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Year one of Street Tree SF: city reports pruning and removals, warns of planting funding gap
Summary
At a Nov. 14 hearing, the Bureau of Urban Forestry reported year-one implementation of Street Tree SF (Prop E): roughly 19% of maintenance needs addressed, more than 1,900 trees removed for safety, 262,000 sq ft of sidewalk repairs and a stated planting funding shortfall (planting/establishment ~ $2,000 per tree; BUFF estimates ~$12 million/year to add 6,000 trees annually).
Carla Short, superintendent of the Bureau of Urban Forestry, told the Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee on Nov. 14 that the first year of Street Tree SF (the program implementing Proposition E) has addressed a measurable share of the city’s deferred tree maintenance while exposing staffing and planting‑funding gaps.
Short said the city assumed responsibility for roughly 125,000 street trees after Prop E took effect on July 1, 2017, increasing the public‑works inventory from about 30,000 to 125,000 trees. The program’s established maintenance budget is $19 million annually. Short told the committee BUFF’s first‑year accomplishments include addressing about 19% of total maintenance needs, removing more than 1,900 unhealthy or structurally unsound trees, repairing more than 262,000 square feet of tree‑related sidewalk damage and eliminating more than 4,600 tripping hazards through concrete slicing. She said BUFF prioritized “the worst first” and used grid‑based pruning to drive efficiencies.
Short described outreach and procedural changes: an interactive key map that shows projected pruning times by address, door‑hanger neighborhood notifications before crews arrive, multilingual materials, and a formal opt‑out clause for property owners (the formal agreement was reported as forthcoming to the BUFF website). Short also described workforce steps: an in‑house arborist apprenticeship, contract requirements that include apprenticeship components, and an expansion of contractor capacity (BUFF reported hundreds of millions in contracting capacity and multiple contractors working citywide). She acknowledged hiring challenges — BUFF initially hired only a small number of qualified arborists and is staffing up over time.
On tree planting, Short said Prop E was designed to secure stable maintenance funding and did not fund large‑scale planting; BUFF estimated about $2,000 to plant and establish a tree for three years and said achieving the program goal of adding roughly 50,000 trees over time would require an estimated $12 million per year (about 6,000 trees per year), pending available sites. Short said BUFF is exploring carbon credits, grants, philanthropic partnerships and supervisor set‑asides to fund planting.
Dan Flanagan of Friends of the Urban Forest praised BUFF’s early implementation and national recognition, urged patience as the program scales, and said planting efforts will emphasize equity by focusing initial plantings in lower‑canopy neighborhoods in the southeast and western parts of the city.
Public commenters raised concerns about outreach and notice: Lisa Frome (Liberty Hill) and Michael Nolte said they found pruning or removals occurring with inadequate visible notice, and urged stronger door‑hanger notification and better tracking of removal notices; BUFF responded that door‑hangers, the interactive map and multilingual materials are in use and that the department will post the formal opt‑out agreement on its website and continue to work with 311 for emergency requests.
The committee heard the report and moved to hear and file the item without objection; supervisors thanked BUFF and Friends of the Urban Forest and discussed pursuing additional planting funding.
