Volunteers plant hundreds of trees in SF’s southern neighborhoods

Newly planted tree line the sidewalks of Balboa High School in San Francisco, Calif. Saturday, August 26, 2017. Newly planted tree line the sidewalks of Balboa High School in San Francisco, Calif. Saturday, August 26, 2017. Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle Photo: Mason Trinca, Special To The Chronicle Image 1 of / 14 Caption Close Volunteers plant hundreds of trees in SF’s southern neighborhoods 1 / 14 Back to Gallery

San Francisco’s southern neighborhoods got a little greener Saturday as hundreds of volunteers and city officials gathered at Balboa High School for the city’s largest tree planting project to date.

Around 600 volunteers ranging from public works employees in green vests to city residents in orange vests met at the school Saturday morning to prepare to plant 500 trees throughout the Ingleside, Excelsior and Crocker-Amazon neighborhoods.

Sunny weather kept spirits high, despite the looming shadow brought on by a planned right-wing gathering that led officials to close Alamo Square Park in the Western Addition.

“This is really kind of a crazy day for San Francisco and for our country,” Dan Flanagan, executive director of Friends of the Urban Forest, told the crowd of volunteers. “Put something in the ground that will last for generations. That’s what we care about in this city.”

The tree planting started as a partnership between Friends of the Urban Forest, the Department of Public Works and District 11 Supervisor Ahsha Safaí, who had run on a platform of street-tree maintenance.

Safaí was joined at the event by state Sen. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Mayor Ed Lee, who quickly left after the initial speeches for a meeting with police officials on the right-wing Patriot Prayer rally that was repurposed as a press conference.

The city has allocated $550,000 for the first year of tree planting, Safaí said. While the 500 trees cost about $100 each, forming tree basins in the sidewalk and providing at least three years of water maintenance for the trees accounted for most of the costs.

“For a long time, this area was one of the parts of town that was treated like a forgotten place of San Francisco,” Safaí said as he stood outside the high school. “We felt like it was really important to focus on this issue.”

The 15 different types of trees will provide cleaner air, neighborhood beautification and minimize flooding, because tree basins tend to soak up excess rainwater, said Rachel Gordon, a spokeswoman for the Department of Public Works.

Some residents had initially resisted the project out of concern they would have to pay to maintain the new trees, Safaí said. But with the passage of Proposition E last fall, the city set aside $19 million for street trees and tasked the Bureau of Urban Forestry with maintaining them, alleviating those cost concerns.

The city carefully chose what trees should be planted where, depending on the terrain and the area, said Carla Short, superintendent of the Bureau of Urban Forestry.

Outside Balboa High School, for example, the bureau decided to go with the wind-resistant Brisbane Box and Primrose trees because the area is a known windy corridor.

Wearing an orange vest, Eugene Wong, 48, looked on outside the school as his 15-year-old daughter and her friend dug shovels into the dirt to plant a Brisbane sapling.

“I’m just here to give back, bring my kids,” said Wong, a resident of the Bayview neighborhood. “We always volunteer on a regular basis.”

His daughter, Lincoln High School student Leela Wong, worked nearby in bright yellow protective glasses.

“I just wanted to help serve the community,” she said. “It’s also good bonding time, too.”

Jenna Lyons is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: jlyons@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @JennaJourno