Pledge by San Francisco Environment Department
San Francisco, where people and nature thrive together
Uniting San Francisco’s organizations and individuals to enhance ecological health, ensure equitable nature access, and integrate resilient, biodiverse ecosystems into urban life.Supporting actions: Nursery Development, Tree Protection through Management, Workforce Development, Environmental Education, Conservation Finance,
This pledge represents several planning and policy documents already in place in San Francisco and is aligned with San Francisco’s C40 Urban Nature Accelerator commitment. Our vision is for all San Franciscans to experience nature daily, to steward local nature in their neighborhoods, and to champion our biodiverse, climate-resilient, and vibrant ecosystems throughout both natural and built environments.
Our simplified pledge components are:
- Produce a Climate Action Plan update, including a new Healthy Ecosystems Chapter with new reporting metrics.
- Maximize biodiverse greenspace citywide.
- Pursue requisite resources for street tree planting and natural lands and local biodiversity management.
- Provide that all San Franciscans have access to, can engage with, and are empowered to steward nature in their communities.
- Plant 30,000 new street trees, to reach a fully stocked street tree network of 155,000 trees.
Our more detailed citywide biodiversity goals and objectives are:
1. Biologically Rich Ecosystems: Restore and maintain robust and interconnected indigenous habitats, natural areas, open spaces, watersheds, marine ecosystems, and urban forests to support a rich web of life and mitigate climate change impacts to rare species and communities.
- Prioritize Indigenous science and Traditional Ecological Knowledge; enhance biodiversity and sustainable landscapes, conserve native flora and fauna; strengthen climate resilience; conduct comprehensive inventories of biological resources; and address issues adversely affecting habitats.
2. Equitable Access, Awareness and Experience of Nature: Connect all residents, workers, and visitors with nature daily through neighborhood green spaces, parks, and natural habitats.
- Advocate for environmental justice to ensure fair and equitable access to nature; provide easy access to green spaces for all residents; and offer guidelines and amenities for recreational uses that are compatible with natural resources.
3. Community and Ecological Stewardship: Empower people and partnerships to promote, cultivate, enjoy, and restore nature in every neighborhood.
- Increase equitable community participation and perspectives in nature-based climate solutions; foster local engagement and stewardship of nature; provide necessary tools and support for community-led nature projects across neighborhoods; and facilitate guidelines for educational and stewardship programs.
4. Ecological Planning and Design: Incorporate biodiverse, purposeful greening into all building and open space development, prioritizing the creation of diverse habitats for many species of wildlife.
- Make creating biodiverse landscapes a standard practice in all building and open space developments, and integrate biodiversity considerations into all stages of planning and design processes.
5. Resilience in a Living City: Leverage local natural ecosystems to conserve water, prevent flooding, manage pests, and improve air quality to support San Francisco’s adaptation into a climate-protected and ecological city.
- Implement practices for soil and water conservation; use ecosystems to enhance city resilience and environmental health; ensure adequate resources for effective natural lands management; and promote the use of nature-based solutions for biodiversity conservation and environmental protection.
This pledge is led by San Francisco Environment Department, in collaboration with the Recreation and Parks Department. Both City agencies are members of Reimagining San Francisco, a citywide alliance spearheaded by the California Academy of Sciences, which has 45 member organizations and agencies, and pursues the vision of a San Francisco where people and nature thrive together. The alliance is committed to enhancing San Francisco's ecological health and ensuring equitable access to local nature
San Francisco biodiversity program and policy | San Francisco Environment Department (SFE)
City of SF land management agencies. SF Environment and Recreation and Parks collaborate with the following additional City agencies: • Public Works • Public Utilities Commission • Port of San Francisco • Treasure Island Development Authority • Municipal Transportation Authority
The Reimagining San Francisco alliance currently has 45 members: reimaginingsf.org/members
Trees: 30,000
As mentioned previously, Public Works’ StreetTreeSF program is responsible for ongoing maintenance and management of the City’s 125,000 street trees.
Additionally San Francisco Departments DPW, RPD and PUC already operate nurseries that grow plants and trees for City projects. The newest nursery, the San Francisco Street Tree Nursery is located between the Fifth Street on and off-ramps to the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It will grow up to a thousand trees at a time, increase the small tree canopy in the South of Market neighborhood, and offer workforce development in urban forestry for those facing barriers to employment through the New Roots Program, operated in collaboration with the local non-profit Friends of the Urban Forest.
Multiple other partner organizations of the City and of Reimagining SF operate workforce development programs. For example, Friends of Alemany Farm runs the Urban Farm Apprenticeship program, and Literacy for Environmental Justice offers the Eco Apprenticeship program.
Conservation Actions
San Francisco’s landscape does not have natural forests but is permanently securing natural areas through the land ownership of Recreation and Parks and the transfer of City public lands owned by other agencies to Recreation and Parks and/or creating agreements for Recreation and Parks management.
Healthy tree-lined streets are a key component of San Francisco’s larger urban forest, which includes parks and open spaces that are conserved by Recreation and Parks. Since 2016, StreetTreeSF, a program of SF Public Works, has been caring for all street trees. This includes planting about 50,000 trees to prevent canopy loss in neighborhoods where trees are removed for maintenance reasons or die of natural causes, keeping our existing stock of street trees at about 125,000.
Growing Actions
By 2040, 30, 000 new street trees will be planted in neighborhoods with the lowest tree canopy cover and higher vulnerability to the extreme heat and air quality impacts of climate change. This effort will complete the City of San Francisco’s Urban Forest Plan and Climate Action Plan goals of a fully stocked network of 155, 000 street trees. In total, about 80,000 new trees will be planted, including the 50,000 that will be planted to conserve the existing stock.