Access to breathtaking natural beauty is often noted as one of the perks of, or even reasons for living in San Francisco. But a group of business owners in San Francisco argue that overall, SF residents aren’t taking all the advantage of urban nature that they could. To remedy the shortfall, a group of 20 nature-oriented small businesses have founded Rooted SF, a collective aimed at promoting knowledge and use of urban nature by SF residents.

“There’s so much scientific support for the ways our minds and bodies are benefitted by time spent in nature,” says Elisa Baier, owner of Small Spot Gardens, a Rooted SF member business. “And likewise, we can have huge positive or negative effects on the nature around us depending on how we choose to engage it.” The Rooted SF founders are hoping to foster more of those human-nature relationships by creating a directory of urban nature resources and promoting it.

The resources highlighted at Rooted SF are organized into two categories: services you might hire to create or maintain a nature-focused outdoor space of your own, and organizations to check out for engaging with nature in other ways. Browsing the website gives a sense of the huge variety of nature care opportunities available to San Franciscans: from small like the therapeutic gardens for teens of Euclid Garden, to expansive like the twice a week tree care outings of Friends of the Urban Forest.

“We get so much joy and fascination from working with urban nature,” say Baier of the Rooted SF member business owners, “we just want to spread that appreciation and stewardship to as many San Franciscans as we can.” Look for Rooted SF at summer events like Sunday Streets and check them out at rootedsf.com.