Seen While Walking: Sidewalk Safety Repair

Tree roots buckled this sidewalk of Baker at Fell but no longer

The North Panhandle's mature trees often buckle the sidewalks, creating hazards for the unwary or distracted stroller. One property owner on Baker Street at Fell decided to not risk liability for injuries and replaced the concrete surrounding two of the large street trees fronting the building.

It's always an improvement to have smoother, safer sidewalks, but the neighborhood would benefit from more permeable sidewalks to absorb storm water runoff. Using the sidewalk replacement in these photos as examples, several feet on either side of the trees could have been opened for additional planting or filled with loose materials instead. One recent example of a new formulation for sidewalks can be seen at the Zygmunt Arendt House at Broderick and Golden Gate (previously reported here). A residential model of open sidewalk space is in place at Broderick and Hayes.

Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) will be sponsoring a street-tree planting in NOPA on July 31st, and all the new trees will be welcome. Property owners will get the benefit of a subsidy to cover cutting and removing the concrete for the new trees and for the trees, but the city currently levies an additional fee for anyone who wants enlarged basins. A fee waiver here could greatly increase green space and return rainwater to the aquifer at relatively small cost.

"New Tree Here" Saturday July 31

The spaces are marked, the concrete is cut, the trees are selected, and the countdown to new leafy trees in NOPA has begun. Get ready to welcome the green on neighborhood streets as neighbors and Friends of the Urban Forest plant a mini-forest on our blocks Saturday, July 31st. The community planting has a good long history in NOPA, and we can thank the foresight of those neighbors who helped green our streets. More info here and see if you can spot the new ones this upcoming weekend.

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

Bikes and Trees: What's More Livable?

How much more green can you get? Here's a chance to learn all about San Francisco's greatest urban forest, Golden Gate Park, from celebrated local author and arborist Mike Sullivan. And the guided tour is on bike.

Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF) is sponsoring Golden Gate Park Tree Tour on Bike this Sunday, Sept. 13th, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Here's FUF's announcement (and after reading this take a look at the other great work by FUF; most of NOPA's street trees were planted with FUF's assistance).

Gigantic New Zealand Christmas Trees with air root dreadlocks? Who knew?

There's more: check out Mike Sullivan's website (only a very proud tree-hugger features a pic of himself with a full-on bark embrace). Locate the more than 200 landmark trees in San Francisco, and find the two landmarks located in Panhandle Park with two more on NOPA's stretch of Masonic Avenue.

The Dying Trees on Turk Street

What's killing the street trees on the north side of Turk Street? Lack of water and lack of care certainly; lack of a plan evidently. Last January or February that much-too-wide expanse of asphalt, a.k.a. Turk Street, was graced with more than thirty street trees planted between Broderick and Central on the north side. Neighbors noted the 20 foot Ash Fraxines

trees standing tall and erect like a row of soldiers ready to enliven this traffic corridor while they did their environmental duty.

But now the once bright green leaves are browning and most branches have lost all their leaves. The Department of Public Works' Bureau of Urban Forestry used a contractor to plant the trees, but neither the contractor nor the city had a plan for watering the trees. One Turk Street neighbor reports that the trees haven't been watered even once.

Greening San Francisco makes little sense when a project literally goes Brown.

The city maintains trees planted along certain streets but not others. According to the city Street Tree Map, the city is responsible for street trees on both sides of Turk Street from Laguna to Broderick; further west from Broderick, tree care is the responsibility of the property owner. But many of the residences along this stretch are perched high above on the Anza Heights cliff -- not exactly easy to water the trees below. And it's not clear that the property owners were even notified of the new plantings that were placed by a city contractor.

DPW reports that city foresters are aware of the problem. The department's Urban Forester, Carla Short, is now managing the contract and is trying to get the trees watered on a regular basis. But for now, the trees continue to die for lack of water.

If you're concerned about the dying trees on Turk Street, call 311 and request that DPW develop a long-term plan as well as providing immediate relief to save the trees. You can also contact the Bureau of Urban Forestry at 641-2676. Urban Forester Carla Short can be reached at 641-2674.