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In 2017 a citywide tree survey was done by EveryTreeSF, a collaboration of Planning, Public Works, Friends of the Urban Forest, and ArborPro, Inc.  Data from this survey has not been officially released.  The data for the tables on this page was extracted from preliminary databases acquired from DPW.  (This page published Aug 12, 2019.)

Below are tables that show some findings.

See Data sources for information on SF Trees pages below for more information on the databases used.

 

Stop the BUF war on ficus trees

The Bureau of Urban Forestry (BUF) has targeted dozens of ficus trees for removal. Several neighborhoods below are fighting the removals.

		DPW BUF Staff Survey				EveryTreeSF 2017 survey
	Trees	"Remove"		Map	Trees	"Remove"
Main Library	19	19	100%	D6	19	0	0%
North Beach	7	7	100%	D3	7	0	0%
Hayes Valley	27	27	100%	D5	27	1	4%
24th Street	47	47	100%	D9	47	16	34%
807 Mission	14	14	100%	D6	14	2	14%
16th St Phase 1	10	10	100%	D10	10	0	0%
	124	124	100%		124	19	15%

Since Fall 2018 several SF neighborhoods have had ficus trees posted for removal by the Bureau of Urban Forestry (BUF). In all cases, a City tree survey indicates many fewer removals are needed.

BUF needs to explain why their removal assessments are different from the 2017 Citywide Tree Survey assessments.

When there is a removal posting, each neighborhood must protest the removal, then appear at a removal hearing. If the removal hearing is unsuccessful (5 of 5 have been so far) the neighborhood must file an appeal with the Board of Appeals. Each of these hearings consumes many hours of prep time and is stressful for residents.

SF neighborhoods and BUF must begin working together to halt removals and begin planting more trees.

Top 10 dangerous SF trees

Top 10 SF street trees rated "Priority Removal"
From the 2017 EveryTreeSF survey

	Genus	Rated "Remove"	Total	Percent	Common name
1	Prunus	1407	10586	13.29%	Plum, peach
2	Acacia	1150	3888	29.58%	Acacia
3	Pittosporum	878	7171	12.24%	Pittosporum
4	Platanus	850	8679	9.79%	London Plane
5	Ficus	653	7773	8.40%	Fig
6	Myoporum	450	1182	40.61%	Myoporum
7	Metrosideros	368	6319	5.82%	NZ Xmas tree
8	Ulmus	337	2459	13.70%	Elm
9	Callistemon	307	3220	9.53%	Bottlebrush
10	Arbutus	306	4013	7.63%	Arbutus
	Total	6736
	Total All genus	11784

 

What’s wrong with this picture?

In the table below note how many dangerous trees (“Priority Removal”) are still standing: 11,795 or 9% of all SF trees.  BUF has known about this since November 2017.

Instead of dealing with these dangerous trees, BUF has targeted nearly 150 ficus trees for removal — 86% of these are not dangerous.

Dangerous trees

Recommended Maintenance is "Priority Removal". Listed by Supervisor District (BOS).

BOS	"Priority Removal"	% of total	Removals maps
1	572	4.9%
2	1092	9.3%
3	1336	11.3%	D3 Map
4	336	2.8%
5	806	6.8%	D5 Map
6	987	8.4%	D6 Map
7	1183	10.0%
8	1658	14.0%
9	1447	12.3%	D9 Map
10	1468	12.5%	D10 Map
11	910	7.7%
	11795	100%

What is “Priority Removal”?

From the October 2015 agreement between SF and ArborPro, Inc., the tree survey contractor defined “Priority Removal” as (emphasis added):

• Maintenance need. The following maintenance categories will be collected:

1. Priority 1 Removal. Trees designated for removal have defects that cannot be cost-effectively or practically treated. The majority of the trees in this category has a large percentage of dead crowns and poses an elevated level of risk for failure. Any hazards that could be seen as potential dangers to persons or property and seen as potential liabilities would be in this category. Large dead and dying trees that are high liability risks are included in this category.  These trees are the first ones that should be removed.
2. Priority 2 Removal.  Remove after Priority 1 Removals.
3. Priority 3 Removal.  Remove after Priority 2 Removals.

