TREEscapes - Friends of the Urban Forest

TREE
scapes
Winter 2012
1,159! You made it possible….
by Dan Flanagan, Executive Director
The year before I started at Friends of the Urban Forest, we
planted 886 trees. I believed we owed it to you, as a supporter of the
organization, to do better.
David Freudberg interviews longtime
FUF tree planting volunteer Charlie
Starbuck on January 12th.
FUF on NPR niver
David Freudberg, host of “Humankind,” a public radio series about
inspiring people that’s distributed
worldwide by NPR, is producing a
half-hour story about FUF’s work.
The show will air in late April;
to be notified of the date and
time, subscribe to our monthly
e-Newsletter at fuf.net/about/
signupNewsletter.html or
“Like” our Facebook page at
facebook.com/FriendsOfThe
UrbanForest.
I’m proud to announce that FUF
planted 1,159 trees in 2011—our third
straight year of increase and more than
a 30% improvement over 2008! It was
an organization-wide effort, but the biggest kudos go to… you.
That’s because we accomplished this goal
largely by slashing the price we charged
tree recipients. FUF subsidized even
more of the actual costs of each tree
that we planted, which meant we had
to rely more heavily on your support….
So I want to thank you very much
for contributing to FUF in 2011, and
making this accomplishment possible.
You are helping to improve the way
our city looks, feels and functions.
Brisbane Box (Lophostemon confertus) trees
planted on Eddy Street in the Tenderloin a year
ago are thriving today.
2011 also marked the third straight year of increase in our Sidewalk Gardening program.
We’ve replaced more than 3,000 square feet of concrete with beautiful landscapes.
I hope you are proud of the work you supported in 2011. But San Francisco’s urban forest
has a big challenge looming in 2012 (see the next page), so we hope to have your
continued support—and continued good news to report.
To me, nature is sacred;
trees are my temples and
forests are my cathedrals.
—Mikhail Gorbachev (b. 1931),
President of the Soviet Union
www.fuf.net
415-561-6890
Have you and your loved one put down roots in SF?
Does your love continue to grow every day?
Is your love “evergreen”?
Feel free to use these puns on Valentine’s Day
when you tell your loved one you had a tree
planted in his/her honor! We’ll provide the
Valentine’s Day Tree Tribute card!
Simply make a minimum donation of $50 via FUF’s website at www.fuf.net/donate or by contacting Greg at 415-268-0785 or greg@fuf.net.
From Dan’s Desk
“Tree Relinquishment” has begun…
I’ll tell you what it really means for San Francisco’s trees
City Hall’s new cutbacks in municipal tree planting and tree care took effect
on January 1, and I started getting calls from reporters immediately.
As often happens with the media, you talk for 20 minutes about a
complex issue and they use a mere snippet that omits key points.
I want to be sure you know the real deal….
Last summer, City Hall proposed to drastically reduce municipal street tree planting
and care, due to budgetary constraints. I understood that SF’s existing model for urban
forestry wasn’t sustainable. They were “between a tree and a hard place.”
Upcoming Events
Contact us to participate:
We saw their plan as an overreaction, so we mobilized
hundreds of “friends of the urban forest” across the city
and earned hard-fought improvements. But we couldn’t
prevent cutbacks altogether.
The city’s cutbacks
may be the biggest
challenge our urban
forest has faced.
Tree or sidewalk garden planting
volunteers—Doug, dougly@fuf.net
So what does this mean for your urban forest?
Tree care—Heather, heather@fuf.net
1. The lack of tree planting is being overlooked here.
Tree tours—Sarah, sarah@fuf.net
Cuts to tree care have received more attention, but cuts in tree planting are a much bigger deal. Recent research shows that, for the first time, our urban forest is shrinking. The
new plan risks making that loss much worse.
If you want a tree, or want to help
organize a tree planting in your
neighborhood, contact Doug,
dougly@fuf.net
If you want a sidewalk garden,
contact Karla, karla@fuf.net
Note: Tree Plantings and Tree Care
days last from 9am to 1pm.
February 11—Tree Planting,
South Sunset
February 18—Tree Planting, Excelsior
2. The city’s plan is not a permanent solution, and everybody knows it.
Realistically, we need to “change the rules of the game” regarding street trees in San
Francisco. FUF is working with the city to study best practices in municipal tree programs
in California, and to develop a better plan (including a plan for long-term tree care).
3. FUF—and supporters like you—have a real chance to come to the rescue.
As City Hall backs away from planting trees, it has given FUF permission to plant on streets
that were previously “city-maintained.” Together we have a chance to increase neighborhood tree planting and tree care.
February 23-25—Sidewalk Garden
Planting, North Bernal Heights
The city’s cutbacks may be the biggest challenge our urban forest has faced since FUF was
founded. But in every challenge, there is also opportunity. FUF is poised to answer the call, and I
hope you will continue to stand with us as we do.
