Five More Days to Get a Street Tree: July 6 Deadline for Friends of the Urban Forest Planting in NOPA

How about a New Zealand Christmas Tree to make your block greener?

Photo: Friends of the Urban Forest

This empty spot all ready for a tree

Prime sites for greener sidewalks (and no more liability)

On July 31st Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) staff and North Panhandle neighbors will continue a much-appreciated tradition: they'll plant street trees along neighborhood streets.

Soon after I first moved to NOPA thirteen years ago, I got involved with one of the recurring campaigns to get more trees planted. It was a lengthy process of recruitment and what seemed like tons of paperwork -- all hard copies to collect and copy and mail -- to reach the point where we had enough interested residents to qualify for a community planting. Once thirty-some sites were verified and prepared, a group of neighbors and other volunteers moved from one open spot to another planting the selected trees. Today when I walk or bike down Grove Street near Baker I appreciate how large the trees have grown alongside the Pacific Primary School (the new "Orange Sun" building) that I helped plant. And I know neighbors throughout NOPA have those same connections to the greening of our streets.

Today a great many of NOPA's blocks have empty spots where trees could be, and several have open holes where trees once stood. Most of these are eligible for new trees, and neighbors have until Tuesday evening, July 6th to apply* for a tree and be part of the July 31st planting. The time has seldom been better, at least as far as the cost involved. FUF has obtained enough funding to subsidize more than 80% of the planting costs, including permits, cutting out the concrete areas, selecting the type of tree, and planting it.

Greg Harrell-Edge, FUF Community Outreach Coordinator, told BIKE NOPA that he and other staff are doing their best to get as many people enrolled in the planting as possible. He added that trees can also be planted in front yards if within three feet of the sidewalk. They were able to reach the required minimum number of confirmed plantings once Trader Joe's agreed to plant trees along the store's Masonic Avenue sidewalk.

For more information on planting street trees in the NOPA area:

• Friends of the Urban Forest website
• Greg Harrell-Edge, greg@fuf.net or call 415 561-6890, ext. 101