care of the tree or invest or have the resources so they hire someone speak don't a terrible job and one of the concerns in the program is the actual loss of the trees either total neglect or what is sometimes wours extensive damages from the pruning. >> what happens we know that even though some of the stereotypes that all property owners are weighty we know many san franciscans that are not weighty they've bought it thirty or 40 years ago what happened when someone didn't have the resources to take care of the tree i mean, there's no exemption for that. >> there's no exemption for that at the time. >> thanks. >> i'll quickly go over the process that is outlined in the

public works so article 16 to transfer the maintenance to the adjacent property owners but outlines the steps so prior to the transfer of trees the are tree needs to be inspected there's no immediate maintenance required we have to post a notice on the tree and provide information for tree care and address concerns and have a public hearing as requested by someone that has received a street tree so, now some of the challenges for the tree transfer we have many property owners that are unwilling to care for their trees they're facing maintenance and some of the trees are large trees maintained by the city tend to be healthy and larger so

if we are transferring those trees in many cases are transferring robust trees to property owners one of the biggest concerns of the concerns of qualify of cares and the destruction of trees and loss the efficiency of scale by having one prove or disprove maintain one tree and another company to be hired to do the maintenance this is what i mentioned 24 is a real word example of the concerns about the loss of the trees due to the program this is the tree on the left and tree on the right are the same tree although it's gone as a result of the skeptic pruning the tree died so the city lost the benefits and the thirty years

ago of benefits is going up and down gone this prove or disprove did it because of the fear of the tree being transferred to him this is zealously exactly the type of thing we don't want to have happen and hope won't happen in the future but it is a real concern of the program right now kind of the primary purpose to give you an update of the status there are one hundred and 5 thousand trees in san francisco and the estimate of the city where we don't have a good consensus of centralizing because they're not planted with a permit and in addition areas like sunset that are like park and inventory data on the trees is not one hundred percent accurate so currently that's our estimate after having transferred just over 6 thousand

trees to property owners about 70 thousands are the maintenance of the adjacent property owners we anticipate after the program puc will continue to maintain 189 or 18 thousand 6 hundred trees located in public mediums or areas adjacent to public lands for property owners to take care of the property trees we have not inspected the trees because we don't have the resources and supervisor wiener there are a number of trees we were not able to transfer because they've been neglected because of our inability to prune them we have to fix the sidewalks before transferring them to the prove or disprove we transferred 3 thousand trees to property owners because we were

given a budget allocation to continue the transfer and we've also transferred trees to other agencies so the agencies other city agencies buildings and as a result of the program we're going saying we can't do this so we're making you responsible for the trees outside of their properties. >> it transfer doesn't save public money it is only a different action that is doing it less efficiently. >> it doesn't save the public money but we're able to allocate that to other agencies. >> other agencies part of the city budget for whatever it might be are having to spend money stay great cost per tree because they don't have the

in-house staff. >> that's valid. >> hi carla when our talking about transferring trees back to other agency when was that transfer made. >> it was done in fiscal year 2013-2014 and after we transferred trees to residential owners or homeowners. >> yeah. it's concurly we identified the trees adjacent to other city agencies but we're continuing to transfer trees to adjacent property owners and presumably if we come across other tree that is a city agencies responsible we'll transfer that. >> when the trees are transferred and accident homeowners are unable to pay is there some kind of a special

program for a senior new tree owner. >> we've investigated this and worked with we have a program for sidewalk repairs for low income property owners it is a loan program but very if i people take advantage of this to qualify for the program you own property few people quality under the regulations for that aid and do you know what the qualifications are is it simple or complex and i can get you that information but the barrier is the property is worth enough money again, if that's not a liquid asset. >> do you you know what the loan program interest rate. >> i i know there's a 12 percent administration active fee. >> a 12 percent mosaic active nia fee? okay. thank you >> so in terms of of the total

number of trees that starting so when relinquishment went into effect 2011 to today how many trees have been transferred total. >> would you like me to count the other city agency trees. >> yeah. >> it's about 6 - 66 hundred trees. >> how many trees have yet to be transferred. >> just over 15 thousand. >> okay. when do you think this will be complete when will everything be transferred to the prrpdz. >> we have a very a.m. ambitious goals we'll not be able to meet the goal but like i said many of the trees need pruning or sidewalks repair

