ed rifkin. i am sorry i was not able to be here at the beginning of the hearing. as to the process of relinquishing, we will only relinquish as we bring them into good condition. if they have been recently pruned, that is a requirement of the public works code, something we would want to do in any case. it will be somewhat tree by threree. often, it could be a block or stretch of a street. technically speaking coming it is a tree by tree. then we would notify the property owner when we have a tree in good condition ready for look relinquishment. supervisor avalos: but it looks like you will be looking at that in blocks? >> generally, yes. supervisor avalos: as far as your community maintenance program, is that all general fund? are there other sources of funding that cover that cost? >> it is predominantly a general fund. there is a little bit of general fund in the capital budget. i believe we get a little bit of prop k, a half cent sales tax money, for tree maintenance. the overa

when you were having those discussions with director rifkin last year, i was reporting as the director of urban forestry to the superintendent' of redwood city. he said to me, look, they are doing it in san francisco. my response was, it has not happened yet. at the time, i was also the chair of the san francisco urban forestry council, and we brought it up in discussions there. we knew that we would hear it again, if it were to come up again. i was hoping that silence was bliss, it was not. today, i actually want to put all of that aside and tell you my seven-year story of the trees it within the 200-foot radius in my home. i am a solid middle-class tenants, not property owner in district 3. this is the view across the street from my home. this is the view a couple of doors down. these are trees maintained by the property owners. there is no maintenance. this is how the trees looked when i moved in seven years ago. then there is excessive maintenance. these are the trees two doors down. these could probably qualify for a fine. here is another tree within a 200-foot radius of my home.

rifkin? >> thank you, ranking member sessions and remaining members of the subcommittee, very much for inviting me to testify today. on july 27 def 2010 approximately one year ago, the national aquarium was invited to testify before the senate subcommittee on a hearing titled assessing natural resource damages resulting in the bp deepwater horizon disaster. at that time, i emphasized the importance of independent research to address concerns related to our ability to accurately quantify potential chronic damages to natural resources in the gulf. the rationale for this was and still is based on the concern that the current gri tecum nrda was using the approach which adequately measures small quantities of petroleum contaminants which could of chronic and tax on the a leota, and this is important because small amounts of contaminants in the water and in the sediment for water three process, by the concentration whereby you magnification can increase exponentially. more specifically, in my testi

rifkin?>> thank you, ranking member sessions and remaining members of the subcommittee, very much for inviting me to testify today. on july 27 def 2010 approximately one year ago, the national aquarium was invited to testify before the senate subcommittee on a hearing titled assessing natural resource damages resulting in the bp deepwater horizon disaster. at that time, i emphasized the importance of independent research to address concerns related to our ability to accurately quantify potential chronic damages to natural resources in the gulf. the rationale for this was and still is based on the concern that the current gri tecum nrda was using the approach which adequately measures small quantities of petroleum contaminants which could of chronic and tax on the a leota, and this is important because small amounts of contaminants in the water and in the sediment for water three process, by the concentration whereby you magnification can increase exponentially. more specifically, in my testim

rifkin? is. >> good morning, chairman cardin, ranking member sessions and remaining members of the subcommittee. thank you very much for inviting me to testify today. on july 27th of 2010, approximately one year ago, the national aquarium was invited to testify before this senate subcommittee on a hearing titled "assessing natural resource damages resulting from the bp deepwater horizon disaster." at that time i emphasized the importance of independent research to address concerns related to our ability to accurate ri quantify potential chronic damages to natural resources in the gulf. the rationale for this view was and still is based on the concern that the current nrda process is not using a meth logical -- method logical approach which measures contaminants, and this is important because small amounts of contaminants in the water and in the sediment pore water through a process called bioconcentration or biomagnification increase exponentially. more specifically, my testimony and the writ