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December 12, 2024

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Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024
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AGENDA REPORT

TO: Jestin D. Johnson
City Administrator
FROM: Michael Kashiwagi
Interim Director, Oakland
Public Works

SUBJECT: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban
Forest Plan
DATE: September 23, 2024

City Administrator Approval Date:

RECOMMENDATION

Staff Recommends Adopting The 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Including The Recommended “No Net Loss” Tree Canopy Goal To Maintain An Estimated 20.6% Canopy Cover That Requires Tree Planting In Prioritized Disadvantaged Census Tracts With Inequitable Canopy Cover, And That The City Administrator Or Designee Establish, Within One Year, An Implementation Team For The Purpose Of Implementing The Urban Forest Plan, Including Identification And Securing Of Funding, That The City Administrator Or Designee Develop A Schedule To Update Tree-Related Ordinances In The Oakland Municipal Code Consistent With The Goals And Recommendations Of The Adopted Urban Forest Plan, And Adopting Appropriate California Environmental Quality Act Findings

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The City of Oakland’s (City) Urban Forest Plan (UFP) is a comprehensive, equity-focused planning and programming document based on the needs and desires expressed by the community, data analysis, and industry best management practices (see Attachment A: Urban Forest Plan 2024). The UFP provides the baseline of the current state of the City’s urban forest, identifies strategies and recommendations to equitably manage, grow, and sustain the City’s urban forest, informs the development of future policies, identifies funding needs and possible funding sources, and formulates an aspirational urban forest vision for the City. The planning horizon of the UFP is fifty years and is designed to be regularly updated. Adopting and implementing the UFP is an industry standard that will benefit the City as we pursue future grant funding opportunities.

Prioritizing equity, the UFP delivers detailed operations scenarios to effectively maintain and grow the urban forest, realistic tree canopy goal scenarios, a matrix of potential funding sources, and the framework for robust community involvement and green job creation. The UFP consists of five sections:
1) A n overview describing the benefits of trees and the history of trees in Oakland, Jestin Johnson (Nov 25, 2024 20:15 PST)
Nov 25, 2024
Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 2

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

2) A detailed description of the equity-centered approach to developing the UFP and the community engagement process,
3) A n analysis of the current state of Oakland’s urban forest, 4) R ecommendations for effectively and equitably maintaining and growing the urban forest, and
5) G oals, strategies, and action items for implementing the UFP.

The UFP is an important planning tool which identifies long-term programmatic policy recommendations, funding requirements, and potential funding mechanisms necessary to grow a healthy, equitable, and sustainable urban forest. Adoption of the UFP does not change current policies, modify current practices, or creates new policy. It is a master planning document which will guide and inform future policies and operational initiatives and priorities.

The individual or collective actions and strategies identified in the UFP related to recommended policies and funding will require future City Council consideration and actions.

BACKGROUND / LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

The development and adoption of the UFP fulfills a long-term goal of the City of Oakland. The 2030 Equitable Climate Action Plan (ECAP) explicitly calls for creating a citywide plan for managing Oakland’s urban forest in the Carbon Removal section, goal CR-2 “Expand and Protect Tree Canopy Coverage.” The development of an urban forest plan is a priority for the ECAP because trees lower ambient temperatures, mitigate the impacts of the urban heat island effect by shading asphalt and buildings, reduce air pollution by capturing particulate matter on their leaves, and abate flooding by slowing stormwater runoff that reduces peak flows during rain events and facilitates absorption.

The UFP also addresses multiple action items in the 1996 Open Space, Conservation, and Recreation (OSCAR) element of the Oakland General Plan within the “Open Space for Community Character” section, Objective OS-12: “Street Trees,” including guidance on species selection, prioritizing tree planting in neighborhoods that need more trees, and restoring street tree pruning services. The UFP provides a framework to retain, protect, and grow the urban forest, thereby enhancing Oakland’s streets, parks, and public facilities.

A 2018 grant of $970,130 from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) provided the necessary funding to measure Oakland’s urban forest (through satellite imagery and a street and park tree inventory) and develop a fifty-year management plan to effectively and equitably grow and maintain a healthy urban forest for all of Oakland and its future generations. Additionally, this grant project included planting 700 trees in frontline communities throughout Oakland and an equity-centered community engagement program to provide the basis for the goals, strategies, and action items outlined in the UFP.

