3500 Trees Project
Bureau of Urban Forestry Inflation Reduction Act Tree Planting and Workforce Development Grant
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Description
The San Francisco Public Works Bureau of Urban Forestry is partnering with residents, nonprofit organizations and local businesses to plant and maintain 3,500 new street trees in low-canopy neighborhoods, including Bayview-Hunters Point, Excelsior, Chinatown, the Tenderloin, Civic Center, Mission and portions of the South of Market neighborhoods.
This initiative is made possible by a grant awarded to San Francisco Public Works in 2023. The aim is to plant and maintain new street trees, create green jobs and establish resilient neighborhoods.
Over five years, the grant will fund recruitment, training and placement of 30 workforce development participants – preparing them for roles in city government, the private sector or nonprofits. It also unlocks one of the largest street tree planting investments San Francisco has seen in decades, expanding the urban forest while creating jobs in the communities that need them most and building pathways to economic independence and entrepreneurship.
The scope of work includes:
- surveying potential tree planting sites
- preparing new tree basins
- conducting community outreach
- planting street trees and
- watering the 3,500 new trees during their three-year establishment period before they graduate to Public Works’ ongoing tree maintenance portfolio.
PRESS RELEASE: San Francisco Awarded $12 Million Federal Grant to Plant Thousands of New Street Trees to Fight Climate Change and Provide Green Jobs
Timeline
- June 2023: Grant application submitted
- September 2023: Grant awarded
- November 2023: Public Works Street Tree Nursery, which will serve as the hub for grant-funded tree planting activity, opens with a ribbon cutting celebration
- September 2024: Board of Supervisors votes to accept award and authorize expenditure of grant funds
- Winter 2025: Community outreach begins
- Spring/Summer 2025: First 250 of 3,500 grant-funded trees planted
- 2026-2029: Continued community outreach, tree planting and tree watering.
Getting started
Our urban forestry inspectors have begun identifying suitable planting sites across grant areas. The work is already well underway.
In June 2025, the project hit its first major milestone: landscape, inspection, cement and arborist crews joined community volunteers to plant the first 250 of the 3,500 grant-funded street trees in the Bayview–Hunters Point, Civic Center, South of Market, Mission and Tenderloin neighborhoods.
In March 2026, we planted 100 trees on Arbor Day in Supervisorial District 3, bringing new canopy to Chinatown, Union Square, North Beach and Lower Nob Hill.
We will continue to engage community members in the planting process through community events and public service announcements, with support from nonprofit organizations.
What's coming next
- An additional 250 trees planted by end of June 2026
- Thousands more trees in 2026 and beyond, through partnerships with nonprofit organizations
A new home base for the urban forest
Anchoring the effort is Public Works’ new Street Tree Nursery in South of Market, on underutilized Caltrans land near Fifth and Bryant streets. Opened in November 2023, the nursery serves as the hub for the grant plantings, volunteer programs and workforce training.
Why San Francisco needs more trees
San Francisco has one of the smallest urban tree canopies of any major U.S. city, - just 13.7% of the City’s ground area shaded by tree cover, compared to the national average of 27.1%. And that canopy is not evenly distributed.
San Francisco has uneven tree coverage
Temperatures are rising, and San Francisco summers are getting hotter. Our neighborhoods have uneven canopy coverage, and communities with fewer trees experience higher temperatures. There is a stark difference in tree coverage across different San Francisco neighborhoods.
Neighborhood | Canopy Coverage |
South of Market / Civic Center | 4.1% |
Bayview | 6.7% |
Mission | 7.5% |
Pacific Heights | 13.9% |
Noe Valley | 15.5% |
Diamond Heights | 28.9% |
Grant-funded plantings will prioritize these least-leafy communities — bringing pollution absorption, shade and well-paying arboricultural jobs to the neighborhoods that need them most.
How the funding fits together
Since 2016, Public Works has run StreetTreeSF – a voter approved program that dedicates approximately $19 million annually to maintaining the City’s 125,000-plus street trees., It’s been recognized nationally as a model for urban forestry management. But that funding is earmarked for tree maintenance, not planting trees.
San Francisco’s Urban Forest Plan, adopted in 2014, set the vision for an expanded, healthy and thriving urban forest.
The Planting Strategy that followed calls for 30,000 new street trees by 2040.
Planting funding has been the missing piece — until now. This grant accelerates our path toward that goal.
Proposed grant-funded planting areas are the blue and red census tracts.
More information about the funded proposals, as well as announcements about the grant program, is available on the Urban and Community Forestry Program webpage.
Check out our online Street Tree Map, a database and map of San Francisco’s street trees. Here, you can look up information about trees, such as their location, species, and more.
These institutions are equal opportunity providers, employers, and lenders.
San Francisco Public Works - Bureau of Urban Forestry
