CANOPY BLOG

Remembering Dave Muffly

By Canopy Team on February 17, 2026

Canopy has lost a treasured tree advocate and a trusted friend with the passing of Dave Muffly. Throughout his life, Dave wore countless Canopy hats, leaving his mark on remarkable planting projects across our region. His loss is deeply felt, as a friend and as a valued resource and passionate advocate for Canopy’s mission.

Canopy and Dave share a long and meaningful history from our earliest planting efforts when Dave served as Canopy’s first Program Director in 1998-1999, to his tenure on Canopy’s Board from 2006-2011, to his unwavering commitment to the youngest tree stewards who joined him on tree walks.

Unfailingly, Dave understood and championed the Quercus family and Canopy’s mission, community collaboration, and education. For nearly three decades, he engaged with generations of “Cano-people,” helping to shape the culture, values, and relationships that continue to carry Canopy’s mission forward.

Dave was instrumental in dramatically changing Canopy’s trajectory through his enormous impact on Canopy’s early work in East Palo Alto. In 2006 Canopy, in partnership with the East Palo Alto community, received a grant to plant 1000 trees in East Palo Alto, most of which were planted along the Highway 101 frontage roads. Canopy had never undertaken a project of this magnitude and Dave’s design, implementation, and many years of subsequent tree care were essential for the success of this award-winning project. This work was followed by large planting projects at all Ravenswood City School District sites. One audacious day included planting nearly 200 trees in a day at one site followed by another 160-tree planting that attracted over 500 community volunteers! This work led to Canopy’s sustained presence in East Palo Alto and created the trust and connections that established Canopy as a community partner in Palo Alto and East Palo Alto.

Dave shared his deep knowledge and time generously, sharing his expertise as a volunteer and mentor to ensure others could learn, grow, and carry the work forward. Whether working alongside seasoned arborists, volunteers, or young people just beginning to see themselves as environmental stewards, he met everyone with enthusiasm. A tree walk with Dave along the soundwall trees or at Apple Park was full of humor and fresh and exciting ways to look at the trees and our place in the world. His reverence for expanding access to trees was seemingly encouraged by a vision that urban forestry is about exploration and pushing limits, as much as it is about expanding tree canopy.

Canopy, and the broader world of urban forestry, is stronger and more expansive today because Dave Muffly was part of our community. The trees he helped plant, the innumerable people he inspired, and the colleagues he mentored are undoubtedly affected by his unique walk through the world.

As we continue our community forestry work, planting, educating, and building a more resilient urban forest, we carry forward Dave’s example: to remain curious, to generously teach, and to seek partners and collaborators to make more of this important work possible.

Canopy will share photos of a tree planted in Dave’s honor, and our friends at Magic invite you to visit their Tribute Page to share your memories of the impact Dave had on our lives and our forests.