The City contracted with Davey Resource Group (DRG) to coordinate the street and park tree inventory and other steps required to develop the UFP including data collection and analyses of Oakland’s public and private tree canopy cover, an analysis of Oakland’s tree resources, a summary of the urban forest by each City Council District, and an equitable community engagement program. The tree inventory required a team of arborists to physically inspect, Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 3

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

measure, and analyze every tree next to a sidewalk and every tree in a landscaped park within the City.1

The inventory process started in January 2020 and took just over a year to complete. Analysis of this inventory data and satellite imagery provided the background for understanding the state of Oakland’s urban forest and what is needed to manage it effectively. In 2022, staff led an equitable community engagement campaign to understand what Oaklanders want from their urban forest and what they value about trees (see Attachment B: Urban Forest Community Engagement Summary 2022). Special considerations were taken to reach members of frontline communities who are often difficult to reach through traditional public outreach campaigns. The results of the public engagement process and data collection combined with urban forestry best practices provided the basis for the UFP.

The UFP identifies two potential operations scenarios, three possible canopy scenarios, and associated budgets for a pathway forward for effectively managing the urban forest. The UFP’s goals, strategies, and action items provide a well-supported and thought-out approach toward recovering from the last fifteen years during which Tree Services have been significantly underfunded and understaffed. It directly addresses the fifty-percent budget and staffing cuts in 2008 that resulted in the loss of the tree pruning and tree planting programs, which over time has impacted the quality and quantity of Oakland’s tree canopy and furthered inequity in Oakland as it is the frontline neighborhoods that have experienced the majority of these negative changes.

The UFP can only be implemented with appropriate funding. Cost estimates to achieve the recommendations range from approximately $17-21 million per year, which is an increase of $11-15 million in Tree Services’ current annual budget. Securing and appropriating the recommended funding will allow the City to meet basic standards of care including routine tree pruning, tree planting, emergency response, and community education and collaboration.

ANALYSIS AND POLICY ALTERNATIVES

Trees are a valuable community resource that provides many benefits to Oakland. They clean the air, create shade, enhance mental and physical health, improve water quality, absorb greenhouse gases, and reduce energy use. Trees beautify neighborhoods, foster a sense of community, support wildlife, reduce stormwater runoff, and mitigate climate change. Trees play a critically important role in reducing the effects of climate change, especially as Oakland experiences more days above 90°F. Studies show that neighborhoods with large trees in parks, along streets, and in yards can see temperatures that are 2° to 9°F cooler than areas without trees.

The primary goal of the UFP is to strategically inform future policies and investments to improve the long-term health of Oakland’s urban forest and ensure that the benefits of trees are distributed equitably throughout the community and, over time, increase the urban tree canopy

1 Trees in open spaces and wildland parks were primarily excluded from the inventory collection process except for trees around City facilities and adjacent parking lots within them, such as the community center at Joaquin Miller Park and Leona Lodge in Leona Canyon.

Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 4

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

in Oakland’s underserved frontline communities where it is needed most. The UFP is an important tool to identify long-term policy recommendations, influence operational strategies, and identify potential funding mechanisms to grow a healthy, sustainable, and equitable urban forest. It is a guiding document and is not prescriptive by design. It allows for flexibility in implementation based on new and emerging information, resources, partnerships, and funding.

The UFP includes recommendations which advances the citywide priority of vibrant, sustainable infrastructure by providing a strategic plan for reestablishing basic city tree and arborist services to effectively maintain and grow Oakland’s tree canopy, thereby increasing the many benefits that trees provide for all Oaklanders, especially those in frontline communities.

Trees are a dynamic infrastructure that increases in value over time. The larger and more mature a tree is, the greater it is at sequestering carbon, reducing urban heat islands, capturing air pollution particles, shading buildings and streets, and the many other benefits trees provide.

The UFP provides the framework for both preserving Oakland’s urban forest by maintaining current trees and growing the urban forest by planting new trees for the next fifty years. It is a guiding document built on equity, community needs and desires, data analysis, and urban forestry best management practices. Funding is necessary to implement the plan and grow a healthy urban forest.