we'll have to do that beforehand of transferring them so if we get additional resources in a few years to complete the transfer program the magnitude to complete the transfer program over the next few years if we're assuming 5 thousand is $7.5 million. >> if you don't receive the fund just do the transfer funds and dpw will have a limb along taking care of the trees. >> that's right we'll complete the maintenance through our limited allocation we'll try to transfer those are trees. >> the real i think one of the real challenges is there's a temptation to try really hard in

the budget years to give a bunch of money to dpw to take care of the trees but we've also seen and this goes back thirty or 40 years the trees perform very, very parolee in the city budget process we're competing against that believe and other priorities to trees tend to get run under the bus quickly when you have a challenging budget year of we found the budget we have very, very loss confidence level the city will maintain the priorities which is why it's important we establish a dedicated funding stream and i everything we've talked over time about the possibility of exploring the parcel tax this is

conditioned on the city assuming responsibility for all the trees which will save many property owners money paying $80 a year on a parcel tax and being revved of the responsibility to prune the trees and fix the sidewalks a benefit to many property owners but you know that's a big deal to do a parcel tax and by no means guaranteed so it's a challenging situation i want to thank you and all the men and women of dpw for really doing a lot with limited resources. >> thank you so i i could quickly respond to supervisor chiu's question. >> so one thing earlier when i was making my comments i was refrnl my letter to the mayor, i acknowledge dpw staff has worked

to pull an action plan together and details outside of your control thank you for that and i said we have a number of constituents from around the city but the northeast neighborhoods that have been focused on this particularly it's a frustrating situation for your staff and my constituents but hope to address some of the immediate despairs. >> question have had meetings are many of our constituents and developed an action plan because of the relatives. >> could you summarize that for the constituents. >> we've gone work on hiding street because the trolley cars to be sure we're not compacting

bare ability to provide the service the goal to focus on sending the fixing us trees and reducing the heights it's important to recognize that we oftentimes people say cut the top of the tree so it's not so big and that will create a stressful responses that makes the limitations grow bigger and weaker so we're working on trying to reduce the canopy quickly and send out the trees as quickly as possible we anticipate we'll have the funding to do 70 trees in terms of the process and have a crew out there actually december and reaccess we have already inspected and prioritized those

trees for removal we'll be funding the replanning department of trees with the annual prop k allocations i'm sorry. >> we'll not take the funding we'll focus that funding on limited removals. >> i appreciate that from my prospective this is a good first step and a lot more to do i know that supervisor wiener and i and your did not have talked about the long-term and ideally if we have some way to pay for all the trees in the city i want to mention i've heard from constituents i think that everyone that has a tree knows none of us tenants or homeowners are experts in trees you reed really need folks with the training and knowledge how to do

the right common place there's been suggestions of improvement district or other ways in certain neighborhoods allowing on that will be less well equipped to pay as an individual for tree removal or tree maintenance but will be willing to pay the city can you give us some of the thoughts i think i feel like this is a a band-aid approach. >> i agree with you i think one of the important things to recognize that trees benefit the city as a whole so i think for our prospective having a program that louts u allows us to maintain the trees citywide and my colleague john will talk about the finding and the

research of the urban forestry plan there are as part of the plan we worked with american people consultant to do a financing study to identify the needs and look at some of the funding mechanisms but if we have the information i'll very long while some districts maybe more able to finance trees in their own district from a boarder management prospective we would like to see a citywide program to take care of the trees because some districts for whatever reasons because of lower confirmation or greater industrial area you're not necessarily going to get the support and yet those areas need the tree care greater or equal to the areas that might be able to fund some things on a district basis. >> i want to apologize i'm not

a member of this committee unfortunately, i have to go to another meeting my staff is.org a meeting of residents in my district for later next week to talk about the progress i look forward to i know that your team has been doing i want to thank you your unbelievably understaffed and hearing we want to find the resources it's going to take a lot of work to convince san francisco this is a problem we need to fund but absolutely need to do it for the height and safety of our city. >> thank you next, i want to invite up friends of the urban forest gordon if you want to go first oh, gordon.