March 3—Tree Planting,
South Bernal Heights
Warmly,
February 22—Citizen Forester Training
March 10—Tree Planting, Sunset
March 17—Tree Planting, OMI
March 17—Tree Care, Inner Sunset
March 31—Tree Planting, Noe Valley
Executive Director
March 31—Tree Care, Castro
April 14—Tree Planting,
Outer Richmond
Mention FUF, get museum two-fer
April 14—Tree Care, NOPA
The Contemporary Jewish Museum invites you to
“Do Not Destroy: Trees, Art, and Jewish Thought,”
a tree-related exhibit on view from February 16
through May 28. Mention Friends of the Urban Forest when purchasing admission, and get two people
in for the price of one. For more info, including
hours and location, see www.thecjm.org.
April 19-21—Sidewalk Garden
Planting, Noe Valley
April 28—Tree Planting, Mission North
April 28—Tree Care, SOMA
May 5—Tree Planting, location TBD
May 12—Tree Tour, the “Stanyan Trail”
“Aspen Roots for Tu B’Shevat”
by Yoshitomo Saito
Recently FUF’ed
Digging a hole for an avocado tree at Buena Vista Horace Mann K-8
Community School in the Mission, December 16.
A crew from engineering firm Winzler & Kelly helped us plant trees
at the Mother Goose School in the Central Richmond on November
12 (then enjoyed chili dogs cooked by school staff).
Arborist Bernie
Corace led FUF’s
free annual Fruit
Tree Pruning
Workshop on
Saturday, January 28 at Alice
Griffith Community Garden in the
Bayview-Hunter’s
Point neighborhood.
Employees of Environmental Science Associates, an environmental
consulting group, helped plant trees (including this Melaleuca
quinquenervia, commonly known as a Cajeput tree) in the Sunnyside
neighborhood on December 10.
Lincoln High student envisions FUF gardens, scores big grant!
Environmental science class puts learning in action
by Karla Nagy, Sidewalk Garden Coordinator
Thanks to the vision of high school student Elvina Fan, 730 square
feet of concrete sidewalk have been replaced with 10 Sidewalk
Gardens around Lincoln High School in the Sunset neighborhood. Elvina, president of Change SF, a community service club at
Lincoln, obtained a $10,000 grant to pay for the project from Youth
Funding Youth Ideas, a program that helps young San Franciscans
expand on their leadership goals by funding their project ideas.
Sidewalk Gardens can be installed on most San Francisco sidewalks that are at least nine feet wide. They reduce stormwater
run-off and increase the beauty and safety of the neighborhood—
and when planted around street trees they increase the lifespan of
the trees. For more information, see fuf.net/sidewalkgardens.html.
“I wanted to create something at Lincoln that would make a lasting impact, and that would give back to a place that has given so
much to me,” Elvina said.
After she contacted FUF, we worked with Elvina and her environmental science teacher and advisor, Vanessa Carter, to develop
the plans—including ongoing maintenance of the gardens by
students. We chose California native plants, specifically dune
plants, which would be hardy and easy to maintain. When it came
time to install the gardens on December 5 and 7, the weather was
beautiful and about 80 students participated.
“This planting brought to life everything my students have been
learning about,” said Ms. Carter, who also co-founded the school
district’s first “Green Academy,” a program that reconnects urban
youth with nature.
The sidewalk gardens were installed with help from student volunteers
from Vanessa Carter’s Environmental Science Class at Lincoln High
School. Student leader Elvina Fan is third from left.
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
“Like” us on Facebook:
www.facebook.com/
FriendsOfTheUrbanForest
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
Jim De Golia, Chair
Jeanne Darrah, Vice Chair
Christiane Riess, Secretary
Bill Barnes
Eliza Brown
David Covell
Karen Donovan
Boe Hayward
Sheila Fischer Kiernan
Jay Murphy
Greg Samoulides
Martin Skea
Laura Tam
Emily Upstill
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
Winter 2012
Tree Care Chronicles
Root pruning saves trees
by Heather Ellison, Tree Care Manager
Rainy and windy days used to keep me busy taking calls about
downed trees and dispatching volunteer Emergency Tree Care
crews. Today, such days cause far fewer problems. We have
Ed Gilman at the University of Florida to thank!
Arborists once thought that when planting container-grown
trees, we should gently massage the root ball, pulling away the
outer circling roots and removing the root mass on the bottom. Root defects such
as circling or kinked roots deep inside the root ball were largely left untouched. Over time
the problem roots would either fail to grow out—leaving the trees unstable and vulnerable
in storms—or they would begin to cut off the flow of water and nutrients to the tree,
weakening it and making it more susceptible to pests and diseases.
Professor Gilman and Brian Kempf, director of the Urban Tree Foundation, showed that
when tree roots are pruned, aggressively if necessary, the trees usually establish much
faster, are far more stable and produce more feeder roots than un-pruned trees. We
have increasingly embraced this practice, and now it is the rule rather than the exception.
The results have been astounding. Our trees are often firmly rooted six months after
planting, and our emergency calls for fallen trees have dropped dramatically.
For more info about Professor Gilman and his research projects, visit http://bit.ly/edgilman.
For more info on container-grown trees and root establishment, see http://bit.ly/containertrees.