Since 1981, Friends of the Urban Forest has provided financial, technical, and practical assistance to San Franciscans for:

Tree Planting
Each year, Friends of the Urban Forest helps communities plant nearly 1,000 trees. Neighbors organize the plantings. Friends of the Urban Forest obtains permits, removes sidewalk concrete, supplies tools and materials and selects, purchases and delivers the trees. On planting day, Friends of the Urban Forest volunteers work side-by-side with residents. After the work is done, everyone celebrates over a community lunch.

At plantings neighbors meet, often for the first time, to improve their streetscape. Spirits are high and everyone has a good time for the common good.

Tree Care
In 1995, Friends of the Urban Forest formally instituted Tree Care to improve tree health and to increase survival rates. Friends of the Urban Forest’s certified arborists, assisted by volunteers and trainees, prune and restake existing street trees. Tree Care aims to provide essential maintenance services and to educate neighbors, through mailings and hands-on assistance, on how to care for their trees.

Friends of the Urban Forest is committed to increasing its resources for Tree Care, which is essential to maintain and enhance the community’s investment in San Francisco’s urban forest.

Community Involvement and Youth Education
Friends of the Urban Forest seeks to increase public awareness and appreciation of the importance of trees to San Francisco. In addition to its newsletter and other periodic publications, it offers tree tours, quarterly pruning workshops, and leadership training.

Friends of the Urban Forest’s Youth Tree Care Program, which trains economically disadvantaged youth in planting and tree care, encourages young people to engage with their communities and introduces them to careers in urban forestry. Friends of the Urban Forest is committed to expanding this well-received program.

In all its programs, Friends of the Urban Forest seeks to improve our City’s environment, build community and connect San Franciscans with the natural world and with each other.

"Because of the dedication of Friends of the Urban Forest we have seen neighborhood streets that would have been bare expanses of concrete transformed into lovely tree-lined vistas. " — Carol and Norbert Volk