San Francisco Is About To Get Hella Trees (Literally)

No, this article isn’t about weed. San Francisco has plenty of weed. This article is about trees. Like actual trees.

San Francisco has the reputation of an urban oasis, but is that reputation entirely true? Yes and no.

While San Francisco has vast expanses of open space and a robust city park system, the city has a smaller urban tree canopy than other American cities of a similar size. Part of this has to do with San Francisco’s rapid growth during the Gold Rush. As the population swelled, the city focused on housing and many sidewalks were too narrow for street trees. San Francisco’s urban tree canopy covers only 13.7% of its land area, significantly below the national average of 27%, leading to an inequitable distribution of trees, with underserved communities suffering the most. While San Francisco’s wealthy residential areas like Diamond Heights and Saint Francis Wood have several street trees and prominent urban canopies, neighborhoods like the Tenderloin, SoMa and the Bayview appear almost treeless in comparison. 

However, that is about to change: the federal government has provided San Francisco with a $12 million dollar grant that will be used to plant 30,000 new street trees in San Francisco. The initiative, dubbed the “Bloom Loop,” aims to expand the city’s tree canopy and counter the narrative that San Francisco faces a “doom loop” regarding its environmental health. Additionally, the Recreation and Parks Department will receive a $2 million grant to plant trees in southeastern city parks, along with workforce development efforts to create a local workforce capable of maintaining these trees.

San Francisco isn’t the only city with a deficient tree canopy. Oakland is also set to receive an $8 million grant to enhance its tree canopy on both public and private land, and addressing deferred maintenance issues on existing trees.

While the focus of the efforts will be on planting trees in underserved sections of the city, you don’t have to live in an underserved area to reap the benefits of the grant. Public Works will send an inspector to assess the suitability of the location. In underserved neighborhoods, tree planting will occur regardless of individual requests, while residents outside these areas can obtain permits from Public Works to plant trees, usually in collaboration with organizations like Friends of the Urban Forest, which offers tree care for the first three years at no cost to homeowners.

The added trees have obvious benefits, but one of the most important will be the added boost to the city’s air quality. As California suffers from seasonal wildfires, poor air quality has become a fact of life for Bay Area residents. One of the ways to combat this is to plant more trees, not only do they produce oxygen, they suck carbon out of the air  and can “catch” particulate matter. Tree canopies even reduce the temperature of neighborhoods that they’re in. I honestly don’t think that matters very much in terms of San Francisco since it’s always kind of windy and cold, but, ‘ya know, might as well mention that too.

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