(Charlie Starbuck)Straight to the Source
By Paul Van Slambrouck
April 5, 2010
As a volunteer, Charlie Starbuck has helped to plant trees by the thousands on the streets of San Francisco, a city long on charm but short on leafy green trees. Starbuck has volunteered for a citywide tree-planting program since 1981, nearly without interruption. That's almost 30 years of weekly plantings, without pay, come rain or shine.
"For Charlie to be that consistent..." says Doug Wildman, program director of San Francisco's Friends of the Urban Forest (FUF), his voice trailing off as he searches for the right superlative. "Well, he's our rock." FUF (www.fuf.net) is the nonprofit group for which Starbuck has volunteered all these years.
On a recent dewy winter morning, neighbors gather in front of a row of San Francisco homes. Staff members from FUF have already been busy positioning trees in 15-gallon pots in front of the homes, whose owners had signed up for the subsidized $75-per-tree planting.
"My current favorite is the strawberry tree," he offers. Tree experts here are constantly on the look out for species that can handle the local climate. The strawberry tree, with its mock red fruit that hangs in draping clusters, is in high demand. "They're hard to find right now because of the popularity," says FUF planting manager Heidi Lakics.
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