountable.
Through the advocacy efforts of Friends of the Urban Forest and our team of “FUF Advocates,” we’ve achieved tremendous progress in improving San Francisco’s municipal urban forestry policies.
We collaborated with the San Francisco Planning Department and Department of Public Works on an “Urban Forest Plan” for the City. Phase One of the Plan — the portion that focuses on street trees — is available for download here.
And in 2016 we led the successful campaign to pass Proposition E, which amended the city charter to make the city responsible for regular maintenance of all street trees and repair of all tree-related sidewalk damage, funded through a $19M annual set-aside.
We continue to work closely with government agencies, and partner with other organizations, to identify solutions to problems that affect our urban forest.
FUF Advocates
In 2015, we formed a grassroots group of volunteers called FUF Advocates to push for solutions to San Francisco’s tree problems.
Although San Francisco now has sound urban forestry policies and funding, we’re still years away from having the expanding, thriving, and safe forest we need. FUF and the FUF Advocates must speak out whenever we see opportunities to further improve policies or the implementation of those policies.
Join our team of FUF Advocates so we can mobilize you when the City needs to hear from people who care about San Francisco’s urban forest:
- Sign up to Volunteer (check the “Advocacy” box)
- Subscribe to SF Urban Forester, our e-newsletter, to stay informed about San Francisco’s urban forest
- Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.