Proposed Resolution Moratorium on Removal of Trees Subject to City Jurisdiction

1. Whereas in 2014, the City of San Francisco adopted an Urban Forest Plan which acknowledged serious deficiencies in our City's urban canopy and urban canopy management, Inter alia, this plan recognized that San Francisco has the smallest urban canopy of any major city in the United States, and called for the planting of 50,000 (net) new street trees by 2034; and
2. Whereas in 2019, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors passed a Resolution declaring that our City is in a Climate Emergency, and the primary consequence of this Resolution was to catalyze the creation of a new San Francisco Climate Action Plan; and
3. Whereas in 2021, after two years of intensive research, study and community outreach, the City's Department of the Environment unveiled a new Climate Action Plan, and this plan recommended, inter alia: "by 2023, create a policy to require preservation of mature trees during development or infrastructure modifications and for planting of basal area equivalent of mature trees who removal is unavoidable"; and
4. Whereas in 2021, the City's Office of Budget and Legislative Analyst released a report concluding that "the City 10-year average of 2,154 street trees planted annually is less than half of the 5,000 of street trees that need to be planted annually to ensure that the City's street tree population does not shrink", and
5. Whereas in February 2022, the City's Public Works Code Article 16 was updated by the San Francisco Board of Supervisors and among other updates, required that trees removed by City Departments be replaced within 120 days; and
6. Whereas in July 2022, the San Francisco Board of Supervisors approved a City budget that included no money for planting or replacement of Street Tress, and 
7. Whereas in January 2023, the City lost hundreds of trees due to unprecedented winter storms and flooding; and
8. Whereas as of January 2023, the City of San Francisco: is now behind by thousands of trees as called for in the Urban Forest Plan; has no policy around tree preservation and replacement as called for in the Climate Action Plan; and lacks the apparent budgetary and personnel resources to achieve the mandates called for in both of those plans.
9. Therefore pending the dedication of adequate resources to: comply with the 2014 Urban Forest Plan, comply with urban canopy related mandates in the 2021 Climate Action Plan, replace trees lost during the January 2023 storms, and align with the City's tree planting priorities to ensure environmental justice:

The undersigned respectfully call for a moratorium on the removal of additional trees that are subject to City jurisdiction that do not pose a threat or hazard to human safety.

[NAME/AFFILIATION OR ORGANIZATION]                        [DATE]