The UFP includes five sections:

1. Section 1. Introduction – Acknowledge the history of Oakland’s urban forest and identify the many benefits that trees provide. This includes an overview of the plan development process, an examination of the effects of pre-colonial Oakland and the City’s 170-year history on the urban forest, and a comprehensive summary of the benefits that trees provide.

2. Section 2. An Equity-Centered Approach – Identify equity issues and describe the results of the community engagement process. The Plan’s engagement followed best practices by partnering with four local organizations with established relationships with the community in order to reach more people (see the Public Outreach/Interest section below and Attachment C: Urban Forest Plan Racial Equity Impact Analysis for further explanation).

3. Section 3. Oakland’s Urban Forest – Urban forest structural and equity analyses based on satellite canopy data and an inventory of street trees and trees within the landscaped sections of City parks. This section includes details on the urban forest’s financial impact, its existing species composition, and the inequitable distribution of trees.

4. Section 4. Managing Oakland’s Urban Forest – Analysis of the Park & Tree Division operations and hierarchy of needs. The assessment shows where the city lacks resources and provides scenarios and budgets for the staffing levels needed to restore services to the level needed to meet the recommendations of the plan and to address the substantial backlog of deferred maintenance.

5. Section 5. Implementation – A collection of recommendations including nine goals, 32 strategies, and 80 action items for meeting the needs of the community and equitably growing the urban forest. As previously mentioned, equity is a cornerstone of the UFP and its implementation will focus on providing services to frontline communities first.

Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 5

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

Key Findings:
• Oakland has approximately 56,000 street trees, 12,000 trees in landscaped parks, and up to 29,000 potential locations for new street trees.2 • 92% of street and park trees (62,560 total) require some level of pruning. • Oakland’s average tree canopy decreased by 0.8% between 2014 to 2018, from 22.3% to 21.5%, possibly due to development and lack of routine pruning. At this rate of decline, it is estimated that in Oakland has 20.6% tree canopy in 2024. • Census tract-level satellite imagery of tree canopy supports what is obvious to many Oaklanders: Oakland’s trees are not equitably distributed and their benefits are not fairly shared. One census tract in the hills has 68% tree canopy coverage, whereas some census tracts in the flatlands are as low as 1.3%.
• Deferred maintenance significantly amplifies the Park & Tree Division’s emergency workload and has been a large contributing factor to the current major backlog of dead and/or hazardous trees that continues to increase.
• The Parks & Tree Division is in an operationally reactive position, which is logistically challenging, inefficient, and costly.
• Lack of tree pruning is a source of frustration for the community. • The past practice of designating street trees as “official” or “unofficial” and only comprehensively pruning “official” trees is problematic for cost-effective and efficient tree maintenance.
• Lack of tree planting, community engagement, and public outreach programs make it difficult to bring awareness to the urban forest in the face of Oakland’s many other competing priorities.

Future Considerations:
• Operations Scenarios: The plan presents two operations scenarios to achieve its recommendations and identifies the tasks, number of staff, required equipment, and costs to effectively manage the urban forest:
o Operations Scenario A: City staff handles routine work while contractors assist with backlog at an average cost of $21 million per year. o Operations Scenario B: City staff are assisted by contractors in addressing both routine work and backlog at an average cost of $17 million per year. • Tree Canopy Scenarios: Three options for tree canopy goals over a ten-year period are presented. Scenario 1 is provided as a point of reference but is not a viable path forward because it is contrary to the goals of the UFP and will increase inequities in tree canopy coverage. Scenarios 2 and 3 will require public-private partnerships to plant trees on different property types. Tree planting will be prioritized in frontline communities. o Tree Canopy Scenario 1: Maintain current trend – plant zero (0) trees, resulting in an estimated reduction of tree canopy from 21.5% to 18.6% by 2034. o Tree Canopy Scenario 2 (recommended): No net loss – plant 5,903 trees per year to maintain 20.6% canopy cover, with an estimated average annual cost of $7.3 million.
o Tree Canopy Scenario 3: Increase canopy to 22.5% - plant 12,536 trees per year with an average annual cost of $15.6 million.

