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All SF Natural Areas

These are the sites currently in our system. Are you working at a site that we don’t currently include and want us to add your project? Let us know!

Bayview Hill

Description

Bayview Hill is one of the largest of San Francisco’s Significant Natural Resource Areas, and it contains the most diverse habitats remaining in the City. Located just above Candlestick Park above the western shore of the Bay, Bayview forms a similar-sized bookend to Mt Davidson to its west.

Managed by the Natural Areas Program of the Rec&Park Department, Bayview Hill gets regular attention from two volunteer groups — San Francisco for Democracy and the Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society. So far there are no regular nearby neighborhood groups that work at Bayview Hill, but we hope that will one day change.

Bayview Hill has wonderful areas of coastal scrub, oak groves, and the largest population rare Islais cherry trees around.

The principle management challenges at Bayview Hill include controlling French broom, fennel, radish, and ehrharta grass. Here is the management plan.

Bayview Hill currently has 25 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 28 photos and 4 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 2nd Saturday, every odd-numbered month from 9:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Buena Vista Park

Description

Buena Vista Park is home to one of the rare remnant oak woodlands left in San Francisco. This small Significant Natural Resource Area is managed by the Natural Areas Program and lovingly cared for by the members of the Buena Vista Park Restoration Project.

Just as in the Oak Woodlands in Golden Gate Park, the chief management challenges in this project include coping with the dominant understory weeds — English ivy, cape ivy, blackberry, and ehrharta grass. Here is the management plan.

Buena Vista Park currently has 41 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 6 photos and 2 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 1st Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Corona Heights

Description

Corona Heights is one of the oldest of the habitat restoration projects. Randall Museum staff and local neighborhood activists began removing weeds from the summit grasslands back in the early 1990s. Corona Heights became an official GLS activity of the San Francisco Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club shortly thereafter. Since 1999, the project has been led by the Natural Areas Program.

Initially the principal weed targets were large invasives — radish, broom, and fennel. After years of regular removal, these pests are largely under control, and smaller, more difficult-to-handle weeds are our primary concern — plantain, sheep sorrel, oxalis, and ehrharta grass. Here is the management plan.

Over the years, volunteers planted many native grasses and forbs, but the survival rates were feeble at best. The main problem turned out to be trampling and digging by the numerous off-leash dogs that owners allow to roam (illegally by the way) around the summit. These dogs go after the many voles and gophers that live in the grasslands, and there go the new plants. However, during the past four years we’ve begun to place short temporary fences around new plantings, and survival has been well over 50% now.

Corona Heights currently has 64 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 55 photos and 17 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • Last Saturday of each month from 10:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Edgehill Mt

Description

Edgehill Mt is a small, hidden gem in our park system. Local neighborhood activists began advocacy efforts in the early 1990s which ultimately led to acquisition of the property with Open Space Fund money. For the past eight years this project has been officially part of the Natural Areas Program.

The park contains mature Monterey pine and cypress trees along with plenty of invasive blue gum eucalyptus. The primary challenges here include English ivy, cape ivy, blackberry, and ehrharta grass. Remarkably, as we remove the carpets of invasives, we’ve found a strong resurgence of native scrub species from retained seed banks in the soil. We also have planted many native grasses and forbs. Indeed, the grasses have been particularly successful — so much so that Edgehill Mt was the location of the first-ever Poapalooza beginning native bunchgrass workshops held in San Francisco.

Here is the management plan.

In 2003 we placed a couple of wooden benches at the favorite view spot in remembrance of Joan Kingery, one of the key early forces behind the creation of Edgehill Mt Park.

Edgehill Mt currently has 132 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 31 photos and 12 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 2nd Saturday of each month from 13:00 to 15:00

Regular Meeting Location

Glen Canyon

Description

Glen Canyon is one of the larger Significant Natural Resource Areas in San Francisco, and it encompasses a wide variety of critical habitats—from grasslands to coastal scrub to creek-side riparian communities.

