Urban Forestry Program Goals

In San Francisco, we have an estimated 110,000 street trees and about 131,000 park trees. Combined with the other open space and private property trees, we have about 669,000 trees in the City, representing canopy coverage of 11.9 percent—half the canopy enjoyed by residents of New York City.
Despite the significant benefits provided by our trees, City agencies that manage portions of the urban forest face chronic funding shortages, resulting in continual deferment of needed maintenance. Because of this ongoing lack of management resources, we cannot plant as many trees as we lose, resulting in a net loss of trees year after year.
In order to improve the environmental, social, and economic benefits that our trees provide, we need to improve the care they receive and increase the number of trees we plant. The Street Tree Action Plan calls for doubling the number of street trees in San Francisco and increasing funding to the Department of Public Works’ street tree program. We need dedicated funding mechanisms to increase the number of trees we plant and achieve a healthy and sustainable urban forest in the City.