Trees of San Francisco - Palms and Plans at Project Artaud

Friends of the Urban Forest invites you to a walking tour in the northeast Mission led by Jason Dewees, horticulturist at Flora Grubb Gardens and author of Designing with Palms (Timber Press, 2018). Jason has been a longtime volunteer with the San Francisco Botanical Garden and Conservatory of Flowers and has advised public and private clients on trees and planting design. Along with longtime FUF volunteer and board member, Mike Sullivan, and former editor of Pacific Horticulture, Richard Turner, Jason has been creating self-guided #Covidtreetours on sidewalks in neighborhoods across the city since early in the pandemic.

Our meeting place, Project Artaud, is a pioneering "multi-generational colony of artists, craftspeople, and educators" living and working in a 100,000-square-foot former factory. The community was founded in 1971. Resident artist and facilities manager, Benjy Young, has been planting rare palms and street trees around the compound since the early 1980s, resulting in an exceptional collection of specimen palms, from the monumental Chilean wine palm to the picturesque triangle palm, to a rare Andean coquito palm and a native-Hawaiian loulu palm. In addition to his palm-growing project, Benjy will discuss Artaud's plans for capturing rainwater from their roof and parking lot, an area amounting to a full city block, to recharge the aquifer and for on-site use.

From Artaud we will walk to In Chan Kaajal Park, one of SF's newest, surrounded by a set of unusual street trees planted by FUF around the turn of the millennium.

We'll meet at 440 Florida Street, near 17th Street, and cover an area of gently sloping terrain over a total of under a mile.

Our starting point is an 11 minute walk from the 16th Mission BART Station, and a shorter walk from bus stops on the 9, 12, 27, and 33 lines. Street parking is generally available, or park at the UCSF Mission Center parking lot at 15th and Harrison streets.

Note that our Tree Tours happen rain or shine.