How California Cities Address Urban Biodiversity

Many Bay Area cities have adopted Urban Forest Master or Management Plans, including Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, Mountain View, San José, San Francisco, Sunnyvale and Oakland. Menlo Park and Los Gatos are developing plans.

Most emphasize canopy, tree health, climate resilience, drought tolerance, equity and risk management. Some, including East Palo Alto, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Mountain View and Oakland, give greater priority to native trees, habitat and biodiversity. Oakland's plan, for example, calls for prioritizing native plants and pollinator gardens to enhance biodiversity. Mountain View's plan explicitly combines biodiversity and urban forest planning.

Nature and biodiversity appear in many General Plans, but relatively few cities have an explicit citywide biodiversity framework. Stronger California examples include Mountain View, Palo Alto, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Encinitas, although their approaches vary considerably. Woodside, Portola Valley and Los Altos Hills have conservation and native-vegetation policies or guidance, but not comprehensive biodiversity plans.

Even fewer cities have enforceable biodiversity-related landscaping, native-plant, habitat or development standards. Examples include Palo Alto, Woodside and Encinitas. Santa Monica and Ojai have adopted rights-of-nature ordinances.

Definitions vary considerably, particularly “native,” “locally native,” “regionally native,” “functional,” “climate-adapted,” “habitat” and “biodiversity.”