>> 81 hi supervisors appreciate our support i'm going to show visible example of poor tree car that carla was speaking about it also i say arborists and planning managers of the friends of the urban forest. >> sfgovtv? >> okay. here's some examples i want to show of different trees that have been inkwoiptly pruned by the

homeowners here are two trees fortunately a neighbor was able to prevent the trees from being combror pruned this is an example of what happens to trees that are inappropriately presumed this is not pursuant - >> i'm sorry i don't know about what am i looked at this is what happens is this, if you know argues. >> this is response for the wound trying to heal itself up it is an imposed wound so a tree if pursuant correctly can grow a bark over wounds and protect

itself if it's open to this it is for bacteria and other illnesses. >> here's a tree that is severely topped and this is what it looks like on the left and now. >> here are more trees they get the brunt of the bad pruning and a straw beggar the only thing it is obligate for kindling it is not good for anything else. >> what. >> it is goor for kilgd not

good for other growth. >> in the new zealand christmas tree in the western neighborhoods. >> here again more visible example of inappropriate pruning this is what happens when it starts to grow back foliage at the base and eventually into big clumps and this was a tree that was pruned while go and to the untrained eyes people might say it looks at fine but it's unhealthy. >> what is wrong with it. >> it is at this point if the branches are cut back too far

the tree responds by shooting out new growth and they compete it's called sucker growth to become the new branch and i can't think of the exact terms they are they have weak connections to the original tree so a likelihood of falling this is was in the chronicle of february 2014 a couple of trees it was shown before this is not a good picture the tree on the if you look behind the gentleman whereon flopt and one on the left the one to the left is to -

the one on the right did not make it so this is an example of unified care by the city this is decreasing our urban canopy and pictures of trees that have fallen because of inadequate care and this is known for weak wood so failure it possible with maintenance and is watched over 7, 8, 9 rot and other types of things that led to this would be found out and taken before a problem happens in district 58 tree fell down in the night another i believe this is shown

by supervisor chiu but not the same image it was due to limb under arrest here's another one i've shown those because those trees are in commercial neighborhood we're fortunate that no one has been hurt but a matter of time that's a huge concern to the public safety and finally for fun we have this picture here this is not happened in san francisco but an example that could happen trees falling from the storm they're not healthy enough to get through a storm and property damage could ensue thank you very much. >> thank you very much okay. we now have john sway

from the planning department for the urban master plan. >> good afternoon, everyone. supervisors i'm john sway with the planning staff and the manager of the city's urban forest plan i want to give you an update and copy for the supervisors so the urban forest plan a joint effort between the planning department and the rec and park department as well as work with the friends of the urban forest and the urban forestry council the goal to figure out a way to

manage the cities trees and grow our urban forestry so the plan will be taking place in 3 phases the first phase before i is the centralizing we've completed he earlier this year and we expect to be moving on to phase 2 regarding trees in the parks and third phase that addresses trees on backyards we have longer budget for street consensus for 12 though street trees and the urn policy document and the vision for the urban forestry plan to develop a healthy sustained urban forest for the city of san francisco

i'm going to highlight two of the elements most relevant to the confidence since as supervisor wiener mentioned we have one of the smallest canopies in the country and the goal to grow the street tree population by 50 percent so adding 50 though new street trees we have cities like los angeles and we think san francisco, california do this this involves 2200 new street trees a year and the street tree planting will be required street tree maintenance so establishing and funding a citywide street tree program so the city can take over the maintenance we conducted an urban financing study to look at what other cities are doing and the options

for san francisco we looked at different cities santa anyone can and portland and the case studies with the routine maintenance decreases costs like carla mentioned the block maintenance reduce the cost by 50 percent per tree given the dpws response to emergencies is this is not allowed to happen landowners pay for sewer repair for the tree roots that's a policy that changed and the final note that the municipal program provide a higher standard of care and something we're excited but we're going to be kicking off

the citywide street tree consensus we've received money from the capital committee and public works to develop a canopy of street trees we'll be going out and connecting information on all street trees in san francisco this is a highlight of the work-related to planning. >> thank you, mr. sway i know the plan will be coming to the board in the future supervisor chiu. >> mr. sway you mentioned our goal in the next 20 years to increase our street trees by $50,000 and la is increasing there's omi by one million dollars how are they funding it and for other cities like portland that shows up in they're in the study from pourld

0 other cities like seattle there's a bigger canopy how do they fund it the los angeles trees caption there's one in new york city those are high profile funding and they've been the friends of the urban forestry knows more but collected a lot of private money and there's large a nonprofit involved but a large committed of money from the city support to achieve something like that. >> you've raised a good point because it is i don't want to say easy by you can raise a lot of money to plant trees so in the interest of planting trees go to corporations and sexy to