SEARCH THIS SITE
-
PETITION TO UCSF: SAVE SUTRO FOREST
PETITION : Stop NAP, save the Forest
PETITION: Sierra Club, Please Stop!
LIKE us on Facebook
-
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: Herbicides
San Francisco’s Natural Areas Program…Where’s It Going?
This article has been reprinted with permission from Death of a Million Trees, a blog dedicated to preventing unnecessary tree-felling. (The emphasis is ours, as are minor edits.) [Edited to Add: MillionTrees updated this post. We have copied over the … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program
5 Comments
Twin Peaks: Sunset and Evening Fog and Pesticides
It was an amazingly beautiful evening over San Francisco, and of course the views from Twin Peaks were spectacular. The fog flowed through and over the Golden Gate, and only the towers poked through. This is the stuff that turns … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, nativism, Natural areas Program
Tagged glyphosate, imazapyr, Jake Sigg, Roundup, Sutro Forest, Twin Peaks
5 Comments
Natural areas, Pine Lake and Pesticides… Again
From time to time, readers send us information about pesticides being used in “Natural Areas.” This time, it’s Pine Lake in Stern Grove… the same place where Imazapyr was used even before it was approved by the City. (It’s called … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, Natural areas Program
Tagged Natural Areas Program, Roundup
3 Comments
San Francisco, Biodiversity, and the Department of the Environment
We’re aware of San Francisco’s Department of the Environment as the first line of defense against toxic chemicals in our public lands. But they’re more than the defense-against-the-dark-chems guys. They’re the recycling guys. The energy saving guys. The community gardens … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, nativism
Tagged Garlon, imazapyr, native plants, nativism, Roundup
2 Comments
Twin Peaks, Glen Canyon, Natural Areas, and Imazapyr
We’ve been seeing the new pesticide notices up on Twin Peaks, the ones we wrote about earlier here. So today, when we saw three more (and there may have been others) we assumed they were more of the same. They … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, UCSF
Tagged herbicide, imazapyr, mt sutro stewards, Natural Areas Program, Twin Peaks
4 Comments
Roundup, Birth defects, and the new trail in Mount Sutro Forest
The new trail connecting Stanyan (just above 17th Avenue) with Medical Center Way opened a few days ago. Though still marred by the stumps of dead trees and amputated shrubs, it provides better access from the Cole Valley side of … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest
Tagged Garlon, herbicide, Natural Areas Program, Roundup, Sutro Forest, trails
1 Comment
SF NAP on Twin Peaks: Rainy Days and Roundup…
Rainy days and Roundup always make me sigh… This report is brought to you from the drenched slopes of Twin Peaks. And here’s another one… They’re putting the pesticide notices high and visible now, which is an improvement. Also, they’re … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged herbicide, native plants, Natural Areas Program, Roundup, Twin Peaks
3 Comments
Mount Sutro Forest, Native Plants, and Ideology: Debate between a Climatologist and Charlie – Part I
Over the past few weeks, we’ve been hosting an interesting debate on our website, between US-based Charlie (who’s commented here before) and Gov Pavlicek , a climatologist from the Netherlands (NL). We think this conversation is interesting enough for its own … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, Herbicides, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, mount sutro, Sutro Forest, unscientific
3 Comments
Twin Peaks and the Mission Blue Butterfly: Why it’s Still Uncertain
[THIS ARTICLE WAS WRITTEN IN APRIL 2011 AND UPDATED Feb 2012] Last year, journalists were celebrating the return of the Mission Blue butterfly to Twin Peaks. From the SF Chronicle of 7 May 2010: “Everyone comes back to San Francisco, … Continue reading
Garlon, Natural Areas, and the City
San Francisco’s Department of the Environment (SF DOE) is our second line of protection against chemicals after the EPA; it regulates the use of pesticides on all city properties. We attended their monthly meeting yesterday, mainly because Lisa Wayne, the … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, nativism
Tagged Garlon, Glen Canyon, herbicide, native plants, nativism, Natural Areas Program
3 Comments
More Garlon for Glen Canyon Park?
We’ve been observing the issue of pesticides at Glen Canyon Park at a remove; but here’s what we understand. The place falls under the Natural Areas Program (NAP), which plans to use Garlon, one of the most toxic herbicides San … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged Garlon, Glen Canyon, native plants, Natural Areas Program, Sutro Forest
2 Comments
Glen Canyon Park and Garlon: Answering Jake Sigg
Recently, several people drew our attention to Glen Canyon and the planned spraying of Garlon 4 Ultra to kill the yellow oxalis flowers there. And someone sent in the notice seen here. Apparently, residents of areas nearby have been understandably upset … Continue reading
It’s Spring! It’s Twin Peaks! It’s toxic Garlon herbicide!
It’s spring again, it’s Garlon time! We recently published a picture taken near the reservoir. Now someone’s sent me these. This is a worker spraying Garlon 4 Ultra on Twin Peaks… wearing a protective suit — but without the required … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon
Tagged Garlon, herbicide, Twin Peaks
3 Comments
Garlon in our Reservoir?
Someone sent us this picture, taken on 20th Jan 2011 at Twin Peaks. We were surprised, even though we’ve grown accustomed to seeing notices of toxic pesticides being used all over “Natural Areas.” WHAT’S WRONG WITH THIS PICTURE? Garlon [ETA: … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged Garlon, Natural Areas Program, Roundup
6 Comments
Bees and Blue Gum Eucalyptus and Herbicides
We saw this interesting letter to the Editor in the Pulitzer Prize winning Pt Reyes Light newspaper. It’s reproduced here with permission from the edition of 6 Jan 2011. It makes reference to the two-part article Myth of the Eucalyptus … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon
Tagged eucalyptus, trees, wildlife
4 Comments
Native Plants and Pesticides: Glyphosate at Lake Merced
It was inevitable: a walk into a Native Plant area (aka Natural Areas Program areas) yielded yet another new pesticide notice. Last time, Imazapyr at Stern Grove. This time, Aquamaster at Lake Merced, targeting ludwigia (water-primrose). Aquamaster is a pesticide … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged native plants, Natural Areas Program, wildlife
2 Comments
SF Natural Areas Program, Roundup and Birth Defects
Someone sent us a paper published May 2010 in the journal, Chemical Research in Toxicology. It linked glyphosate to birth defects in vertebrates. We’d like people who have assumed that Roundup’s problems come mainly from its surfactant POEA to take … Continue reading
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
3 Reasons Not to Use Roundup
Someone sent us a link to an article about Roundup by Caroline Cox, a scientist who leads the pesticide research at Center for Environmental Health. Titled “Why You Shouldn’t Use Roundup (Or Trust Its Labels),” it’s one of the most … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, UCSF
Tagged Roundup
Comments Off on 3 Reasons Not to Use Roundup
Making Wildlife Into Vermin
Just like weeds are plants growing in the wrong place, vermin are animals in the wrong place. Most often, in the context of a city like San Francisco, that would be in or near our homes, interfering in some way … Continue reading
Posted in Herbicides, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, Neighborhood impact
Tagged habitat, mount sutro, Sutro Forest, wildlife
13 Comments
Our notes on UCSF’s Notes – May 25th Meeting
This is UCSF’s summary of the May 25th meeting, which we reported on here. We have edited it for clarity. “C” stands for comment; “Q” for question; “A” for an answer provided by UCSF or by its hired arborist, Ray … Continue reading
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
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
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
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 