2 These 29,000 potential locations for new trees have not been assessed for underground utility conflicts.

Not all locations are expected to be viable planting locations.

Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 6

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

Adopting and funding an operations scenario and a tree canopy scenario will result in:
• Regular pruning of all street and park trees thereby increasing the health and vigor of existing trees for the improved sustainability and efficacy of the urban forest, reducing tree and limb failure and other emergency tree issues which can result in property damage, roadway obstruction, and safety issues.
• Growing the urban forest by approximately 6,000 to 12,500 trees per year in the areas of the city where it's most needed, resulting in improved environmental conditions for frontline communities.
• Jobs, education, and additional benefits and opportunities for current and future generations.

To achieve the goals of the UFP, the following steps would also need to be taken following its adoption:
- Develop an Implementation Team comprised of city staff, for the purpose of identifying and securing funding and implementing the UFP. The Implementation Team will be responsible for monitoring implementation progress and will author the UFP’s annual report to the City Council.
- Update the City’s tree-related ordinances to be in accordance with the goals of the UFP, including identifying and securing the funding necessary to implement a robust and equitable community engagement process. This is expected to be a one-to-two year process once funding is secured.

FISCAL IMPACT

Approval and adoption of the UFP will not impact the City’s General Purpose Fund or appropriate any additional funds. The UFP is a planning tool that identifies long-term programmatic policy recommendations, funding requirements, and potential funding mechanisms to grow a healthy, equitable, and sustainable urban forest. It is a guiding document and by design is not prescriptive. The individual or collective actions and strategies identified in the UFP related to suggested policies and funding will require future City Council consideration and actions.

To be transparent, there is no currently identified funding mechanism for a plan, and a funding mechanism will need to be identified and adopted prior to plan implementation. The cost of implementation of this plan is anticipated to be $118.9M, or $145.7M over 7 years, dependent upon which method of implementation the City Council chooses. Additionally, asset management has an inherent liability.

Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 7

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

PUBLIC OUTREACH / INTEREST

To ensure that the 2024 UFP fully reflects the needs and values of all Oaklanders, particularly frontline community members, OPW conducted two phases of equitable community engagement: 1) a public engagement survey, and 2) public review and comment on the draft plan. Continued and growing engagement is specified in many of the goals, strategies, and action items identified in the UFP.

Public Engagement Survey & Distribution:

To learn about community desires, understanding, and needs related to trees and the urban forest, a fifty-question survey was hosted online (with translation capabilities into as many as 133 different languages) and distributed in print in English, Spanish, and Chinese. Responses were collected from April 8, 2022, to August 8, 2022 The survey queried people about their general priorities for the City of Oakland, as well as what they liked or disliked about trees, their understanding of the City’s role in managing the urban forest, and their demographic information.

Based on guidance from the Department of Race & Equity, OPW released a request for proposals in late 2021 soliciting local community organizations to assist with the public engagement for the UFP. The goal was to empower and compensate pre-existing community groups to better reach community members in frontline communities who are often difficult to reach through traditional government outreach techniques. Four nonprofit groups responded, and all were selected to participate in the initiative. The selected groups were:
- Common Vision (primarily serving District 3)
- Trees for Oakland in partnership with the Oakland Parks & Recreation Foundation (citywide)
- California Interfaith Power & Light (citywide)
- Forest & Tree (primarily serving District 5)
OPW directly reached out to community groups in Districts 2, 6, and 7 as well, but did not receive any proposals. When asked, groups cited a lack of capacity to take on additional work at the time.

The primary task of the nonprofit partners was to incorporate Urban Forest Plan engagement into their existing programming with their constituents. This included providing background information about the Urban Forest Plan and collecting surveys. Examples of events included school and garden work parties, health and wellness fairs, and in-person and virtual meetings.

OPW also distributed the survey through dedicated email lists, social media platforms, tabling events, and engagement with additional community organizations and neighborhood councils to help reach a broader audience.

Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 8

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

Public Review & Comment on the Draft Plan:

The responses to the community engagement process yielded nine themes, which are addressed in the UFP:

Theme: How it is addressed in the UFP:
1 The City needs to provide
public tree planting and
pruning services.

Proactive, regular tree pruning will cost an average of $17 to $21 million per year with an additional $7.3 million per year for tree planting.

