Fw: Heart Your Parks event at McLaren Park this Saturday May 4

[lance m]

FYI

People are getting past sad and are mad as hell. Maybe you heard the chainsaws yesterday? The decimation of trees in our parks and city owned land needs to stop now! Ever heard of global warming? People are outraged!

As our leaders-please do something. 

see below...

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Green Hearts Bay Area <greenhear...@gmail.com>
Date: Wed, May 1, 2024 at 11:58 AM
Subject: Heart Your Parks event at McLaren Park this Saturday May 4
To: Green Hearts Bay Area <greenhear...@gmail.com>

Dear Park Lovers,

As we all know, the SF Recreation and Parks Department is clearcutting large, relatively healthy  California native Monterey Cypress trees and Monterey Pine trees near the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park right now. Over 10 large stunning such trees with dark green canopies, low risk ratings, and diameters over 40 inches were clearcut rapidly in the last 3 days. It would take 100+ years to re-create these trees. And this is just the beginning. San Francisco's latest tree massacre is happening during bird nesting season, and it is against the law to disturb bird nests per the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918.  

It feels like it is time for action. 

The City of San Francisco clearcut trees in McLaren Park on Earth Day, on Arbor Day and during the high-profile SF Climate Week where politicians touted the benefits of forests and of bringing higher Tree Equity to the vulnerable southern neighborhoods of San Francisco where McLaren Park is located. The clearcutting of McLaren Park's forests is a huge environmental justice issue as the surrounding neighborhoods are already underserved with street trees, and now San Francisco is cutting down their beloved forests that provided recreation and solace for local residents. What was once an oasis has turned into a war zone. 

These trees did not drop in from Mars. They were planted in the 1930s by the Boy Scouts and the Public Works Administration under the guidance of John McLaren to shield residents from the wind and to make SF a beautiful and healthy place to live. 

San Francisco's next move will be to continue clearcutting and then spray toxic poisons to kill the trees permanently. They spray the tree stumps with poisonous harmful herbicides like Roundup (glyphosate), Polaris (imazapyr banned in EU), and Capstone (triclopyr & aminopyralid) to kill the trees permanently. Capstone is known to persist in the soil and drift in the wind, and it can poison creeks, lakes and groundwater. Triclopyr is very toxic to dogs, and McLaren Park is one of the top dog-walking parks in San Francisco. 

The City will then come back repeatedly to the sites to spray poisons forever to make sure that no trees ever grow back again. This is their dirty secret. They cannot implement their tree massacre without poison. This is a huge Public Safety Risk. This threatens public safety and the health of people, children, dogs, birds, and more. While other cities like Marin, Sonoma, Menlo Park, Woodside, Irvine County, Malibu, San Diego and others are implementing Pesticide-Free Parks, San Francisco is doubling down on poisons. 

Removing so many trees at once will make any remaining trees more subject to failure due to increased exposure to the wind. Clearcutting also increases the risks for erosion, landslides and mudslides, especially as the gorgeous McLaren Park contains many steep hills. 

San Francisco's goal is to bring its parks back to the 1800s when the City was mostly devoid of trees. Only nature and biodiversity from the 1800s that they deem to be "nature" counts in their book. Great-Horned Owls, red-shouldered hawks, CA native Monterey cypress trees, rare endangered CA native Monterey pine trees, hundreds of bird species, dogs, and much more are annoyances in their mind. 162 species of birds currently live in McLaren Park according to the Cornell Lab of Orinthology's eBird. Raptors like Great-Horned Owls, red-shouldered hawks, and red-tailed hawks prefer nesting in the tallest trees to protect their eggs from predators. These raptors then provide free rodent control for the City of San Francisco. Sadly, birds in McLaren Park are having to flee their nests as the chainsaws move in. 

This deforestation phase alone is costing over $4 million, and San Francisco is using money from a 2012 Parks Bond that residents thought was going to improve their parks and trails. They did not realize that they were voting for the clearcutting of San Francisco's beloved forest canopy. Trails are actually being removed, and the City's sign admits that they do not have the public funding yet for many of the promised trail upgrades. 

The trees did not receive a fair trial as the so-called "third-party" arborist actually sits on the SF Urban Forestry Council. This is a huge conflict of interest. 

It is important for public safety to remove trees with very high risk ratings near high-use areas that cannot be mitigated with the usual treatments. However, a large number of the 500+ trees in McLaren Park on the chopping block are strong candidates for preservation as they have dark green canopy, moderate vigor and relatively good health, solid structure, and low risk ratings according to the City's own arborist. Examples include the majority of the Monterey Cypress trees, Monterey Pine trees, redwood trees, giant sequoia trees, and other drought-tolerant trees. Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pine are California native trees that do well in the cold, damp, windy conditions that we have in San Francisco. It is an easy and common practice to employ cost-effective, tree risk reduction strategies like monitoring, pruning and even cabling to preserve tree structure. Rather than follow these best practices of other cities, San Francisco is opting to clearcut trees because their stated end goal is deforestation and conversion.

