San Francisco Forest Alliance is a 501(c)4 not-for-profit organization with a mission of inclusive environmentalism. We fight to protect our environment through outreach and providing information. We oppose the unnecessary destruction of trees, oppose the use of toxic herbicides in parks and public lands, and support public access to our parks and conservation of our tree canopy. We stand for transparency in the use of public funds.
To see our latest post on our BLOG, CLICK HERE.
The organization was founded to fight the disastrous Significant Natural Areas Resource Management Plan (“Sin Ramp”). Despite over a decade of opposition, the Plan was finally pushed through and is being implemented.
Here’s why we opposed it:
San Francisco’s “Natural” Resources Department (NRD) is spending millions of our tax dollars to:
- Fell trees: Some 18,500 trees are being cut. (For more details about where, CLICK HERE.)
- Block trails and access: Around 10 miles of trails are being closed or “relocated”; dog-play areas may be closed down; public access to park features will be blocked or restricted. (CLICK HERE for more details of what and where.)
- Apply toxic pesticides: The Natural Resources Department uses more Tier I (most hazardous) herbicides than any comparable park area. For more information about NAP’s pesticide use, CLICK HERE. For information about the chemicals they use, CLICK HERE.
(The rebranded “Natural Resources Department was formerly known as “Natural Areas Program” or NAP, and since the change is recent, this website will often refer to NAP. For more details on NAP’s plans, CLICK HERE.)
OUR MISSION:
Halt destruction of city park trees and wildlife habitat
- Reverse plans that deny public access to trails and natural areas
- Eliminate unwarranted toxic pesticide hazards to children, wildlife and the public
- Stop misuse of tax revenue and funding within city natural areas.
If you are a neighbor, parent, hiker, runner, outdoor enthusiast, dog walker, or environmentalist, please help keep our parks natural and accessible for all to enjoy!
HOW CAN I HELP?
Sign our ONGOING online petition! Forward it to your friends!
Ask the Sierra Club to stop advocating for tree destruction and supporting pesticide use!
Six other important ways you can help:
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- Subscribe to this site to keep updated (click on the Keep Me Informed button, top right).
- “Like” our Facebook page – follow us on Twitter – follow us on Instagram
- Write letters to your Supervisor, the Mayor, Recreation and Park Department, & Recreation and Park Commission.
- Spread the word! Encourage your friends and neighbors to sign our petition online!
- Write or email us, help build our “critical mass” of supporters. Tell us what you think, give us your ideas. Our email is SFForestNews at gmail.com
- Donate to SFFA. You can send a check to SF Forest Alliance, and mail it to SFFA, P.O.Box 460668, SF, CA 94146 or click on the button below to donate via our Paypal account (Note: you do not need a PayPal account to make your donation):
(Donations are not tax-deductible. Why?)
San Francisco Forest Alliance 
Congratulations on the launch of this vital source of information to the public about the damage being done in the parks of San Francisco by the misguided Natural Areas Program. As you point out, this program is doing far more harm than good to the environment and the animals and humans who live in it.
And thanks to the Forest Alliance for this effort to inform the public and advocate for a less destructive and restrictive approach to the maintenance of the city’s parklands.
We hope that those who are interested in the controversial impact of the native plant movement in the San Francisco Bay Area will visit the Million Trees website for information about similar destructive projects all over the Bay Area.
MILLIONS of our tax dollars wasted — Fell trees: Some 18,500 trees are to be cut.
For the past 15 years as the founder of the SF Tree Council and 8 years founding member of the city’s Urban Forest Council, I have seen unnecessary and very costly destruction of our city’s healthy forests, for the pleasure of nativists.
There are no natural, sustainable native plant areas that can compare with the many benefits and immense values of San Francisco’s man made forest. It is outrageous that these few people, just as developers, destroy neighborhoods by removing all the trees first, then after 15 years they still have nothing to show for it but little plastic flags – so they know where they had to replant their supposedly sustainable plants!
They waste thousands of dollars each year to maintain the appearance of a natural area – but what is natural is what they still clear cut –lush, dense, secluded forest that the majority of people love; which only produces a profusion of weeds!
They see weedy results and continue to do it!! Just like the emperor’s new clothes — they blindly agree because they don’t want to feel stupid for not seeing the native plants.
It is a real shame and the same old “jealousy of the gods,” against Mother Nature who has been so creative for millenniums! These few idiots think they know better — better than the evolution of multifaceted combinations — truly amazing diversity, and a bazillion different variety of plants and trees!
The reality of the past fifteen years of the (Un)Natural Areas Program is destruction, an attitude of arrogance and blindness to what they have done and what they are doing. They are creating an environment more naturalistic than what we have but with none of the beauty and so, they call it “natural”. They think they are God and have illegally killed (girdled) large mature trees in our public parks – most recently on Mt. Davidson.
Carolyn Blair
Founder, San Francisco Tree Council
Founding Member SF Urban Forest Council
2310 Powell Street, #305
San Francisco, CA 94133
sftreecouncil@dslextreme.com
415 982 8793
Thank you for your work. I want to support you; where do I send contributions to do the most good?
