Save Sharp Park Eucalyptus trees from San Francisco management, really?

Pacifica Tribune/Jane Northrop, Staff Writer, 7/28/15. "Trees near archery range target for removal." 

Watch out for falling Eucalyptus trees,
some people call them "widow makers".

Home of wild life habitat. Downside:
Eucalyptus trees also burn quickly.

"San Francisco Parks and Recreation, which owns and manages Sharp Park Golf Course and the archery range in Pacifica, plans to put into place a new management plan for most of its parks. It's called Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan.

.... The management plan calls for cutting out trees from different areas near the archery range. A map shows 200 trees to be removed in one area, 50 each in another four areas, 4,000 eucalyptus trees (50 percent) from another area and 10,700 eucalyptus trees (75 percent) from another part, but the forest remains completely intact in three areas. .... Improvements noted in the plan for the archery range area include better public access, more sustainable populations of sensitive plant species, enhanced habitat for endangered species and wildlife, including bobcats and mountain lions.

.... San Francisco Forest Alliance opposes the plan."We strongly oppose this plan," the group wrote in a statement. "Aside from the beauty of the place, and the undisturbed wildlife habitat that would both be destroyed, we think it is environmentally irresponsible."  Read article.

Reference,  City of San Francisco Recreation and Parks, "Natural Areas Program". "The Natural Areas Program (NAP) is the branch of San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (SFRPD) responsible for managing the City’s Natural Areas. .... Recognizing the functions and value of these Natural Areas and the need to protect and restore them, SFRPD agreed to support and develop a community-based habitat restoration program." City and County of San Francisco/Recreation and Parks,"The significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan (SMRAP)".  "The City and County of San Francisco (City) covers the northern portion of the San Francisco Peninsula and encompasses an area of 49 square miles. Small fragments of a unique ecosystem called the Franciscan landscape, part of the larger Bay/Delta region, still exist in San Francisco today. The Franciscan landscape extends from San Bruno Mountain to the Golden Gate Headlands. Its unusual combination of climatic, floristic, and geologic features supported the development of a biologically diverse assemblage of plants and animals, some of which were unique to the area. Most of the remnant fragments of the Franciscan landscape are included in the Significant Natural Resource Areas (Natural Areas). These areas are preserved and protected by the Natural Areas Program (NAP) of the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (SFRPD). A critical component of the NAP is the development of a restoration and management plan for the City’s Natural Areas. The purpose of this plan is to provide a scientifically sound planning framework for the implementation of the Program. Several planning and policy efforts have preceded the development of this plan and form the foundation of its goals and recommendations. To view the complete copy of the Significant Natural Resource Area Management Plan, please click on the web link: SNRAMP."  Sharp Park, Pacifica is 6.4, pdf pages 25.

Related, opposition article.   San Francisco Forest Alliance, 6/14/15,  "A rare walk in idyllic threatened forest - Sharp Park, Pacifica." Recently, the San Francisco Forest Alliance organized a walk in Sharp Park for a small group of supporters. Not on the familiar historic golf course; this was on the freeway’s other side, in the woods around the San Francisco Archery Range. Sharp Park is where the Natural Areas Program seeks to cut down 15,147 trees. .... What tree-cutting is planned? (last paragraph of the article). ....  In the idyllic areas we’ve described above,  they plan to remove three-quarters of the trees and encourage the rest to die out. It’s currently a deeply forested canyon east of the archery range, a true wild land and haven for wildlife. The long-term plan for it is “fewer trees and more scrub.”  We strongly oppose this action. Aside from the beauty of the place, and the undisturbed wildlife habitat that would both be destroyed, we think it is environmentally irresponsible. .... Trees sequester carbon; eucalyptus, with its dense wood, its size, and its 400-500-year life-span, is particularly effective. In foggy areas, it captures moisture from the fog and drops it on the ground below, allowing for a dense damp understory that fights drought and resists fire. It cleans the air, especially fighting particulate pollution, by trapping particles on its leaves that eventually get washed onto the ground. It stabilizes hillsides with its intergrafted root system that functions like a living geotextile. And SNRAMP would require the use of large quantities of poisonous herbicides to prevent resprouting of the felled trees – herbicides that are likely get washed down the hillsides and into surface and ground water. Pacifica actually has an ordinance prohibiting logging (removing more than 20 trees in a year). NAP’s answer to that is to see if the ordinance applies, and if it does, to try to get permission."

Note photographs from the related opposition article above, San Francisco Forest Alliance.

Posted by Kathy Meeh