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PETITION TO UCSF: SAVE SUTRO FOREST
PETITION : Stop NAP, save the Forest
PETITION: Sierra Club, Please Stop!
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Recent Posts
- Best Wishes for 2026
- Landslides in Sutro Forest, predictably
- Sutro Forest – More trees being removed
- Season’s Greetings for 2025
- Happy Holidays -2023
- A Pesticides Road Map
- Season’s Greetings!
- Tree-Thoughts at 125 Years
- Sutro Forest Destruction – March 2022
- More Trees Being Felled in Sutro Forest
- Why Urban Forests Can’t be “Native”
- A Candle for the New Year
- Don’t Feed Coyotes
- Wildcare’s Request: Respect the Nest
- Dr Morley Singer, RIP
A HIKE IN SUTRO FOREST (Links)
BIRDS & WILDLIFE IN BAY AREA (Links)
- Bird checklist for San Francisco from USGS
- Birding – A really good blog for Oregon and California (including San Francisco)
- Birding on Mt Sutro
- San Francisco's coyotes
- The Beavers at Martinez
- Urban Wildness: San Francisco wildlife (birds, coyotes, insects)
- Wildlife Activism blog
- Wildlife Hospital in San Rafael (Marin County, CA)
BUTTERFLY ID (Links)
HERBICIDES (Links)
SAVING TREES (Links)
SITES OF INTEREST (Other Links)
Author Archives: webmaster
Concrete and Chainlink Aren’t Forest
Ten years ago, on 18 January 2000, UCSF issued an agreement with the community about its intentions for the Aldea student housing. [Edited to Add: Here is the letter: Aldea Housing Agreement 2000 01] One section is directly relevant here. … Continue reading
Butterfly Count Results, 2010
It’s nice to have positive things to say about Nature in the City (which we’ve disagreed with, more than once), and this is really a win. Despite some pretty cold foggy weather, their June 7th Butterfly Count got 34 participants … Continue reading
Report: UCSF’s Agenda Planning Meeting #2
This evening we had the second of three scheduled agenda planning meetings. Those present were the usual agenda-planners, with the addition of Walter Caplan (President, Forest Knolls Neighborhood Organization) who had been outside the country at the previous one. This … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Meetings, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism, Neighborhood impact, UCSF
Tagged mount sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
2 Comments
Mission Blue Butterfly- An Uncertain Experiment. Why?
This post was sparked by our discussion in comments with reader JMC, who advocates replacing the Sutro Forest with Mission Blue habitat (disturbed grassland with lupines and other flowering plants). Recently, a Mission Blue butterfly was spotted on Twin Peaks … Continue reading
Butterfly Count: June 7th
We’ve talked about Nature In the City and its negative attitude to trees. Today’s post is positive: They’re leading a San Francisco Butterfly Count, in collaboration with the North American Butterfly Association. We believe it will be okay to count … Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged butterfly, nature in the city, north american butterfly association, wildlife
1 Comment
East Bay: Intent to file a Petition
(Edited to update the information in the post) Hills Conservation Network has decided to file a petition under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) against the East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) and its Board of Directors. It’s sent a notification through … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus
Tagged EIR, Environmental Impact Report, eucalyptus, hills conservation network, trees
1 Comment
Urban Forests and Migratory Birds
We’d like to thank “Sutro Resident” for a comment with a link that led us to an interesting piece of research: That migratory birds may depend heavily on small urban forests as they pass through, and even small forests are … Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged birds, migratory, mount sutro, Sutro Forest, wildlife
Comments Off on Urban Forests and Migratory Birds
Increasing Biodiversity
The New Scientist, a well-reputed science magazine, ran an editorial recently headed, “Let’s put an end to biosentimentality.” It argued that “While a few introduced species have wreaked havoc, some biologists argue that most increase biodiversity, both directly and by … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest
Tagged eucalyptus, eucalyptus myths, nativism, unscientific
1 Comment
Deforestation: US percentage highest
Deforestation. It’s not just for Brazil any more. When people think about deforestation and global warming, they mostly think about Brazil. The Amazon rain forests. People in poor countries fecklessly chopping down forests to get at the land and the … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, nativism
1 Comment
Protecting Mount Sutro Cloud Forest Helps Biodiversity
We’d like to put Mt Sutro Cloud Forest in the context of the bio-diversity in the Western part of San Francisco. This is an 80-acre forest (including both the UCSF portion and the Interior Green Belt). That’s fairly large for … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Herbicides, Maps, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, UCSF
Tagged cloud forest, habitat, herbicide, san francisco, Sutro Forest
13 Comments
San Francisco – an Urban Forest Map
It’s ambitious: a database listing every tree in San Francisco. There’s a new wiki in town: An Urban Forest Map that relies on crowd-sourced information, rather like Wikipedia. The project is live now (in beta), and anyone can play. The … Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged calfire, san francisco, trees