We often think of deforestation as happening in the Amazon, in the Indonesian rainforest and more. Yet, the startling fact is that we have deforestation happening right here, right now in our own backyard in San Francisco. 

San Francisco is taking away people's Freedom to Visit Safe Parks by committing large-scale deforestation, conversion, trail removal and poisoning. 

Residents are outraged. Residents are extremely sad. Residents are incredulous. Residents are shocked. Residents are angry. And yet the San Francisco politicians have made it abundantly clear that they do not care what the people think. They hold "community input" meetings to pretend to gather public opinion, but then they disregard any legitimate concerns and rubber stamp their original plans. The City views the vulnerable southern neighborhoods surrounding McLaren Park as having less power and ones that can be easily ignored and steamrolled as the City presses forward aggressively with its plan to go back to the 1800s when the hills were barren of trees. 

Why ultimately was the Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan (SNRAMP) approved?  A key politician said at the time, "This plan to cut down San Francisco's park forests and convert the land back to sand and scrub has been in the works for over 20 years. A lot of time and money have gone into this plan. We have to approve it." 

McLaren Park is not the only park on the chopping block. 31 parks in San Francisco were co-opted by the Natural Areas plan and transferred to the SF Recreation and Parks Department's Natural Resources division where trees go to die. As a result, deforestation, conversion and poison projects are happening all across San Francisco in many parks. They say that they are only going to remove a small number of trees, but then they rig and misuse the arborist report rating systems and conclusions to give the City the ability to cut down over 90% of the trees in each park to achieve their exit strategy of deforestation and conversion. 

It didn't matter that the Environmental Impact Report (EIR) was filled with lies and errors, saying that this plan would have no significant impact on the forests, on the people, or on the wildlife. Judging by the destruction this week in McLaren Park of large relatively healthy CA native trees and bird nesting spots, this quixotic quest to go back to the 1800s is now having a significant unmitigated negative impact on the people and environment of San Francisco. And when the City sprays the toxic herbicides in the near future, this will threaten public safety and the health of the Grey Fox Creek riparian zone and the McNab lake into which it drains. 

This original Natural Areas plan was conceived in 1995 when climate change was a mere afterthought. Now we are in a full-blown climate emergency. Large trees are carbon removal powerhouses. The longer they live and the bigger they get, the more carbon the trees remove from the air every year. San Francisco needs its trees to remain standing to preserve life in the city and on Earth. Planting trees is important. Saving trees is equally if not even more important. 

Other entities are racing to safeguard their precious forests, extend their life, and even create carbon credits to turn valuable forests into monetary assets and provide much-needed funding for environmental programs. Yet, San Francisco is stuck back in 1995 with its plan to eradicate its beloved park forests. This dangerous plan is releasing carbon dioxide emissions into the air, causing climate change, and violating San Francisco's own Climate Action Plan which specifically lists nature-based solutions like forests as important and protective carbon sinks. 

The City has admitted publicly that it does not have a database of the park trees that it has removed and it has planted. The SF Recreation and Parks Department sits down at the end of the year and tries to remember what they cut down. This is shocking in 2024 given the abundance of GPS systems, satellite photos and more technology available. Significant street trees in San Francisco are protected by the Public Works code. However, Significant large stature trees in the parks, which are often significantly larger than street trees, have absolutely no protection right now and are all fair game for San Francisco to cut down. 

Enough with the disformation. Enough with the omission of material facts. Enough with spinning everything as "Trail Improvements" to get grant money and try to dupe the public. Enough with the Chainsaw Herbicide Industrial Complex. Enough with the massacre of relatively healthy trees that are giving residents and the environment so many benefits. Enough with polluting our parks with dangerous poisons. 

The park forests of San Francisco are an important part of our natural heritage. We must protect our natural heritage and our valuable green infrastructure and park forests that would be too expensive and too time-consuming to try to recreate today. Our park forests are working every day to provide San Franciscans with clean air, clean water, oxygen, stormwater control, erosion control, shade, wildlife habitat, physical and mental health, rejuvenation and more. 

But you already know all of this, and so it feels like it is time for action. 

Suggested Action:  

This Saturday May 4, a Heart Your Parks event by the SF Parks Alliance will take place at McLaren Park from 11 am - 3 pm at the tai chi courts near the tennis courts. 

Attached are some initial flyers and signs that people might be able to hand out and display if desired. Please feel free to make your own flyers and signs and/or improve these ones. Any graphic design talent would be very helpful! 

Heart Your Parks
Save the Trees
Stop the Poisons

#SaveMcLarenPark

We can practice kindness, non-violence, and love for each other and nature. 

Attached are also a few pictures of the current tree massacre happening near the Jerry Garcia Amphitheater in McLaren Park. In just a few short days, a green oasis of beautiful tree canopy near the Amphitheater has been turned into a gaping hole and a wasteland. 

All ideas are welcome as we are facing a tree, public health and bird emergency. 

Thank you so much for all that you do to help San Francisco, people and the planet! 

Warmly,

Green Hearts Bay Area