2016 issue #1 - Friends of the Urban Forest

TREE
scapes
Spring 2016
From Dan’s Desk
Arborist Apprentices on a path to success
Program helps at-risk young adults
Our Arborist Apprentice program, which started two-and-a-half
years ago, helps disadvantaged San Franciscans ages 18-24 to
escape the revolving door of violent injuries. The program grew
out of San Francisco General Hospital Foundation’s San Francisco
Wraparound Project for Comprehensive Rehabilitation, which
seeks to provide risk reduction resources to these individuals.
Make a Lasting
Contribution to FUF
Remember: By including Friends of
the Urban Forest as a beneficiary of
your will, trust, or other estate plan,
you’ll be providing a gift that ensures
the preservation and expansion of San
Francisco’s urban forest for generations
to come.
Learn more about planned giving
options by contacting Dan Flanagan,
Executive Director, at (415) 268-0779
or [email protected].
We take approximately four apprentices each year and provide them with paid internships that build their skills for the green jobs sector. They work closely on tree projects
with members of our Green Teens youth program. Because the apprentices are older and
receive more training, they have the
opportunity to experience being
Building skills
leaders and role models—often for
the first time—in those interactions.
for the green jobs sector
By beautifying San Francisco, our
arborist apprentices gain a positive
attitude about their urban environment and a healthy sense of pride.
We hope you share our pride in
this program!
Warmly,
Raindrops (and trees) falling
Recent storms brought down more trees,
underscoring the danger of City Hall’s
neglect of tree maintenance. We continue to advocate for solutions.
Antwan, one of our Arborist Apprentices
Executive Director
Factoid:
Growing the imagination
The amount of vegetation in outdoor spaces is
related to both the amount of play and the kind
of play in which children engage in those spaces.
There was more play, and more creative play,
in spaces that have more trees.
www.fuf.net
415-561-6890
Source: Andrea Faber Taylor, Angela Wiley, Frances E. Kuo and William C. Sullivan
Growing Up in the Inner City: Green Spaces as Places to Grow Environment and Behavior 1998; 30; 3
Upcoming Events
For event updates, details, and info
about how to participate, see:
www.fuf.net/calendar
If you want a tree, or want to help
organize a tree planting in your
neighborhood, see:
www.fuf.net/treeplanting
If you want a sidewalk garden, see
www.fuf.net/sidewalkgarden/
March 23, 30—Wonderful Wednesday
Tree Care
March 24, 31—Plant-a-Tree Thursdays
March 25—No-Frown Friday Tree Care
March 31-April 2—Front Yard Ambassador, Sunset
April 1, 8, 15, 22, 29—No-Frown Friday
Tree Care
April 2—Tree Planting & Tree Pruning
Workshop, Central Sunset & Parkside
April 6, 13, 20, 27—Wonderful
Wednesday Tree Care
April 7, 14, 21, 28—Plant-a-Tree
Thursdays
April 16—Tree Planting & Tree Pruning
Workshop, Mission
April 24—Tree Tour, Strawberry Hill in
Golden Gate Park
April 28-20—Sidewalk Landscaping,
Noe Valley
April 30—Tree Planting & Tree
Pruning Workshop, Bayview
May 4, 11, 18, 25—Wonderful
Wednesday Tree Care
May 5, 12, 19, 26—Plant-a-Tree
Thursdays
May 6, 13, 20, 27—No-Frown Friday
Tree Care
May 12-14—Sidewalk Landscaping,
Hayes Valley
Former FUFer now city’s
Urban Forester
Chris Buck responsible
for San Francisco’s street trees
As Urban Forester for the Bureau of Urban Forestry at
San Francisco Public Works, Chris Buck is responsible
for management of all plants and trees in the public
right of way. Though Friends of the Urban Forest has
long enjoyed a close working relationship with the
Bureau of Urban Forestry, our relationship with Chris
has a special dimension: he was once a FUFer!
Chris Buck
Chris was hired as education coordinator at FUF in 2000, four years after moving to the
city. A Connecticut native, Chris had grown up in neighborhoods full of big trees. By the
time he joined FUF, Chris had dedicated his career to trees, and been certified as an
arborist by the International Society of Arboriculture.
“It really
does take
a village”
At FUF, Chris was responsible for engaging with the public,
and learned that “it really does take a village” to sustain San
Francisco’s urban forest due to the broad array of stakeholders
involved, from individuals to city agencies to businesses. He
also saw the challenges FUF faced in advocating for the city to
allocate more funding for urban forestry.
Chris left FUF to become an Urban Forestry Inspector for the city, and became Urban
Forester when Carla Short, another FUF ally who had previously held that position, was
elevated to Superintendent of the Bureau of Urban Forestry. He continues to work closely
with Carla and tap into her institutional knowledge and expertise.
