better pedestrian and walking environments and raise property values we need to do a better job of taking care of the see economic structure public works has jurisdiction under all trees and is charged with madam secretary the urban forest our management includes planning, planting and maintenance and removal of trees in the public right-of-way we take care of the street trees for privately maintained trees as you stated at the introduction resources for tree maintenance has declined over the past few decades and public works is not able to care for the trees we have current maintenance responsible we

believe the transfer of the responsibility to prove or disprove is not ideal but important i want to emphasize the department has taken this over but industry standards say that trees are pruned every 43 to 5 years but we're on a schedule for 10 years lack of the maintenance we're well aware of the fears just a quick snapshot of the state of urban forest property owners have had the rocket for 2/3rd's of the trees and the department 1/3rd under the proposed program we'll continue to maintain a number of trees in the public medium and in the public facilities by the

majority of the street trees adjacent to private property is transferred to the private property owners for maintenance this justice an example of decline of resources and the impact on the pruning cycle as you can see in our had a deal 19 arborists and over time this has declined and currently only 11 arborists i note that acknowledging the shortfall from funding recently to launch an arrest warrant above the apprenticeship program we hope in the future they'll help to improve the circle but they're providing ground support - >> can you ask you as of 2002, 2007 and 8 as the recession was

getting started 19 and up to that number so actively when you had 9 how infrequent were you doing maintenance. >> we were on a six or seven year maintenance program with 19. >> even with 19 is not adequate it was even more. >> that's exactly right i'll note that as we've had the reduction in staffing we end up ronald inform more emergencies because we're in active to remove a tree and unfortunately, that limb breaks and ferocious circle it creates for emergencies in many ways the reduction in staffing has increased because we're doing more and more emergency response

and less pro-active trimming so again, just to note the purpose behind transferring the maintenance responsibility to align the public works assets with the available resources to allocate responsibility for equality soiling 2/3rd's of the trees have been the responsibility of the city and this is argue will i makes it for equal citywide this was to provide the caregivers maintenance for the trees we were failing in our responsibility to care for the trees the idea for the caregivers was to protect the pedestrian safety. >> in terms of your experience i know that at some point in terms of how property owners

approach their maintenance be responsibility i know there are owners who do a good job and on that don't do people for the 65 thousands are the responsibility and have been for quite sometime do people tend to know or others blow it off. >> thank you for asking many property owners take great care of their trees and everyday at work he get a question from people that has no idea the tree in front of of their property is not their responsibility this is a property owner that may have would on the property for 10 or 15 years so those trees are getting absolutely no care that leads to limb failure and this demonstrates the property owners as you stayed don't want to take 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