When San Francisco Urban Forester Chris Buck talks about trees – from nomenclature to their structure and textured canopies – his words often sound dreamy and poetic . Dig a little deeper into Buck ’ s personal history , and it ’ s clear that a love of words is at the root of his love of trees .
Buck , who joined Public Works ’ Bureau of Urban Forestry in 2005 and is now one of the City ’ s foremost experts on the care of urban trees , faced two life-changing assignments in his senior year as an English major at the University of Iowa : Read " Walden " by Henry David Thoreau and keep a nature journal . He devoured the book , got an A + on his journal and began assigning himself new goals – including memorizing hundreds of Latin genus and species names and learning to identify every tree he encountered .
After college , he moved to San Francisco to work as a researcher for a stock photo company , but he couldn ’ t stop thinking about trees . One day , he picked up a phone book , counted 30 tree companies and proceeded to call every one of them , using the pitch line : “ I love trees and I want to do the real work to get to know them more closely .”
From his first job doing heavy physical labor dragging brush for a ground tree crew , he went on to consult as a utility forester for PG & E and , later , became the education coordinator at the
Friends of the Urban Forest . Today , Buck admits that educating the public on tree maintenance and engaging youth to care about trees are two of his favorite things . His own education is ongoing , as evidenced by a peek into his home library . The wall of bookshelves is filled with more than 400 tomes on trees , arboriculture , natural history , flowers , plants and birds .
Just as architects can rattle off their favorite buildings around town , Buck has his own favorite icons , among them the coastal redwoods near the Lyon Street Steps and the blue gum eucalyptus trees at Octavia and Bush streets .
“ Few trees are truly native to San