San Francisco's Tree Maintenance Program Has Been A Death-Sentence For Some Trees
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)— San Francisco's Board of Supervisors are trying to figure out how to stop a tree-maintenance program that virtually everyone agrees is a horrible idea. For some street trees it's been a death sentence.
A hearing was called by Supervisor Scott Wiener who's been trying to get the city's Public Works department to back peddle on its program to force private property owners to maintain city-owned street trees.
San Francisco's Tree Trimming Program Has Been A Death-Sentence For Some Trees
"It is an unfair system that places an unfair burden on property owners," Wiener said.
Dan Flanagan of Friends of the Urban Forest concurred the city should be the ones caring for its trees.
"It's much more efficient to do it. It's done much better and it's really not fair to release trees to homeowners that don't have the money,"
Not a single person supported relinquishment including Carla Short who's in charge of the program and brought photos showing a tree that was pruned to death.
The tree died and had to be removed and the property owner who did this did this directly because of his fear of having to maintain this tree,"
Despite the criticism the program will continue until someone comes up with a way for the city to pay for a tree trimmer.
