Natural Areas Program

Looks like the developers are still hard at work trying to destroy NAP because they stand in the way of some of their big money projects. Don’t be confused, folks; ask any biologist and they will tell you the NAP is doing the Lord’s work on a shoestring budget. This is why Sierra Club stands behind them 100%. Here is CEPA’s data on the terrifying Garlon MTD:
. I hope everyone knows that charred meat is a known (not suspected) carcinogen, and so are a thousand other things you will encounter every day, if you are foolish enough to get out of bed.
Volunteer for the natural areas program, learn all about California’s wonderful native plants and animals, and how they are being driven to extinction by horrific invaders like Oxalis and French Broom, and get a tremendous sense of satisfaction by helping in some small way to restore the balance. You’ll be glad you did.

The truth of the matter is that Eucalyptus trees provide no habitat of any kind for California fauna or insects. Let’s not forget, they were also a fire hazard and caused temperatures of up to 2,000 degrees in the Oakland fire. Today, the Cross on the top of this mountain is hidden by tree cover.
The correct trees in this location are Quercus agrifolia (Coast Live Oak), Aesculus californica (Buckeye), Prunus ilicifolia (Wild Cherry) and others. Unlike the Eucalyptus, the Coast Live Oak provides food for over 550 fauna and insects. The Buckeye is an excellent food for butterflies. Lastly, the Wild Cherry provides food for birds. At a time when mass extinction is occurring world wide, why not give something back to nature that has been under assault for decades. Although parts of this mountain could and should be like San Bruno Mountain, which is treeless, the correct plant palette for this mountain is California native plants.
San Bruno Mountain, looks close to the way San Francisco did before development occurred here. With a substantial change in temperature south of this location and the SF Bay to the north as a natural barrier, there are plants found here and no where else. I believe it is important to protect and preserve our wild areas. After reading this, I hope you do to.
Please, join the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and learn more about native plants and their importance.

Altho’ NAP may be a great way to meet people and have fun, there is nothing «natural» about this «natural areas program».
Herbicides are spread on the trails, orange plastic fences formerly well used public areas «off limits» for park users while they do extensive gardening meant to bring back the flora of the past (1491, not a minute later, although there is no reliable information on what was flourishing here then) — as time marches forward and climate changes.
Wild blackberry that grows all over SF, wild blackberry eaten and picked by kids of all ages is now covered with the herbicide glyphosate — enjoy your «natural» time with a poison that may cause cancer — the poison that GMO corn and grains were adapted to accomodate. Natural?
Gorgeous giant eucs are vilified and destroyed, while flammable grasses and shrubs are deified.
Mission Blue butterflies are removed from San Bruno Mtn and placed on Twin Peaks, where after many years of this activity, they still have not naturalized or reproduced.
And — without approval from the public or board of supervisors, they continue to change policy and destroy public trees, and make messes of public forests and parks.

This misguided group’s goal is to to try to return the landscape of San Francisco to the treeless, windswept, fire-​hazard «California chaparral» of dry brush — which no one who actually lives in San Francisco wants in their parks. Instead, most people prefer the shade and wind-​barrier of trees. The «Natural Areas Program» is opposed to the majestic hundred-​year-​old trees and forests planted by San Francisco mayor Adolf Sutro in the 19^th century — the forests of Mount Sutro, Mt. Davidson and Glen Canyon, because these trees are «non-​native» to San Francisco. They support deforestation and the use of toxic pesticides to kill non-​native trees like Monterey Pine and Eucalyptus — creating a public health risk for the people who actually want to use the parks that their taxpayer dollars fund. They’re planning to chop down 18,500 trees, have already chopped down many thousand trees, and sprayed dangerous pesticides 37 times in the last year in San Francisco’s parks. As an environmentalist myself, I understand where this devotion to protecting indigenous species comes from, but this group has taken this notion of protecting native species to a ridiculous extreme and gone off the deep end in trying to eradicate everything that is «non-​native». This is a diverse, metropolitan city we live in with 800,000 people, people, pets and plant species from all over the globe, and nothing about the San Francisco landscape is «native» anymore. The people of San Francisco enjoy their non-​native trees and forests and don’t appreciate this group trying to chop down the forests and poison the land with toxic chemicals.

This small group of SF Rec and Park Department employees, with the help of throngs of dedicated and tireless volunteers, manages over 800 acres of park land within the San Francisco city limits. Through their careful habitat restoration, they ensure that hundreds of species of plants, insects, birds and other animals continue to have a home in our fair city.
I have volunteered with the NAP on a number of occasions at various parks around town, and I am here to testify: if you spend a Saturday morning getting dirty with these guys, you won’t regret it. Not only do you get to go home knowing that you helped make your city a better place, it’s a great way to meet people.
Not to mention the fact that the NAP team are fun, hilarious, and hella sexy. I mean, these guys are environmentally conscious, power tool wielding hotties like you’ve never seen. Rrrrroar!