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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
New Scientist: Nativism and “Message Enhancement”
An article in the latest New Scientist, a well-reputed science magazine suggests that misguided nativism is doing more harm than good, in particular by misusing resources. Titled “Living with Aliens” in the print edition, and “Immigrant species aren’t all bad” … Continue reading
1 acre = 30 cars
I stole this graphic from the Nature Conservancy website (which I’ve linked here, so I hope they won’t mind). We’ve been hearing about the carbon impact of chopping down all those 120-year old trees. Until now, I didn’t have an … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged eucalyptus, mount sutro, nature conservancy, sequester carbon, sutro, Sutro Forest, trees, UCSF
2 Comments
California Eucalyptus: A Biological Treasure
Someone posted an intriguing note on the A Historic Forest page of this website. It suggested something we hadn’t thought of before: that the eucalyptus here may be a repository of genetic material not found even back in Australia. Here’s … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, gene pool, historic, mount sutro, sutro, Sutro Forest
11 Comments
The 10-15% Mitigation
So with all the brouhaha about this project, and the cost — destroyed trees, the gutting of a historic forest, the time, the effort, the distraction from more pressing problems currently facing UC, and the taxpayer dollars (both through FEMA … Continue reading
Posted in Sutro Forest "Fire Risk"
Tagged mount sutro, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
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A Rebuttal to UCSF’s Response to FEMA
This is an edited version of the letter sent to FEMA regarding UCSF’s response to their questions. Emphasis has been added. ——————————– [We were] quite surprised to read the details of UCSF’s response August 16 response to FEMA’s questions of … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged FEMA misuse, fire risk?, mount sutro, nativism, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
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In the News: UCSF; Tree Planting; Native Herbicides
We’re starting a new feature here: In The News. We plan to post summaries of relevant news items (or other pieces from the internet), and comment on them. SAVING FORESTS IS ONE OF THE MOST EFFICIENT CLIMATE REMEDIES This article … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Elizabeth Blackburn, Garlon, herbicide, native plants, nativism, Nobel prize, Roundup, san francisco, sequester carbon, trees, UCSF
9 Comments
Peter Scott’s article on Native Plant Restoration
We were sent this article, with a request to re-publish it on this website. The author, who wrote this in the context of the East Bay, kindly gave permission. Emphasis has been added. ———— NATIVE PLANT RESTORATION: IT LOOKS A … Continue reading
Fog Log
So we’ve entered that crucial “September to November period when fire risk is greatest,” according to the UCSF letter. Mount Sutro is squarely in the fog belt. The question is, Whether between the end of summer (and fog) and the … Continue reading
Michael Pollan Takes on Native Plant Ideology
Someone sent us a New York Times magazine article by author and UC Berkeley professor Michael Pollan, he of the locavore food fame. He describes the storm of letters he received when he published a story about his failed attempt … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged eucalyptus myths, herbicide, michael pollan, mount sutro, native plants, nativism, sutro, Sutro Forest
5 Comments
Laurel Heights vs UCSF: Environmental Review Problems. Replay?
At the request of a neighbor who provided the relevant references, we researched the Laurel Heights Improvement Association v. Regents of the UC case. It is, he suggested, quite relevant to the current situation. In 1993, UCSF famously lost a … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged california supreme court, EIR, Environmental Impact Report, laurel heights, mount sutro, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
1 Comment
Edgewood and Farnsworth
So far, we have concentrated mostly on the South Ridge, planned for the first tree-felling. But recently, we walked around to Edgewood and Farnsworth, the site of the second cut. That appears even more problematic than South Ridge, in some … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged Edgewood, Farnsworth, mount sutro, native plants, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
1 Comment
Article in the Examiner
The Examiner today carried an article saying we are fighting to retain the forest. They spoke to Dr Morley Singer; to someone at UCSF; and to Sean Elsbernd. They note Dr Singer’s point that this is a quarter of the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged FEMA misuse, fire risk?, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
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Letter: Grass fires are worse…
We received this letter from “Bewildered in Berkeley” in response to David Maloney’s letter exonerating eucalyptus in the 1991 Oakland fire. ———— Thanks for telling us about the Oakland-Berkeley Mayors’ Firestorm Task Force analysis of the cause of the 1991 … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1991 oakland fire, eucalyptus myths, fire risk?, grass fires, hills conservation network, native plants, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
1 Comment
Task force report: Trees are not a Primary Fire Hazard
David Maloney, a member of the Task Force investigating the 1991 Oakland Hills fire confirms that even there – in Oakland’s climate of more extremes and less humidity than Mt Sutro’s cloud forest – trees were not the primary problem. … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged 1991 oakland fire, eucalyptus myths, fire risk?, grass fires, hills conservation network
5 Comments
Old San Francisco: Sand, wind, and windblown sand
San Francisco, at the time when Sutro planted the historic forest, was a world of windblown sand that got into everything, including residents’ lungs. We received a letter from a San Franciscan who has “a small San Francisco library and … Continue reading
Puzzled #5 – UCSF: Strange Objectives
Today’s discussion is about Objectives. “ What are the objectives of the projects?” the Q&A asks, and proceeds to list the following: “• To substantially reduce the amount of highly combustible fuels to prevent a fast-moving, high-intensity fire that could … Continue reading
Puzzled #4 – UCSF: Cloud Forest ?