 

Where to plant new trees

San Francisco urban forest tree counts by Supervisor District (BOS) --- existing trees and empty/new basins. (ArborPro citywide survey 2017)

BOS	Total Trees	Total Empty/New basins	Empty basins & Stumps	Potential basins	Empty/New Basin Map
1	8922	4587	704	3883	D1 Map
2	15262	3346	738	2608	D2 Map
3	8034	1208	158	1050	D3 Map
4	9233	1364	1333	31	D4 Map
5	13282	1268	615	653	D5 Map
6	9321	1094	158	936	D6 Map
7	12745	6637	1439	5198	D7 Map
8	17187	4978	1039	3939	D8 Map
9	12144	3888	654	3234	D9 Map
10	16621	4841	1817	3024	D10 Map
11	6918	6780	919	5861	D11 Map
Total all BOS	129669	39991	9574	30417

Documents used for information on SF Trees pages

Data sources for information on SF Trees pages

All_Trees_Nov2017.xlsx  Similar to TreeSurveyData_Full.xlsx below, with fewer columns and a column with Board of Supervisors district # (Received 6/27/19 from DPW) About 129K rows.

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Upcoming tree events:

Note: some dates may change, especially City Hall hearings.  Check a few days in advance to be sure the event is still on — Click here for Board of Appeals meeting times.  Click here to check on tree removal hearings (scan to the bottom of the home page for “Tree Removal Hearing”)
City Hall hearings allow for Public Comment.  Feel free to show up and speak at any of the hearings below.

Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019 — 5pm City Hall Room 416 – Board of Appeals – 24th St ficus removal appeal — 47 ficus trees at stake

Wednesday, Nov 6, 2019 — 5pm City Hall Room 416 – Board of Appeals – Hayes Valley ficus removal appeal — 27 ficus trees at stake

Wednesday, Nov 13, 2019 — 5pm City Hall Room 416 – Board of Appeals – Washington Square ficus removal appeal — 7 ficus trees at stake

Previous:

Monday, June 24, 2019 — 5:30pm City Hall Room 416  – DPW tree removal hearing, 16th Street Phase 1 — 10 ficus trees at stake  Click to download documents from the hearing

Wednesday, July 17, 2019 — 5pm City Hall Room 416 – Board of Appeals – Main Library ficus removal appeal — 19 ficus trees at stake

Wednesday, June 5, 2019 — 5:30pm City Hall Room 416 – DPW tree removal hearing, 24th Street — 52 ficus trees at stake (and one Brisbane box tree).
An overflow crowd at City Hall pleaded for their trees to be spared, see Mission Local article, June 6, Mission residents oppose ficus tree removal

Monday, April 29, 2019 — 5:30pm City Hall Room 416  – DPW tree removal hearing, Hayes Valley Neighborhood Assn — 39+ ficus trees at stake

Monday, April 22, 2019 — 24th Street removal walk-thru & meeting — 52 ficus trees at stake (and one Brisbane box tree)

In the news:

Mission Local article, June 6, Mission residents oppose ficus tree removal

Mission Local article, May 24, 2019, Ribbons go up on 24th Street trees in protest of ficus removal

SF Examiner article, Sunday, April 21, City to cut down dozens of Mission District ficus trees, citing safety concerns

Mission Local article, Jan 12, 2018 Neighbors bristle at plan to remove trees on SF Mission’s 24th Street

Josh Klipp’s SF Tree Team

Green Space article, Trees are necessary for San Francisco’s future by Robyn Purchia, June 12, 2019.

Green Space article, Cities are failing to protect their urban canopies by Robyn Purchia, March 26, 2019.

A Proposal to Better Manage SF’s Urban Canopy  See this pdf for a proposed path forward, by Joshua Klipp, Jan 31, 2019.