2 Pruned trees increase public
safety.

Unpruned trees can create safety hazards while pruned
trees enhance public safety, improve sightlines, and
reduce tripping hazards, underscoring the need for
regular pruning.

3 The community values the
emotional and ecosystem
benefits of trees.

Adopting and funding the UFP is essential to grow and
maintain the urban forest to equitably provide the
benefits that the community values.

4 The urban forest needs to be
sustained for future
generations.

The UFP is a fifty-year plan that is designed to be
regularly updated. It includes scenarios for equitably
maintaining Oakland’s tree canopy.

5 The community wants green
job training, education, and
volunteer opportunities.

The UFP identifies concrete actions to increase these
opportunities through collaboration between the City,
community groups, and local educational institutions.

6 Social justice is critical. Equity is at the heart of the UFP and is a core value in all recommendations and actions.

7 Plant appropriate tree species. The UFP recommends thoughtful tree selection based on research, climate science, and arboricultural best
practices.

8 Fix tree-related sidewalk
issues.

Action items in the UFP identify filling vacant City staff positions and collaboration among City departments to
implement industry best practices to minimize conflicts between trees and sidewalks.

9 The community is unfamiliar
with Oakland’s tree protection
and planting policies.

The UFP addresses the City’s need to improve
community engagement and tree-related policies.

These nine community engagement themes in combination with the data, analysis, and urban forestry best management practices informed the development of the UFP. The draft went through internal city department review from June to August 2023, before being revised again Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 9

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

and a subsequent draft distributed to the public for review and comment for six weeks between October 30 and December 8, 2023.

During the public comment period, OPW hosted two public information sessions in English with translation services in Spanish and Chinese. The first occurred online over Zoom on November 15, 2023 with fifty-seven members of the public attending. The second session occurred in person at the 81
st Avenue Branch Library on November 29, 2023, with thirty-five members of the public attending. Meeting outreach for both sessions focused on frontline communities.

Staff received a total of 1,479 comments and questions, which were sorted by topic and used to update the draft UFP as needed to fix errors, clarify information in the previous draft, and address requests relevant to the UFP. Some comments were more germane to implementation than to the UFP’s broad framework. These comments are saved and will be referred to during implementation once funding is secured.

Please see Attachment C: Urban Forest Plan Racial Equity Impact Analysis for greater detail on all public engagement and outreach performed for the UFP, including specific demographic data.

COORDINATION

The Tree Services Division worked closely with other bureaus and divisions of Oakland Public Works, other City departments, and the Port of Oakland. The draft UFP was presented at a department head meeting convened by the City Administrator’s Office on July 19, 2023. Every department was asked to provide a point of contact for review, was provided with the pre-public draft, and was requested to provide feedback. Many department heads or their designees reviewed and supplied comments and support for the UFP.

Coordination with external agencies and groups in the creation of the UFP included Oakland Parks & Recreation Foundation, Trees for Oakland, Common Vision, Forest & Tree, California Interfaith Power & Light, California Department of Forestry & Fire Protection (provided both funding and additional support), Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, University of California Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources, and United States Department of Agriculture Forest Service.

A list of potential partners for implementing the Urban Forest Plan is included in the UFP.

In addition, this report and the resolution have been reviewed by the Budget Bureau of the Finance Department and by the Office of the City Attorney for form and legality.

SUSTAINABLE OPPORTUNITIES

Economic: Pending the acquisition of the appropriate funding for implementation, the UFP will provide various economic opportunities in the form of green jobs, community volunteer training in urban forestry and arboricultural practices, and employment opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals. While asset management has an inherent liability, implementing a routine tree pruning program as recommended by the UFP will reduce emergency tree care Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 10

Public Works and Transportation Committee
December 10, 2024

costs and allow the Tree Division’s budget to go further in cultivating and managing a healthy and equitable urban forest. This will also benefit Oakland residents and business owners who currently personally fund their public tree pruning or incur property damages when unmaintained trees fail or lose branches. Additionally, healthy trees provide many economic benefits, including reduced energy usage to cool or heat buildings, increased property values, increased business in commercial corridors, improved human health, and reductions in crime and the rate at which some infrastructure degrades.

