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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
Saving the Trees of Glen Canyon Park
Glen Canyon Park is one of San Francisco’s jewels. It’s a long narrow tree-filled canyon, including the “owl tree” where a Great Horned Owl has raised its young many years in succession, and two natural bee trees. Of its 70 … Continue reading
San Francisco’s Natural Areas: 2012 A Record Year for Pesticide Use
If, like us, you hoped that 2012 might be the year that San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program (NAP) proved us wrong about its escalating pesticide use — it’s not happening. That ship sailed in September. Readers of this site will … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, Natural areas Program, UCSF
Tagged glyphosate, herbicide, imazapyr, Natural Areas Program
2 Comments
UCSF Long Range Development Plan Meeting and Sutro Forest
We attended UCSF’s Long Range Development Plan meeting this evening. It’s due 2014, and gives UCSF a road-map through 2035. Most of the discussion focused on how UCSF should get back under their space ceiling, a limit they had decided … Continue reading
Posted in Meetings, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, UCSF
Tagged Draft Environment Impact Report, mount sutro, UCSF
1 Comment
Ostriches below Mt Sutro Forest
If we were thinking of non-native species of birds, we probably couldn’t get much further than ostriches. So it seemed particularly appropriate to post this picture. The graceful non-native trees of Mt Sutro Forest fill the background, and in the … Continue reading
Posted in Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism
Tagged birds, mount sutro, Sutro Forest
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Fact Check: Nothing Grows UnderEucalyptus? (Allelopathy)
Like most people in the US, we’ve been listening to some of the political speeches and the discussion around them recently. And we’re rather heartened by a newly emerging trend: fact-checking. In the last few months, one “fact” we’ve heard … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism
Tagged birds, cloud forest, eucalyptus myths, Mount Davidson, mount sutro, wildlife
1 Comment
Insects Don’t Prefer Native Plants
New data, but old theories? One argument that Native Plant Advocates make for their attempts to convert San Francisco’s open spaces to native plants (despite the habitat destruction and pesticide use) is that it’s better for wildlife. In fact, it’s … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged environment, insects, native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program
1 Comment
San Francisco Butterfly Count 2012 Results
Every year, the North American Butterfly Association (NABA) sponsors a “July 4th” butterfly count; it’s a count of all the species volunteers spot within a 15-mile radius on a particular day in the 4 weeks before or after July 4th. … Continue reading
Mount Sutro Forest: A Landmark
We were sent this great picture by Dr Morley Singer and it’s published here with permission. It was taken from the top of Golden Gate Bridge. Look over Dr Singer’s left shoulder, and you can see Mount Sutro Forest, next … Continue reading
Mount Sutro Cloud Forest: Forest report, July 2012
While the rest of the country bakes and burns, we’re having a cool San Francisco fog-belt summer. The other day, strong gusty winds blew the fog blew in from the sea, and we headed up to the forest. Mount Sutro … Continue reading
Measuring Pesticide Use by San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program
As readers of this site will know, we’ve been following the use of pesticides in Natural Areas. At present, four pesticides are mainly used by the Natural Areas Program (NAP): Glyphosate (trade-names Roundup or Aquamaster); Triclopyr (Garlon and its variants); … Continue reading
Pesticides in San Francisco’s Natural Areas: Rising Volumes
Some months ago, we had written about San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program and its escalating pesticide use. The graph below shows the number of applications of pesticides in the years from 2008-2011. The San Francisco Forest Alliance, an organization dedicated … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Natural areas Program
Tagged aquamaster, Garlon, glyphosate, herbicide, imazapyr, Natural Areas Program, pesticide, Roundup
4 Comments
UCSF Postpones Tree-felling Another Year
At a public meeting of the Community Advisory Group on 4 June 2012, UCSF’s Barbara Bagot-Lopez announced that the project to fell trees on four “demonstration”plots would be postponed, probably to the Fall of 2013. (Those are the yellow areas … Continue reading
Posted in Meetings, Mount Sutro Stewards, UCSF
Tagged EIR, Environmental Impact Report, mount sutro, mt sutro stewards, Sutro Forest, Sutro Stewards, UCSF, wind
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Trees and Income Inequality
Many of us intuitively associate trees and “nice” areas. Realtors know this; if a house for sale is on a tree-lined street, the ad always says so. In 2008, researchers looking into the question found that the demand for trees … Continue reading
Posted in deforestation, Environment, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, Natural areas Program, UCSF
Tagged mount sutro, Natural Areas Program, trees
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The Forest in May
Spring in the Sutro Forest is lovely. Where the canopy is largely unbroken, the sunlight streams through the trees with the filtered light particular to forests. Last week, flowers bloomed in the lower reaches of the mountain: the pinkish-purple Robert … Continue reading
Posted in Mt Sutro Cloud Forest
Tagged birds, opening up the forest, Sutro Forest, trails
2 Comments
A Bobcat in Sutro Forest?
