(Here’s an item from FUF’s current newsletter that the Glen Park News thinks will be of interest to our community.)
Our rainstorms last month brought down hundreds of street trees in San Francisco — trees we can hardly afford to lose. Sadly, many were mature specimens with lots of foliage — real powerhouses that provide the greatest benefits.
They leave behind empty tree basins, and we already have too many of those! New trees should be planted in them now.
Our Replacement Tree Planting program has been dormant for the last couple of years due to factors related to the pandemic. But we’re relaunching it!
Our goal is to plant at least 30 replacement trees per month — which averages out to about a tree per day. We’ll start by replacing trees at sites in underforested neighborhoods such as the Bayview, and then we’ll replace trees in empty basins in other parts of the city where they’ll do the most good.
Replacement plantings also give us a chance to diversify our urban forest. As we plant new trees in empty tree basins, we can ensure that the street has a variety of species, which improves the likelihood that a single disease or pest won’t wipe out all the trees on the street.
This diversity also ensures that the natural lifespans of the trees on the street will vary. That’s one way our Replacement Tree Planting program improves neighborhood resilience!
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