Environmental: Planting and maintaining trees are essential activities for growing a healthy urban forest. Trees provide numerous environmental benefits that have a positive impact on people who live near them and on the wildlife that uses them for food and habitat. Trees help improve air quality by producing oxygen and reduce air pollution by collecting dust and particulate matter on leaf surfaces. They mitigate stormwater runoff by capturing a significant amount of rainfall which reduces the volume and velocity of stormwater flows which in turn reduces water pollution and flooding and lessens impacts to infrastructure. Their roots improve soil structure and reduce erosion. Trees are a powerful natural solution to combating climate change because they remove carbon dioxide from the air and store carbon. They are especially helpful in urban environments by providing visual screening, reducing noise, and lowering ambient temperatures – making them a valuable tool to lower energy use for heating and cooling homes as well as abating the heat island effect in cities. Healthy, mature trees provide the most benefits, so it is imperative to both take care of our current trees and plant new trees for future generations.

Race & Equity: Equity is the cornerstone of the UFP. When funded, planting, pruning, and engagement will focus on increasing tree canopy cover in Oakland’s frontline communities before addressing this work in Oakland’s more affluent communities. In 2018, tree canopy coverage was as low as 1.3% in some frontline communities, whereas the city average was

21.5%, and canopy cover in the Oakland hills was as high as 68%. A more equitable urban forest is possible if the UFP is implemented and a No Net Loss Canopy goal is adopted. See Attachment C: Urban Forest Plan Racial Equity Impact Analysis for further explanation of the role of race and equity in the UFP, including how the UFP recommends changing current City policies that exacerbate inequity as well as details on how the UFP’s goals, strategies, and action items address the 2018 Oakland Equity Indicators Report.

CALIFORNIA ENVIRONMENTAL QUALITY ACT (CEQA)

The Urban Forest Plan is exempt from California Environmental Quality Act (“CEQA”) based on the following CEQA Guidelines Sections: Section 15060(c)(2) (No Direct or Reasonably Foreseeable Indirect Physical Change in the Environment); Section 15061(b)(3) (No Significant Effect on the Environment); Section 15301 (Existing Facilities); Section 15304 (Minor Alterations to Land); Section 15307 (Protection of Natural Resources); Section 15308 (Protection of the Environment); and Section 15309 (Inspections), each of which provides a separate and independent basis for CEQA clearance and when viewed collectively provide an overall basis for CEQA clearance. Since the project involves minor public or private alterations to the condition of land, water, and/or vegetation that do not involve removal of healthy, mature, scenic trees; and, in fact, since the project adds to the City’s green-scape and number of trees, the Jestin D. Johnson, City Administrator
Subject: Adoption of the 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Date: September 23, 2024 Page 11

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project has a positive impact on the environment that serves to protect the City’s environment and natural resources.

ACTION REQUESTED OF THE CITY COUNCIL

Staff Recommends Adopting The 2024 Oakland Urban Forest Plan Including The Recommended “No Net Loss” Tree Canopy Goal To Maintain An Estimated 20.6% Canopy Cover That Requires Tree Planting In Prioritized Disadvantaged Census Tracts With Inequitable Canopy Cover, And That The City Administrator Or Designee Establish, Within One Year, An Implementation Team For The Purpose Of Implementing The Urban Forest Plan, Including Identification And Securing Of Funding, That The City Administrator Or Designee Develop A Schedule To Update Tree-Related Ordinances In The Oakland Municipal Code Consistent With The Goals And Recommendations Of The Adopted Urban Forest Plan, And Adopting Appropriate California Environmental Quality Act Findings

For questions regarding this report, please contact David Moore, Tree Supervisor II, Parks & Tree Division, at 510-615-5852.

Respectfully submitted,

MICHAEL KASHIWAGI
Interim Director, Oakland Public Works

Reviewed by:

Kristin Hathaway, Assistant Director, OPW
Bureau of Environment

David Moore, Tree Supervisor II
Parks & Tree Division

Prepared by:

Gordon Matassa, Administrative Analyst II,
Parks & Tree Division

Attachments (3):

A: Urban Forest Plan 2024
B: Urban Forest Community Engagement Summary 2022
C: Urban Forest Plan Racial Equity Impact Analysis

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