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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)
Category Archives: Environment
Monsanto, Blackwater, Pesticides, and Spies
Someone sent me a link to an interesting article about Blackwater, the well-known defense contracting firm in the Iraq war (now called Xe Services LLC). They’ve diversified into corporate Intelligence. Said The Nation article by Jeremy Scahill: “Over the past … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, Neighborhood impact, UCSF
Tagged EPA, herbicide, Monsanto, mt sutro stewards, pesticide
1 Comment
A Unique Forest
We’ve been convinced about the health and beauty of this amazing forest, but we’re not arborists. So we asked one to look at the forest for us. The letter below is from ISA-certified arborist, Jocelyn Cohen, who is a member … Continue reading
Endangered Butterflies
A commenter on this website, ‘Jonathan’, suggested that a good reason to destroy the Mount Sutro Cloud Forest would be to bring back habitat for endangered butterflies. Besides the Mission Blue Butterfly (for which there’s an attempted reintroduction on Twin … Continue reading
Posted in Environment
Tagged butterfly, fire risk?, grass fires, San Bruno Mountain, Twin Peaks, wildlife
14 Comments
Tree-killers in San Francisco: Reward Offered
It wasn’t just on Tank Hill that tree-killers were active: Someone’s currently killing trees in Golden Gate Park. The San Francisco Chronicle reported that someone cut down 15 newly-planted saplings. There have been five or more such attacks since May … Continue reading
The Failed Experiment at Tank Hill
Someone emailed us to ask why UCSF were bothering with demonstration projects, when there was the obvious example of Tank Hill. “Trees were cut down, natives planted and died,” said the email. What did they achieve? So we looked into … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, nativism, Neighborhood impact
Tagged birds, butterfly, native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program, Tank Hill
11 Comments
Habitat Destruction in Sutro Forest
We posted recently about the destruction of the forest understory along the South Ridge trail, near where it meets the Nike Rd. Now we hear that this isn’t the only area where habitat has been destroyed along the trail. Areas … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, Neighborhood impact, UCSF
Tagged birds, Sutro Forest, trails, UCSF, wildlife
7 Comments
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
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
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
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 