The Friends of the Urban Forest, a non-profit organization that helps individuals and neighborhood groups plant and care for street trees and sidewalk gardens throughout San Francisco, is coming to the Richmond District for a planting event on Saturday, April 14.
If you’ve been thinking about planting a sidewalk tree outside your home, this is a great opportunity to get help from FUF and its volunteers.
A “Tree Package” includes a tree, permit processing, site preparation including concrete removal, and two post-planting tree care visits. Most of the costs are covered by grants, government funding and donations. As the tree recipient, you pay a fee of $105 per Tree Package, plus $30 for a FUF membership.
During the April 14 planting, FUF will add trees at over 25 properties in the Outer Richmond.
“Tree planting brings neighbors together,” said FUF Community Outreach Manager Doug Lybeck. “We love to help neighborhood residents transform and improve their blocks.”
If you’re interested in planting a sidewalk tree at your residence during the April 14 event, you have until March 14 to sign up. Contact Doug Lybeck at dougly@fuf.net or 415-268-0773.
Fun fact: Since 1981, FUF has planted over 46,000 trees, totaling 42% of San Francisco’s street tree canopy.
Sarah B.
They better not plant one in front of my 80 year father’s house. He’s 80, on a limited income. He physically cannot take care of trees and he does not have the income to hire a “city” approved tree person to maintain the tree.
It would have been ok if Ed Lee and the stupidvisors didn’t turn over tree maintenance to the citizens. Since the citizens have to maintain the trees out of their own pockets, then no, don’t you dare plant one in front of my father’s house.
^Don’t sweat, FUF takes care of these trees.
They should plant trees along Geary- that street is the ugliest in the city!
I can’t wait to get a tree in front of my house…. come back to the Inner RIchmond FUF!!! I’ll take care of it. 🙂
They may take care of the trees, but wait a few years when the roots break the sidewalk apart and some city a-hole with white spraypaint overindulges on the trigger in front of your home. Now you have to fix the sidewalks with an unobtrusive hairline crack because of the beautiful tree. Talk about desperate measures. Obviously the money is not going into city infrastructure.
Fix the damn pot-holes San Francisco! And, when you fix them, stop making speed-bumps.
Who are the idiots “fixing” our streets?!?
We don’t even have snow/ice-freeze/thaw cycles, and they’re worse than roads in Tahoe!
This city is rotting! Give it to the zombies!
To provide a little more context, FUF plants trees that are requested and paid for by the property owner, so there won’t be surprise trees popping out of nowhere. FUF selects trees that are an appropriate size and type for the available space and maintains the trees for two years with additional services available. Note that FUF is a nonprofit that operates independently of the city (but goes through the city permitting process).
In addition to providing many environmental and economic benefits (improving air quality, reducing water runoff, blocking wind, reducing energy costs, increasing property values), trees have been proven to improve health and well being. So, fedup, perhaps you could help your father maintain a tree on his property? Maybe it would help him make it to 90 or even 100.
I noticed that the trees that are planted along Geary in the Outer Richmond have signs on them saying that upkeep of the trees is being turned over to the owners of the buildings in front of which the trees are. They don’t look so healthy as is – poor dears. What will become of them? The sidewalks are made narrower in that area by the profusion of racks in front of stores, holding the store’s wares, and the combination of racks of produce and the trees makes for a very narrow passageway for pedestrians. Perhaps more trees could be planted in the median strip? but who would care for them?? And, will all the sycamores on California St. be turned over to the owners of the houses and businesses for maintenance and care? They require pollarding regularly.
Clearly commenting is occurring without any factual basis.
First of all, you have to pay for your tree, and that payment takes care of five years of maintenance. So your 80 year-old father isn’t going to get one and his property values will suffer, along with the greater good and the neighborhood. (My 85 year-old dad planted three in the front of our building and it was one of the best things he ever did. Everyone comments how nice they look as they walk by. And if he can water it twice a week, so can you. And that’s all you have to do for the first five years.)
Second, none of the FUF trees are those varieties that grow so large that roots disrupt sidewalks or create obstacles overhead. You would know this if you even had a simple glance at their website.
Third, if all you look for is potholes and signs of a rotting city, well then that’s all you’re going to see. But since I helped my dad plant his trees, I see nothing but beautiful, healthy Arbitus Marinus (a local tree created by an amateur arborist locally, for our local climate, which accounts for over half the trees planted by FUF) and a wonderful city that, if it were so horrible, why aren’t property values like Detroit’s?
Well put, Jill.
It’s great that some people have finaly began to improve this neighborhood with something as simple as planting a tree. I think that it is great the city is forcing people to act like humans not animals, as everywhere you look throughout the richmond and sunset is cement. Trees are easy to take care of, require little to no watering, and improve the area as a whole. I just hope they stay true to usual tree species found throughout san francisco such as pine, eucalyptus, cypress, and the trees found on lake street. The the reason I say this is because the picture above shows some sort of ugly desert brush which is way out of place.
Thanks, Jill, for that lovely comment. I often have to take moratoriums from reading comments on news sites and articles about issues I care about, such as urban public space, landscaping and transit issues. I’m glad there are other people out there that care about making the city a better and more beautiful place to live, walk, and visit for everyone – not just on your own private property. I also am glad to see there are others who notice the cement-ridden wastelands that unfortunately characterize most of SF’s sidewalks particularly in the Richmond & Sunset neighborhoods. No stoops, hardly any trees, no gardens, no benches, no color, no personality – nowhere for people to enjoy a coffee, check out a unique plant, enjoy the sun, play with their kids, or put a Halloween pumpkin.
See? There are good people in our area who are thinking of the greater good, of our fellow citizens, and of how to make the world (or our little piece of it) a better place. When you see grouchy, self-absorbed comments, just remember to do what you’d do if you were at Thanksgiving dinner: keep quiet, smile, and remember that grouchy old Grandpa probably doesn’t even know what year it is.
Don’t do it! The root guard FUF installs fails after 5 years. $3000.00 later to fix the sidewalk that coincidently the city tagged. The city gives you one month to fix it otherwise face fines and penalties! Our neighbour had it worse! His tree in front of his home destroyed his sewer pipes and he had to spend $10,000.00 to fix the tagged sidewalk as well as his sewer. It’s a scam! DON’T DO IT!!! GO TO THE PARK IF YOU WANT TO LOOK AT TREES!!!
DO IT! It’s worth it. Some streets in the Richmond are concrete wastelands. We need more urban trees. I love FUF. I donate every year.
Some of the naysayers are bringing up worst case scenarios and are misinformed. I have two trees in front of our house and we’re happy to take care of them. It doesn’t cost that much. Yes, for SOME trees sidewalk damage may occur over time. But how often would that happen? Once every ten years?
HOWEVER – I do agree that it doesn’t seem right that the city completely absolves itself of caring for trees and tree-related issues on sidewalks.
Just talked to Doug at FUF and he said that there’s a second Richmond district planting — for the Central Richmond — scheduled for May 19. So, April 19 is the deadline for that planting. Central is defined as Park Presidio to 30th Ave., he said. Cool!
Thanks, Laura. Those other planting events, including one for the inner Richmond, will be announced in a future post.
Sarah B.
Fear is so much easier than becoming informed. The trees FUF plants are not just any old random varieties. They’ve been at this for several decades, so they know what trees work best with overhead lines, sidewalks, our climate, and other issues. Besides, $100 a tree is nowhere near the actual cost for permitting, getting utility permits, cutting sidewalks, tree and soil purchase, the labor to plant the tree, and five years of maintenance.
Everyone benefits, and if you don’t see that you probably don’t see my point anyway.