Webmaster: Contributions to defray direct expenses for this effort are greatly appreciated. Checks payable to San Francisco Forest Alliance can be mailed to our PO box 460668, San Francisco, CA 94146. Thank you for your support.
[Edited to add: There’s also a Paypal button now.]
hi, my name is terry mcdevitt. i recently attended your meeting at the miraloma clubhouse.i thoroughly agree with your efforts. having just retired after close to forty years of working as a gardener for rec &park i must say you’ve hit the nail on the head. i’ve watched the n.a.p. program since its inception- it has become the biggest waste of dollars and counterproductive sef- serving group i’ve ever encountered in the system.
an informal opinion poll of most of the park workers i know (including the reforestation tree toppers ) agrees- the program should be shut down.
many rec & park workers live around mt. davidson. some i’ve talked to are interested in helping on this issue-walking flyers etc. to get the word out. we’ve got to use the media to battle this group as they are extremely politically and media connected. in that regard i suggest you contact a group called ocean edge that is battling putting plastic fields at the beach chalet in g.g.p., a project that proposes cutting a hundred or more trees out of golden gate park. please phone me at [phone number] and i’ll see what i can do
The way to become politically connected is to approach government leaders. I know of a couple of other groups who have contacted politicians in this city and who keep up regular communications with them. That is really the best way to get things done in S. F. I suggest that the officers of the Forest Alliance invite the Mayor and Supervisors to a board meeting. The petition should be submitted to them directly and regular updates given these officials to demonstrate the popularity of this movement. It might be wise to press a ballot issue to inform citizens of our city of what NAP has done, is doing and plans for the future. Their best objective will be to keep this issue out of the public eye and continue to lobby the local politicians out of the view of the public.
This looks like an interesting resource that helps calculate the value of trees: http://www.itreetools.org/
“i-Tree is a state-of-the-art, peer-reviewed software suite from the USDA Forest Service that provides urban forestry analysis and benefits assessment tools. The i-Tree Tools help communities of all sizes to strengthen their urban forest management and advocacy efforts by quantifying the structure of community trees and the environmental services that trees provide.”
Hi. I’m trying to find any SF group or advocate for helping save the magestic ficus along the Potrero ave corridor. For the last 10 years the sfdpw has slowly been cutting down these trees due to maintenance costs. The trees have been so improperly maintained they have been now destined to be destroyed due to the overhead heavy canopy( which the sfdpw was responsible for creating). Any help in forwarding me information on how I can help spread the word is greatly appreciated.
[Webmaster: Unfortunately, the city has decided that ficus are particularly risky, and have fast-tracked ficus removal. Here is an article from the SF Chronicle blog: http://blog.sfgate.com/cityinsider/2014/12/01/san-francisco-makes-it-easier-to-remove-dangerous-ficus-trees/
You may want to get an arborist to look at the trees and confirm that the ones you want to save are not dangerous. Then write to the city, start a petition, get it on Facebook. Good luck!]
Let`s join together and conserve the resources that surround us.
Thank you for the good topic
Thank you for the good topic
Fundamentalism can be expressed in many forms. In general, it can be understood as intolerance, if not hatred itself, for groups that seem different from one’s own.
The NAP program employs tactics that not only demonize certain species, but accelerate ecosystem devastation. By denigrating healthy, slow-growing hardwood trees relentlessly in the media and at government meetings, Nativists enhance hatred and encourage clear cutting. As such, they promulgate ecosystem collapse.
These trees stand by silently. In spite of the hate-filled rhetoric, they are our silent soldiers: They join us by working every day of their lives fighting catastrophic climate change.
These trees epitomize beauty, good neighborliness and generosity, whereas developers are merely focused on their own immediate gain.
These trees are part of our community.
We need to come together as one human family and expose the Fundamentalists and Corporations’ misguided projects– which promote beliefs about the supremacy of certain species over others. It is such thinking that has fueled genocidal acts throughout time.
Please rise up and help fight for the very life of our Planet. United, we can save the lives of the powerless, and those who are voiceless. It is now or never!
The trees on Mt. Davidson (and elsewhere) are moisture catchers, oxygen producers, air coolers and habitat for a multitude of fauna. Removing them will displace the animals and rob us of a truly naturalized area.Also the NAP’s plan for the paths will actually created a broader erosion problem instead of naturally worn paths.
Yes, all those points are true.
To see photos of the cloud forest on Mt. Sutro in order to understand what is to be lost if we let it, go to Rupa Bose’s talk and slideshow at an East Bay Pesticide Alert presentation about this larger Bay Area issue, driven by UC Berkeley in the East Bay:
http://www.eastbaypesticidealert.org/wildfire.html Scroll down just a tiny bit to get to the videos of presentations and go to the one from July, 2013, entitled: Invasion Biology or Integration Biology? You can view Ken Cheetham’s gorgeous photos of the big trees under attack in the East Bay Hills shown at the July, 2015, event entitled: East Bay Hills Forests: Invasive Fire Hazards or Natural Treasures.You will have scrolled past that to have gotten to the 2013 event on that webpage.
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