Oakland’s Vegetation Management Plan is to cut down thousands of trees and use toxic pesticides to prevent resprouting. If you wish to comment, the deadline is June 11, 2018. Send your email to VMPcomments@oaklandvegmanagement.org

We’ve published a brief comment here (see below).

Here’s our comment:

The San Francisco Forest Alliance is a non-profit (501 (c)4) organization that was created in 2012 to advocate for the preservation of our urban forest and eliminate the use of pesticides in our public parks. Our mission is Inclusive Environmentalism.

We are familiar with the strategy of justifying the destruction of non-native trees based on the claim that they are more flammable than native trees, because it has been used in San Francisco – although there is no history of and little risk of wildfire here.

Oakland’s Draft Vegetation Management Plan appears to be using the same rationale for destroying healthy trees and using pesticides to prevent them from resprouting. We are therefore writing to request that the draft be revised to limit all tree destruction to the creation of defensible space around structures, as defined by California law. We also request that Oakland not use pesticides to implement its vegetation management plan.

At a time of climate change, destroying healthy trees is irresponsible. Climate change is a global environmental issue that effects everyone, including the residents of San Francisco. Therefore, we ask that unnecessary tree removals be avoided.

Likewise, the use of pesticides in our watershed is an unnecessary health hazard that affects all residents around the San Francisco Bay, including wildlife.