“We saw a bobcat today in Mt. Sutro by the Aldea Center,” commented reader RM on MntSutro.com on 10 May 2012. We were fascinated. [Edited to replace the public domain picture with one the reader sent us – taken in … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, UCSF
Tagged Aldea Student Housing, mount sutro, Sutro Forest, wildlife
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San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program Ignores Breeding Birds
We’d written earlier about chainsaws in Glen Canyon Park, even though spring is the breeding season for birds and animals, a time when trees and thickets should be left undisturbed. [Click HERE to read that article, Chainsaws in the Nesting … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Natural areas Program
Tagged birds, eucalyptus, Glen Canyon, Natural Areas Program, wildlife
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Glen Canyon Park: Chainsaws in the Nesting Season
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 … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged birds, Glen Canyon, habitat, Natural Areas Program, wildlife
5 Comments
Why Low Dose Pesticides are Still Hazards
When we speak up against the Natural Area Program’s frequent pesticide use, its supporters frequently tell us that – compared with say commercial agriculture – the Natural Areas Program (NAP) uses small amounts of toxic chemicals. “The dose makes the … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Natural areas Program
Tagged endocrine disruptors, herbicide, native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program, toxic
1 Comment
What Adolph Sutro Didn’t Know About the Eucalyptus Forest
Mount Sutro Cloud Forest, a century-old forest of eucalyptus, was planted by former mayor and philanthropist Adolph Sutro (1830-1898). Like the larger and better-known Muir Woods, it’s the last remnant of a forest that covered a much larger area – … Continue reading
Posted in deforestation, Environment, eucalyptus, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism
Tagged adolph sutro, bias, eucalyptus, eucalyptus myths, Jewish, native plants, nativism, Sutro Forest, UCSF
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The Murdered Tree on Mt Davidson
[Edited to Add: This tree finally went down on April 8 or 9, 2013, following strong winds in the Bay Area.] It’s visible for miles around, the dramatic dead tree high on the brow of Mt Davidson. That’s the Murdered … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, nativism, Natural areas Program, Neighborhood impact
Tagged Mount Davidson, nativism, Natural Areas Program
8 Comments
Mt Sutro Forest – Beautiful Evocation of a Lost Tree
We were sent this clip by videographer and artist Lori Ambrosio, who visited the “Kill-trees Trail” (connecting Stanyan x 17th to Medical Center Way). We thought it was a lovely bitter-sweet evocation of the trees that were there – only … Continue reading
Sutro Forest in February 2012
We were up in Mt Sutro Forest a couple of days ago, the day after Valentine’s Day. The forest looked appropriately romantic. A number of cherry trees were in bloom with tiny white flowers, like this one near the entry … Continue reading
Posted in Mount Sutro Stewards, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, UCSF
Tagged mt sutro stewards, native plants, Sutro Forest, UCSF
4 Comments
The $3.4 mn “Park” at Sutro Dunes
We’ve driven by there a hundred times, and never noticed it… but it’s a Natural Area and a park, opposite Ocean Beach. It’s just below the bluff topped by Sutro Park, across the road from some neat condos. It’s been … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged birds, native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program
5 Comments
Pine Lake with Pollution and Pesticides
Someone sent us a note, recently. “There was a sign up at Pine Lake today warning people that the water was polluted!” it said. And here is the picture attached: “All around the lake, walkers were talking about the NAP … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged aminopyralid, aquamaster, glyphosate, herbicide, Milestone VM, Natural Areas Program, Pine Lake
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San Francisco Natural Areas and Escalating Pesticide Use
We spent a couple of hours, the other day, in the beautiful McLaren Lodge, leafing through a thick binder of pesticide reports for the San Francisco Rec and Park Department. It was so thick in part because it contained a … Continue reading
Happy New Year, with Pyrotechnics and Pesticides
Last night, we went to watch the fireworks from Twin Peaks as the year turned over. It was a clear night, despite a little fog earlier on. The hill was crowded with cars and buzzing with anticipation. People jogged or … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged fireworks, herbicide, imazapyr, nativism, Natural Areas Program, New Year, Roundup, Twin Peaks
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Miranda’s Daily Blog: Day 13
Miranda’s trying to save a forest in Tasmania, on Mt Mueller. We’re trying to save a forest in San Francisco, on Mount Sutro. But here’s what really got me: “It seems almost crazy, doesn’t it? For someone who loves trees … Continue reading
Posted in deforestation, Environment, eucalyptus, nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, Sutro Forest, tree killers, trees
1 Comment
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 