Please endorse: more City support for Oakland's trees

Brief Background:
Oakland City Council cut the 2009-'11 budget for the Tree Services Division (a part of Public Works) because of the recession.
Tree Services laid off half of their employees, including 2 of their 3 work crews. They stopped pruning trees and stopped planting trees.
This situation inspired the founding of a new volunteer tree-planting program that later came to be called the Sierra Club Tree Team (or SCTT), which in turn gave rise to this program (Trees for Oakland Flatlands).

Current Ask:
The Mayor and City Council set the City's budget every 2 years.
The Mayor has drafted her budget, and now (May 2017) the City Council will propose changes and vote on the final version. 
They can restore funding to Tree Services if they think we Oaklanders want it. 
Please call or email your Councilmember, and go to the budget forum in your Council District: https://beta.oaklandca.gov/events?q=budget.
With the recession behind us, the Oakland Urban Forestry Forum and a coalition of community groups in Oakland are urging the City Council to do these 3 things:

1. restore funding for the Tree Services Division (part of Public Works) to at least the 2007 level of 30 employees;
   
2. fund an Urban Forestry Management Plan;
   
3. establish an Urban Forestry Commission or Task Force.
   

Read the full document here (click for 2-page PDF).

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