A setback and new opportunity for Mount Sutro

By Pat Greene
In April 2014, I wrote a post for the Golden Gate Bird Alliance blog, “Sutro Forest – Conservation Gem or Lost Opportunity,” about my experience birding the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. This was my “patch” for the 2013 GGBA Master Birder Class at the California Academy of Sciences.
It soon became clear that “Lost Opportunity” was the relevant phrase in that title. UCSF had been poised to begin an ambitious management project that was the culmination of years of planning, with multiple community meetings and opportunities for comment. But when the comprehensive, massive Draft Environmental Impact Report was presented in 2013, there was organized, unified opposition to performing any management actions within the open space. Management would have included thinning densely overcrowded stands of eucalyptus trees and improving the understory for enhanced habitat value.
The opposition included local neighborhood groups who were strongly opposed to removal of any trees for any reason. It also included more powerful non-neighborhood East Bay organizations that threatened a lawsuit supporting the stance of the local groups. Community support for the general plan had been broad, but it was fragmented on details, and it was neither organized nor vocal at this meeting since the community had long been active contributors to the University’s plan. No revised EIR was ever produced. UCSF had more pressing priorities.

During the last few years, the drought has taken a terrible toll on trees and wild life on Mount Sutro. Fewer birds are heard singing in the spring. Trees have become vulnerable to pests and large stands of trees have died, resulting in hazardous conditions along public trails. Because of elevated fire risk during the drought, UCSF was required to create defensible space around structures and along roads for fire fighting. Together these factors forced UCSF to cut many trees and clear understory. This reactive felling of trees is not a management plan, but the bright spot is that the resulting openings in the forest have provided opportunities for the Sutro Stewards to establish trailside conservation sites using native plants grown in their own nursery from local cuttings and seeds.
Finally, in December 2015, UCSF announced that they would try again to formulate a management plan. They hired a forestry management consultant and formed a Technical Advisory Committee (TAC) comprised of volunteer experts in forestry, fire hazard reduction, biology, and habitat restoration. The forestry management consultant will draft a management plan, and the TAC will provide guidance on scope, techniques, and best practices for the management plan. The first community meeting was on January 12, 2016 and a second has been scheduled for April 28. The plan developed in this process will be submitted for environmental assessment. We don’t yet know exactly what this plan will look like, but, in addition to promoting fire safety and hazard reduction, it will seek a sustainable forest and a replanting strategy to promote biodiversity.

Over the spring and summer, I plan to lead bird walks on Mount Sutro. The next scheduled walks are on April 23 and May 22. Sutro Stewards’ Native Plant Nursery staff will accompany me on May 22. My goal is to contribute to awareness of this patch of open space right in the middle of San Francisco and to expand the community of supporters of UCSF’s effort to improve biodiversity in this remnant of eucalyptus “plantation.”
When the time comes to speak up, I hope that there will be more voices of support for UCSF’s goals for a sustainable forest and expanded areas of biodiversity on Mount. Sutro.
You’re invited to join Pat’s walks on Saturday, April 23, and Sunday, May 22. For details, see the GGBA Field Trips page.

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Pat Greene lives on the northeast shoulder of Mount Sutro. In addition to leading bird walks on Mount Sutro, she also coleads biking and birding trips for GGBA, combining her love of birds with her enthusiasm for bicycling.