We’re dismayed to bring you news of more tree removal in Sutro Forest. Walking through the forest recently, we found nearly every trail had stumps and logs.
Much of the character of this beautiful forest, once dense and green and lush, has been changed. More changes are coming. Those who remember how it used to be are privileged to have seen it. Below, for example, is a photograph from 2011.
Sutro Forest, July 2011
The East Ridge Trail, is bleak and dusty.
MORE TREES TO BE CUT DOWN
It’s not finished. A large number of trees have been marked – usually a sign they’re to be cut down. All along the East Ridge Trail, and then along Johnstone Drive where the forest meets the Aldea Student Housing campus – trees are blazed with pink dots.
This beautiful stand of trees grows along Johnstone Drive, where the forest meets the Aldea student housing. If you look closely, you can see nearly every tree in this picture has been marked with the pink spots. It looks as though UCSF intends to clear the whole slope.
Apart from the loss of ecosystem services these trees provide – carbon sequestration, pollution reduction, habitat, wind-protection – this is precisely the wrong way to prepare for a wet winter if the El Nino hits.
NEW TRAIL COMING
A new trail from Clarendon has been roughed out. While trails are a good thing, it’s likely that this – like the other trails in the forest – will be a reason to cut down more trees.
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 
The East Ridge has been so sad and dry for a long time and now they’re messing up all other parts of the forest as fast as they can. This is criminal and these people should be busted for vandalism and defunded immediately. If I was to plan a new trail, I’d make it to wind around the trees. We need a new mayor, senators, etc. who might be able to do more to stop this rampant destruction. And yes I am one of those people who used to scramble about up there before they started creating their trails.
So just read the city wants to force homeowners to maintain street trees. Some homeowners are struggling enough as it is and some might well end up destroying the trees so they will not have to hassle with this extra expense. The city should do actual useful things like maintaining our much needed street trees. After all they do have a huge budget to spend thousands each tree to unnecessarily chop so many down in the name of so-called “safety” or “improvements” in our parks and elsewhere where it, and the spraying of herbicides in the parks, is dangerous to health and harmful to the environmennt. What kind of priorities are these and why don’t we have any competent city leaders anymore who could nip this kind of vandalism and money-wasting in the bud. Do something that actually does some GOOD for once instead of just the opposite as is going on now. Whatever happened to common sense?
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