One of the goals of the Urban Forestry program is to grow the City's urban canopy. An urban forest is an entire ecosystem that includes trees on both public and private property. However, unlike a natural forest, an urban forest needs help from people to survive. A vigorous and engaged urban forestry program is critical to providing a higher quality of life for residents and visitors in the City of San Diego.

Trees nurtured within an urban environment produce benefits that far exceed the cost of planting and care during the trees' lifetime. Environmental and aesthetic benefits, such as energy savings, stormwater runoff reduction, cleaner air, and higher property values, are consistently many times greater than tree care costs. Please refer to Our Urban Canopy for more information on the City's current progress in growing its urban tree canopy.

The City adopted a Five-Year Plan for its Urban Forestry Program in 2017 and is currently seeking funding to update this plan.

The plan's three main goals are:

• Increase the City’s urban tree canopy cover and maximize the benefits of trees
• Maximize the efficiencies in maintaining the benefits of trees and
• Minimize the risk of trees in an urban environment.

In 2015, the City of San Diego adopted a Climate Action Plan. Strategy 5 of the plan addresses climate resiliency by setting goals to increase the city’s tree canopy cover over the next several years. To reach those goals, the implementation of an urban tree-planting program has been identified as a necessary step.

The Urban Forestry Program Five-Year Plan builds upon the Climate Action Plan by identifying methods to implementing a tree planting initiative and identifying best management practices to maintaining and protecting the City’s existing tree resources.

The City's Urban Forestry team will investigate reported issues regarding street trees. The Right of Way Management Division provides street tree maintenance services as funding allows.