photo credit: 123rf.com

The nesting season for birds is in full swing.

San Francisco’s mild winter and recent rains have provided a window for building and breeding, and they’ve grabbed it. The birding reports are full of lovely stories, from humming-birds to Great Horned Owls to sparrows. It’s the denning season for coyotes, too. Spring’s come for San Francisco’s wildlife.

So we were really dismayed to read about more habitat destruction in Glen Canyon Park, which is wonderful for wildlife. It has trees, dense thickets, and a stream running through it. Except now there are people with chainsaws out in the dense thickets. If there are birds’ nests in there, as there probably are, it will be impossible to avoid disturbing them or even destroying them. Certainly, the activity is going to disrupt all normal wildlife activity beside ripping out the habitat the birds and animals use.

Here’s a note we got yesterday:

This morning the Shelterbelt crew was out there in Glen Canyon clearing way back into the densest part of the forest along the creek — a thicket area no one has ventured in for years. They obviously are not just taking out cape ivy — this is why I haven’t been seeing much wildlife lately.

One would think the Natural Areas Program would respect the cycles of Nature for wildlife in our city.

One would think wrong.

[Edited to Add: We’d like to note that UCSF does not generally approve habitat destruction during the bird-nesting season in Sutro Forest. In fact, their plans specifically take that into account. Thanks, UCSF.]