I've been a San Francisco tree advocate for a long time. I serve on the City's Urban Forestry Council; authored Trees of San Francisco, and have a 25+ years with Friends of the Urban Forest as volunteer and past board member and board president. In all of my years of tree advocacy, there's never been anything on the election ballot as important to our city's urban forest as this November's Proposition E - and big kudos to Supervisor Scott Wiener for his leadership in bringing it to the ballot..

The biggest problem with San Francisco's trees has always been the lack of care and maintenance. We're doing a good job of planting trees, thanks to groups like Friends of the Urban Forest. But we do a miserable job of caring for them. The city makes residents pay for pruning their trees - but most residents either don't know that, or can't afford to pay for tree care. The result is trees that are unhealthy, look terrible, and in many cases are dangerous.

Prop E would shift all responsibility for tree care and sidewalk repairs to the City, where it belongs, ensuring that our trees receive regular, periodic pruning and care from trained professionals. VOTE YES ON PROP E! And be sure to like the Facebook Page for Prop E!