“2016 feels like the ‘Year of the Tree,’” Chris said. “An inventory of all street trees will
be completed later this year. A long-term funding solution for the maintenance of street
trees and sidewalks may also be found. And we’re already working to adopt the recommendations laid out in the city’s Urban Forest Plan.”
Treescapes readers know that FUF is strongly critical
of the city’s inadequate funding for urban forestry,
and is working hard on strategies for a funding solution.
With luck (and a funding breakthrough) we’ll soon have
the opportunity to partner with the Bureau of Urban
Forestry in a wonderful new period of growth and health
for our urban forest.
May 14—Tree Planting & Tree
Pruning Workshop, Castro, Lower
Haight & Duboce Triangle
June 1, 8, 15—Wonderful Wednesday
Tree Care
June 2, 9, 16—Plant-a-Tree Thursdays
June 3, 10, 17—No-Frown Friday
Tree Care
June 4—Tree Planting & Tree Pruning
Workshop, Outer Sunset
June 25—Tree Planting & Tree Pruning
Workshop, Portola & Visitacion Valley
The trees are God’s great alphabet:
With them He writes in shining green
Across the world His thoughts serene.
—Leonora Speyer (1872-1956), American/British
poet and violinist
Recently FUF’ed
Planting manager Brandon Namm led a tree biology class on
January 28 for participants in our annual Community Foresters
course for people who want to deepen their knowledge and
experience with trees.
On February 10, we brought a team of
staff and volunteers up to Front Porch
Farms in Healdsburg for a fruit tree
pruning workshop and workday.
On February 6, we led volunteers and neighborhood residents in planting new street trees in the Haight and Cole
Valley neighborhoods, and in caring for young street trees
that we previously planted there.
On February 18-20, we led the installation
of new sidewalk gardens in the Excelsior
neighborhood. This project was subsidized
by the San Francisco Office of Economic
and Workforce Development’s Invest in
Neighborhoods initiative.
On February 28, we hosted a free walking
tour of the trees of Forest Hill, led by
Mike Sullivan. This lushly-landscaped
neighborhood is one of eight masterplanned residence parks in San Francisco.
The NFL Environmental Program and the Super Bowl 50 Host Committee reached out to Friends
of the Urban Forest to help make this year’s event one of the greenest ever. Thanks to a donation of
$9,500 from the NFL, we were able to plant 50 trees at six San Francisco public schools in January,
including (left to right) Everett Middle School (where Tony Jerod-Eddie of the San Francisco 49ers
participated), Malcolm X Elementary School, and Raoul Wallenberg High School.
Nonprofit
Organization
U.S. Postage
PAID
San Francisco, CA
Permit No. 13997
Presidio of San Francisco
P.O. Box 29456
San Francisco, CA 94129-0456
Address Service Requested
facebook.com/FriendsOfTheUrbanForest
@SFUrbanForester
Friends of the Urban Forest is a
non-profit organization, founded in
1981, that offers financial, technical
and practical assistance to individuals and neighborhood groups who
wish to plant and care for street
trees and sidewalk gardens in
San Francisco.
Board of Directors
Jon Braslaw, Chair
Laura Tam, Vice Chair
Tamara Patterson, Secretary
Doug Case
John Farnham
Sean Flynn
Noah Goldberg
Kent Jonas
Dawn Kamalanathan
Kerry Lange
Dave Steer
Patricia Wilson
Executive Director
Dan Flanagan
Editor: Ben Carlson
Layout: Mari Ann Donnelly
Printed on recycled paper.
If you’d prefer to receive Treescapes
electronically, please email brian@
fuf.net
TREE
scapes
Spring 2016
The Biophile:
Environmental Justice
By Kyle Lemle, Outreach & Volunteer Coordinator
At FUF, we believe that all San Franciscans have
the right to a green and healthful environment.
In cities across the country, income stratification
often correlates with environmental health;
poorer neighborhoods suffer from more pollution
and less greenery.
Here in San Francisco, for example, the tree
canopy in the Bayview and Outer Sunset is
only 6.7% and 5% respectively, whereas wealthy
neighborhoods like Pacific Heights and Glen Park
benefit from tree canopies of 13.9% and 19.6%.
FUF is working to address this gap by prioritizing
outreach in low-income neighborhoods, and by
reducing the co-pay for our services in those
neighborhoods to as low as $25 per tree.
We’re also training the next generation of
environmental justice leaders through our Green
Teens program. Green Teens work with community
partners such as Literacy for Environmental Justice
and People Organizing to Demand Environmental
and Economic Rights to spread eco-literacy and
reclaim public land through greening projects in
the Bayview, Mission and Excelsior neighborhoods.
Poorer neighborhoods
have less greenery