One Man's Volunteer Effort To Plant Trees

in San Francisco

As a volunteer, Charlie Starbuck has helped to plant trees by the thousands on the streets of San Francisco, a city long on charm but short on leafy green trees. For almost 30 years, Charlie Starbuck has volunteered to plant trees all over San Francisco, one street at a time, as a member of the nonprofit group Friends of the Urban Forest.( Van Slambrouck, Contributor, April 5, 2010 San Francisco)
Charlie Starbuck has them in just about every part of this city. Walk a block or two in virtually any neighborhood, from the concrete canyons of the financial district to the windblown avenues of the Outer Sunset and Mr. Starbuck's fingerprints are there. It might be a Brisbane box, a bronze loquat, a primrose, or a purple leaf plum. Whatever the species of tree, chances are excellent that Starbuck helped plant it. Not as in ordered the tree or arranged for the planting. But as in actually put his fingers in the dirt and planted it.

A soft-spoken gentleman fond of berets, Starbuck has volunteered for a citywide tree-planting program since 1981, nearly without interruption. That's almost 30 years of weekly plantings, without pay, come rain or shine. "For Charlie to be that consistent..." says Doug Wildman, program director of San Francisco's Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), his voice trailing off as he searches for the right superlative. "Well, he's our rock." FUF (www.fuf.net) is the nonprofit group for which Starbuck has volunteered all these years.One man's volunteer effort to plant trees in San Francisco As a volunteer, Charlie Starbuck has helped to plant trees by the thousands on the streets of San Francisco, a city long on charm but short on leafy green trees. For almost 30 years, Charlie Starbuck has volunteered to plant trees all over San Francisco, one street at a time, as a member of the nonprofit group Friends of the Urban Forest.

Unfortunately, Charlie is fighting a losing battle. Not only are we losing our forest canopy to the rapid sprawl of outlying subdivisions, we're losing out urban trees as well. And each tree lost can contribute enomously to the utility bills of urban householders and to their health-care bills as well. To read a story about this see :
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0426/p20s01-sten.html.

Would you like to be part of the solution? In addition to Friends of the Urban Forest (above) you can also visit the following website:
be the change: http://www.dailygood.org/more.php?n=4083a.