Action/Alerts

We're going to go out on a limb to state that July 1, 2017, will go down in history as the resurrection day for San Francisco's urban forest. That's the day when San Francisco Public Works takes over responsibility for the care of all the street trees and sets the City's urban forest on a path of healthy sustainability.

The back story
San Francisco has long had a dysfunctional system for managing street trees. Historically, fronting property owners bore most of the responsibility for street trees, with nearly two-thirds of them in private hands. San Francisco Public Works, meanwhile, had maintenance responsibility for of the remaining third, and over the past several years had been shifting more to the care of reluctant property owners. Which trees and how they were accepted by Public Works for City maintenance was a historic legacy that didn't always make sense. As a result of this system, street trees were maintained inconsistently, at best. And it was clear that many of the potential benefits of a healthy urban forest were never fully realized.

The City tried to remedy that and developed the Urban Forest Plan, adopted in 2015 and updated in 2017, to seek solutions to these problems. San Francisco Public Works collaborated with the Planning Department to develop the plan, which provides a long-term vision and strategy for San Francisco's street trees. The Board of Supervisor adopted the plan last year.

One of the big takeaways from the comprehensive plan was for San Francisco to establish the Citywide Street Tree Maintenance Program that would have Public Works take over maintenance for all of San Francisco's street trees, which a newly-published census numbers at 124,000.

The plan also recommended growing the urban forest by 50,000 street trees over the next 20 years. That would bring the total to just south of 175,000. The ambitious goal, however, could not be achieved with the wave of a magic wand. The City commissioned an economic study to find out how much it would cost for Public Works to properly maintain all street trees. The answer: $19 million a year—about triple what the department has been spending.

It was clear that a funding strategy was needed. In stepped the nonprofit group, Friends of the Urban Forest, which lined up support on the Board of Supervisors to place Prop. E on the November 2016 ballot. The measure called for setting aside $19 million a year out of the City's general fund to pay for tree care and to repair sidewalks damaged by tree roots. Voters gave overwhelming support, with 79% casting yes votes.

IMPORTANT FACTS ABOUT PROP. E

• The City officially takes responsibility of street trees on July 1, 2017, starting with the worst first. Pruning will be prioritized based on safety considerations, to correct structural flaws and to gain necessary clearances for overhead wires, traffic signs, and signals, adjacent buildings, and traffic flow. This is expected to take several years. Routine pruning should begin in 2019.
• Trees will be pruned on a three- to five-year cycle, based on the species and needs of each individual tree. A pruning schedule will be posted on the Public Works website in July 2018. It's anticipated that about half the work will be performed by certified arborists and cement-work contractors.
• Property owners will still be responsible for sidewalk damage that is not caused by trees, but the City will be responsible for any tree-related sidewalk damage.
• In general, the City will be liable if someone is injured due to a tree-related problem (sidewalk damage, falling tree limb, etc.) after July 1, 2017, unless the property owner had been put on notice by the City previously and failed to make the required fix. That said, each case will be looked at individually.
• Funding established by Prop. E only covers tree and sidewalk maintenance, not new trees. However, the Bureau will continue to work with outside partners, including Friends of the Urban Forest, to ensure that replacement trees are planted, and the City can grow the street tree population by 50%.
• Per Prop. E, the Bureau must provide an annual report on how the money is spent and what work is completed.
• You will still need a permit to plant a tree in the public right of way. Prop. E does not impact permit procedures for planting new trees in any way.
• To remove a tree that is in poor health or structurally unsound, the City will follow the public notification process before removing it. If you wish to remove a tree for another reason, you can apply for a permit to remove it by going through the City's tree-removal permitting process.

For more information
Contact San Francisco Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry at (415) 554-6700 or http://www.sfpublicworks.org/trees.