Latest news: Our 2017-'18 planting season is underway!
We have planted 137 trees since December 2017, including 21 trees in Madison Park, Chinatown, with the community as part of Oakland's annual "MLK Day of Service" on January 13.
You can help Oakland by volunteering at one of our future events:

Other recent news: City Council restores funding for a tree crew!

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, a project of the Oakland Parks & Recreation Foundation (OPRF)).

With the recession behind us, the Oakland Urban Forestry Forum and a coalition of community groups in Oakland have urged 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).

As of July 1, the City Council approved the next 2-year budget, for Fiscal Years 2017-'18 and 2018-'19.
It includes a restored 5-person crew (4 tree trimmers and 1 supervisor) for tree maintenance, under the Alameda County Measure BB sales tax for transportation projects.

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