The fourth in our series of responses to UCSF’s July 9th letter. According to the letter, “The forest is not a “Cloud Forest” (these are native forests found in tropical and subtropical areas of the world), but Mount Sutro does … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cloud forest, mount sutro, puzzled, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
3 Comments
Puzzled #3 – UCSF: Demonstrating what?
Today, I’m moving from puzzlement into bafflement on the topic of Demonstration Projects. UCSF says it ‘wants to take advantage of FEMA funding to do a larger demonstration project in the South Ridge area (8 acres rather than 2 acres). … Continue reading
The Northern Flicker (woodpecker)
I was browsing the net today and came upon evidence of another species of woodpecker that uses the forest – an excellent photograph of a Northern Flicker on the SFCitizen blog. It was taken in the Sutro Forest.
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged BIRDS & WILDLIFE IN BAY AREA (Links), mount sutro, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF, wildlife
1 Comment
Puzzled #2 – UCSF: Roundup Herbicide
So, still considering the puzzling letter dated July 9, 2009. Today’s topic: Roundup Herbicide According to the letter, “UCSF is proposing to limit the use of herbicides to spot treatment of eucalyptus stumps, cut vines and blackberry roots only where … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged herbicide, mount sutro, Roundup, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
2 Comments
Puzzling letter from UCSF: Fire Hazard?
The enclosure to the July 9th 2009 letter from UCSF’s Assistant Vice Chancellor was puzzling. It managed to concentrate a large number of questionable statements in a very small space, and will keep this blog busy for a while! Today: … Continue reading
Posted in Sutro Forest "Fire Risk", UCSF
Tagged FEMA misuse, fire risk?, mount sutro, puzzled, Sutro Forest, UCSF
3 Comments
Dr Singer’s letter to the Chancellor UCSF
This letter was received from Dr Morley Singer. ————— Chancellor Michael Bishop, UCSF, July, 2009 Dear Chancellor Bishop, I am writing you at the suggestion of your associates, Barbara French and Deborah Brennan, following phone conversations with them expressing the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged mount sutro, sutro, Sutro Forest, UCSF
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Friendly Invasive Species
Someone forwarded me a thoughtful article from the Science section of the New York Times, entitled “Friendly Invaders.” Drawing on the work of Dr. Dov Sax (Brown University) and Dr Steven Gaines (UCSB), and also Dr James Brown of the … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged BIRDS & WILDLIFE IN BAY AREA (Links), native plants, sutro, Sutro Forest, wildlife
2 Comments
Hairy or Downy Woodpecker Song?
Last week, walking in the forest, I heard what at first sounded like frogs. I listened more carefully, and realized it was a woodpecker of some kind. I’m a birder of more enthusiasm than expertise, and I usually need my … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus
Tagged BIRDS & WILDLIFE IN BAY AREA (Links), sutro, Sutro Forest, wildlife
5 Comments
Herbicides (Roundup) and the Forest
This letter is from Alicia Snow, a frequent visitor to the forest. It has been minimally edited to provide direct links and redact one name. —————————————– Roundup – the herbicide of choice used by UCSF all over our forest, is … Continue reading
Disability Access?
Unsigned letter from e449081@bsnow.net ———— Now that Sutro Stewards has opened up Mt Sutro to public access, UCSF must make it accessible to people with disability. A paved road already reaches the mountain top. Pave over the native garden, which … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
2 Comments
Caring for a Temperate Cloud Forest
Managing a temperate cloud forest is quite different from managing a regular dry forest. The most important thing is: Don’t open it up to dry out. When the forest is opened up, the area immediately becomes dryer. Today, on a … Continue reading
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 