Mt. Sutro Reforestation Plan off to Slow Start

By Ryder W. Miller

Though not as extensive as hoped, plans have been started to turn sleepy Mount Sutro into a safer and more user friendly open space.

Orlando Elizondo, community relations representative for the University of California, San Francisco, said the university committed $300,000 over five years to begin implementation of a plan to make Mount Sutro more user friendly. The university is responsible for the forest.

"We are quite happy to be able to identify seed money," Elizondo said. "They are projecting a huge state deficit this year. The fact that we were able to identify this money is significant.

"Three hundred thousand dollars is a modest start. We are hoping to build on this by building partnerships with outside funders," she said.

Elizondo said she has been trying to raise funds since the project was formulated.

"Since that time we have been trying to identify resources to start the plan," she said.

Elizondo said implementing the whole Mt. Sutro plan will cost $5.5 million.

The first order of business in the plan is hazardous tree removal and the trimming of hazardous trees on Christopher Drive and Crestmont Avenue.

"The reason we started with that project is that over the years we have received numerous complaints about hazardous trees," Elizondo said. "The neighbors seem quite pleased that we are doing this work."

UCSF has also recently spent money to clear road slumps (parts of a hillside slipping over a roadway) that have occurred over the last year.

"They did have a big slump along medical way. They had to put a lot of time and money into stabilizing that hillside," according to Greg Gaar, a restoration activist and Parnassus neighbor.

Jake Sigg, conservation chairmen for the Yuerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society, explained that more road slumping is likely to occur because the hillsides were cut at too steep an angle - steeper than the normal angle of repose. The growing trees, because of their enormous weight, are going to cause the hillsides to slide before they normally would.

"Nature always reasserts itself," Sigg said.

During implementation of the plan, there will be more opportunities for public input.

"We are currently implementing a project list that we will be sharing with the community for input," Elizondo said.

After a public input period and numerous drafts of the emerging management plan, the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve Management Plan was finalized in September, 2001.

Mount Sutro will become an open space for those who know about it but it will not be publicized because the community decided in June 2001 not to acknowledge the open space's existence with signs. Community members argued this will cut down on parking problems.

Some of the Management Plan's other goals are to restore native habitats to enhance wildlife, remove non-native plants and create more native plant stands.

Planning principles used to create the plan included: Ensuring Public Safety and Property Protection; Improving the Health of the Forest; Protecting and Expanding Native Plants; Enhancing Wildlife Habitat Values; Maintaining Scenic Quality; Improving Public Access; and Implementing the Resource Management Plan. The plan was prepared by EDAW, Inc. and Ralph Osterling Consultants, Inc.

But not all are happy with the plan's implementation so far.

"It seems like most of the money went to paying consultants," said Gaar, who thinks not enough restoration is included in the Mt. Sutro blueprint. He would like to see more areas returned to their pre-Eucalyptus forest state.

Sigg, who thinks that something cheap and easy is possible, advises UCSF to begin a "Site Stewardship Program" that will involve the community in restoring the native plant understory.

"An attempt needs to be made to get the community involved," Sigg said. "It does not have to be a grandiose program with a lot of expenditures."

But restoration efforts are presently not the top priority.

"The demonstration area with native plants on the summit is a high priority but we haven't been able to identify all the funding," Elizondo said.