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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: nativism
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
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
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
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
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
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
“Nature in the City”: Tree-huggers vs Tree-killers
Recently, we posted a reader’s note about a talk from the organization called ‘Nature in the City’ (NC) on the “urban forest.” (Those are NC’s quote-marks; they apparently don’t believe in urban forests). NC is the parent organization of the … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, eucalyptus, nativism
Tagged birds, eucalyptus, eucalyptus myths, native plants, nativism, nature in the city, puzzled, tree killers, unscientific, wildlife
11 Comments
Erroneous “Facts” from “Nature in the City”
A few days ago, under the auspices of Shaping San Francisco, ‘Nature in the City’ (NC) offered a public talk on the “urban forest” (their quote-marks, they don’t appear to believe in urban forests). NC is the parent organization of … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Meetings, nativism
Tagged josiah clarke, mt sutro stewards, nativism, nature in the city, trees
4 Comments
Native Plants and Neurotoxins
It appears that Native Areas in San Francisco are again linked to toxic herbicides. We’ve posted earlier about Twin Peaks and Garlon/ Roundup. This time, it’s Imazapyr in Stern Grove. Imazapyr is sold under the brand name of “Habitat” when … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides, nativism
Tagged herbicide, imazapyr, native plants, nativism, san francisco
11 Comments
Twin Peaks in Bloom
Twin Peaks is covered with wildflowers. Right now, it’s mainly the white clusters of sweet alyssum (Lobularia)… But the yellow oxalis (oxalis bes-caprae) is beginning to flower, too, and soon there’ll be drifts of it all over the mountain… [ETA … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, Herbicides: Roundup, Garlon, nativism
Tagged Garlon, herbicide, native plants, nativism, Roundup, Twin Peaks
1 Comment
Tree-friendly? New York Times vs SF Chronicle
Yesterday’s Bay Area section of the New York Times carried an article on trees that was both sad and refreshing. Sad, because it talked of tree-destruction – which seems to have become a California Thing. Refreshing, because it actually appeared … Continue reading
Global Warming & Quarter-mile relocations
Someone drew my attention to an article in today’s San Francisco Chronicle: “Global Warming to Keep Animals, Plants On Move.” The story was about a study from a scientific team from Cal Academy of Sciences, UC Berkeley, and Carnegie Institute … Continue reading
Posted in Environment, nativism
Tagged climate change, eucalyptus, global warming, native plants, nativism, sequester carbon, trees, wildlife
1 Comment
Eucalyptus Saves Rare Native Plant!
Nancy Wuerfel sent us this note: “For those who blame the eucalyptus for “taking over” the forest, please note that they were responsible for protecting this rare plant in the Presidio and keeping it safe from harm. Give credit, where … Continue reading
FEMA, New York Times
The New York Times blog yesterday linked to this website, via an article about FEMA and the East Bay. We’re flattered, though the opening sentence of the article, about “non-native, frowzy eucalyptus” didn’t promise unbiased reporting. (To be fair, this … Continue reading
Stewardship of a Forest
Two weeks ago, I visited the forest surrounding the Meiji shrine, in Tokyo, Japan. As with the Sutro Cloud Forest, I was struck by the wonderful old trees growing in the heart of a city, and wanted to find out … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, Mt Sutro Cloud Forest, nativism, Neighborhood impact, UCSF
Tagged birds, eucalyptus, Honda Seiroku, mount sutro, native plants, nativism, Seiroku Honda, sutro, Sutro Forest, trails, UCSF, wildlife
11 Comments
Cutting Down Trees
Someone brought over the November/ December 09 copy of the Sierra Club Magazine. It fell open to the centerfold. There in a big blue box and large letters it said: ————- “It’s cool because people are cutting down trees instead … Continue reading
Posted in eucalyptus, nativism, UCSF
Tagged mount sutro, native plants, nativism, sierra club, Sutro Forest, trees
1 Comment
Slate magazine on Invasives
Someone sent me a link to a thoughtful article in Slate magazine called “Don’t Sweat the Invasion” by Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow. The author starts out with the example of tamarisk, also known as salt-cedar; it’s an “exotic invasive” that spreads along … Continue reading
Posted in nativism
Tagged eucalyptus, mount sutro, native plants, nativism, sutro, Sutro Forest, trees, wildlife
1 Comment
Museum-ification – Pt 2
This continues Paul Gobster’s article from Pt 1. —————— Landscape and Land Use History Cranz and Boland (2004a, 2004b) do not identify how the recently developed ecological parks in their sample came into being, but in my own research I … Continue reading
Museum-ification – Pt 1
Someone sent me an interesting paper on Museumification of urban nature, by Paul Gobster, published in “Nature and Culture” journal in Autumn 2007. He talks of how “parks as postcards” interfere with peoples’ natural interaction with parks, and its particular … Continue reading
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
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
Mount Sutro Forest That Was 