Comments Off on San Francisco – an Urban Forest Map
Dialogue with Sutro Biker
This conversation with Sutro Biker started in the Comments. We felt it was interesting enough to have it in a separate post instead of buried at the bottom of a page. ************************************************************************ Sutro Biker (SB): I still can’t believe all the misinformation … Continue reading
Garlon in Our Watershed
Garlon is one of the two pesticides that UCSF proposed to use to prevent re-sprouting of felled eucalyptus, blackberry and vines. It is regularly used on Twin Peaks, one of the highest points in the city. We should mention that … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged Garlon, herbicide, native plants, nativism, Sutro Forest, Twin Peaks
22 Comments
Another Eucalyptus Myth: Bird Death (via Audubon)
One of the saddest myths about eucalyptus is that it causes the death of small birds by “beak-gumming.” According to this myth, small birds like kinglets foraging in eucalyptus flowers accumulate gummy residues that suffocate them. It’s all because Californian … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus
Tagged Audubon, beak-gumming, eucalyptus myths, gummed beak, Point Reyes Bird Observatory, PRBO, Stallcup, Ted Williams, wildlife
28 Comments
Flowers in the Forest
Usually, we’re up in the forest for the trees, and those are certainly lovely. But it’s spring in the forest, and it has flowers, too. We even saw a cineraria. The native garden is finally all green. The pink-flowered currant … Continue reading
A New Plan for the Forest
Back in 2001, UCSF published a Plan for Sutro Forest, based on data that had been collected in previous years (including a 1999 report on the forest). One of the objections neighbors had to the so-called “FEMA Plan” – i.e. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
6 Comments
A Forest Full of Birds
Sutro Cloud Forest is always alive with birdsong. We couldn’t identify the birds from their calls; we’re not that expert at birding. We were delighted, therefore, to hear from someone much more knowledgeable. Keith McAllister sent us a list of … Continue reading
Sutro Forest 2010-2011: UCSF Meeting update
UCSF’s meeting was intended to inform the neighbors about the reasons for the withdrawal of the FEMA application; reaffirm their commitment to a safe, healthy, beautiful and usable forest; and lay out next steps. Barbara French opened the meeting with … Continue reading
Twin Peaks: Belligerent Butterflies and herbicides
Twin Peaks is still enrobed in spring. The brilliant oxalis now shares its glory with the golden glow of California poppy, the elegant blue spikes of lupin, spots of pink where the wild hollyhock blooms and the dusty purple of … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon
7 Comments
Srsly, Ms. Feinstein?
When ten thousand trees are cut down on 400 acres of steep hillsides, it stands to reason it’ll have a major environmental impact. Four “fire hazard mitigation” proposals from UC Berkeley, Oakland, and East Bay Regional Park District plan to … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, nativism
Tagged Environmental Impact Report, FEMA misuse, fire risk?, nativism, sequester carbon
2 Comments
Why Eucalyptus Trees can Actually Fight Fires
We were sent an article recently that was quite intriguing. It suggested that rather than adding to fire risk, eucalyptus actually fights wind-driven fire up to the point it is overcome. It does this by breaking up the flow of … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus
6 Comments
Nativism vs the Environment
When most people think of preserving natural areas, they envision saving green growing things from encroachment by parking lots and housing development. Nativists focus on a different agenda – removing non-native plants and substituting natives. What’s wrong with that? Several … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, eucalyptus myths, herbicide, native plants, nativism, trees, wildlife
10 Comments
Euca-phobia and Fire Myths
This is an extensive excerpt from an article by Peter Gray Scott on the subject of the myths surrounding Eucalyptus and fire [with emphasis added]. It is quoted here with permission. —— One by one, myths about eucalyptus are pitched … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, eucalyptus myths, fire risk?, nativism, unscientific
10 Comments
Spring and Garlon at Twin Peaks
This morning, Twin Peaks was radiant. Not the view from Twin Peaks, which is always amazing: the flowers. It was splendid with drifts of oxalis and mustard, california poppy and lupine, iris and calendula, all set against a vivid green … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon
8 Comments
UCSF Update and March 24 meeting
We attended a meeting at UCSF today, in which they addressed several planning items. On Mt Sutro, UCSF was seeking money from FEMA to gut a quarter of the forest in the name of fire hazard mitigation. What UCSF’s Lori … Continue reading
Old Growth Forest on Mt Sutro
Some months ago, we got into a discussion with “Jimbo” about old-growth forests, in the comments section of the front page of this website. (Scroll down to see the discussions.) At the time we said: “As for old-growth, I don’t … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism
Tagged cloud forest, eucalyptus, mount sutro, old growth forest, Sutro Forest, wildlife
3 Comments
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 