4 Upper Haight Street Trees Marked For Removal

4 Upper Haight Street Trees Marked For RemovalArrows indicate trees that are marked for removal. | Image: Google Maps
Camden Avery
Published on September 29, 2017

This week, Public Works posted notices on a series of Upper Haight street trees currently marked for removal this fall, including four prominent Acacia melanoxylon (Australian blackwood) trees between Clayton and Cole.

The trees are among the estimated 125,000 that reverted back to city custodianship after Prop E passed last fall—for a rough total of 165,000 now under city care, at an estimated $19 million annual maintenance initiative.

Tree marked for removal at 1638 Haight St. | Photo: Camden Avery/Hoodline

Despite the city's plan to install dozens of new trees in the area over the next couple of years as part of the Pedestrian Realm Project, removals have been hotly debated, in part because of the dearth of mature street trees in the neighborhood.

Last year, the project called for the removal of 35 trees along Haight Street due to their proximity to power lines, poor health, and other factors. In all, the plan would remove nearly a third of the trees along the corridor.

Per notices posted on the trees today—located at 1632, 1659, 1668, and 1672 Haight St.—the trees' fates aren't set in stone.

Community members have until October 29 to file a written protest regarding the scheduled tree removal. Objections should be sent to urbanforestry [at] sfdpw [dot] org, or mailed to the DPW - Bureau of Urban Forestry, 1680 Mission St., San Francisco, 94103.