A very active Friends of Glen Canyon group has worked with the Natural Areas Program for many years. This group is composed largely of “analog” folks who may or may not gravitate to the online tools of the SF Natural Areas web site. You must not underestimate them or their activities based on what you may see of them here!

The Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society rotates through Glen Canyon on a regular basis, and you’re more likely to see evidence of their work here.

Here is the management plan.

Glen Canyon currently has 22 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 5 photos and 1 post to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 3rd Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

McLaren Park

Description

McLaren Park is the second largest park in the Rec&Park system (after Sharp Park in Pacifica) and it has rich grassland communities on its higher hills.

The Natural Areas Program manages McLaren’s Significant Natural Resource Areas, and neighborhood volunteers in the form of the Friends of McLaren Park work there monthly. The Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society also includes McLaren in its regular rotation of sites.

The principle management challenges at McLaren include — as they do everywhere in the City — controlling French broom, fennel, radish, and a wide variety of invasive annual grasses. Here is the management plan.

McLaren Park currently has 23 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 6 photos and 1 post to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 2nd Saturday of each month from 10:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Mt Davidson

Description

Mt Davidson is the highest hill in San Francisco, and the 40 acre parcel preserved in its park is one of the largest and best of our remnant natural areas. Mt Davidson’s habitat restoration workparties with the Natural Areas Program are official activities of the San Francisco Group of the Sierra Club.

Mt D’s piebald look is due to the different way that Adolph Sutro managed his piece of the hill compared to Leland Stanford. More details here.

The trees on most of Mt D capture vast quantities of fog drip, converting the understory into a rain forest where invasive English ivy, cape ivy, blackberry, and ehrharta grass predominate. Management there involves careful thinning of diseased and failing trees to open up the understory, removal of the overburden of invasive weeds, and planting coastal scrub grasses and forbs and protecting those that arise spontaneously from the remnant seed bank in the soil.

The main issue in the much drier grassland area is invasive annual grasses, though we also battle French broom and radish. Despite the invasive weeds, there is a remarkable collection of native bunchgrasses and many wildflowers still thriving in the grasslands. Here is the management plan.

The juncture between the trees and the grasslands along the north-east corner of Mt D has become one of the most important bird stopovers in the City due to the 13 different species of native berries that grow there. Unfortunately this is exactly the site where the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission planned to trench in a new water main up to the water reservoir at the top of the hill, but fortunately due to volunteer and neighborhood outcries, this plan was shifted to route the pipeline into the noncritical weedy areas under the trees. This work will happen during 2008, and we will be monitoring it closely indeed here at SF Natural Areas.

Mt Davidson currently has 167 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 61 photos and 26 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 1st Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Mt Sutro

Description

Mt Sutro is heavily forested hill west of Twin Peaks. Owned now by the University of California San Francisco for management of the area, it is named for Adolph Sutro who planted the hill with blue-gum eucalyptus, Monterey pine, and Monterey cypress circa 1890.

Today, the Mt Sutro Volunteers have crafted a plan with UCSF that includes:

  • trail restoration and construction
  • habitat restoration in the native plant demonstration project at the summit

Mt Sutro currently has 5 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 7 photos and 2 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 1st Saturday of each month from 9:00 to 13:00

Regular Meeting Location

Oak Woodlands

Description

The Oak Woodlands in Golden Gate Park are the remnants of the only “forested” area originally within the 49 square miles of San Francisco. These coastal live oaks grow in sheltered ravine areas and, remarkably, were left intact when Golden Gate Park was created by removing all the native dune plant communities and planting non-native grasses and ornamental plants.

The chief management challenges in this project include coping with the dominant understory weeds — English ivy, cape ivy, blackberry, and ehrharta grass. The other problem that the Oak Woodlands project faces to a greater degree than any other remnant natural area in the City is the ever-present contingent of homeless and their encampments. Here is the management plan.

Through strong volunteer leadership, the Oak Woodlands project has enjoyed one of the most rapidly-increasing rosters of new volunteers. These folks have made huge gains in recovery of the biological diversity of this remarkable area.

Oak Woodlands currently has 82 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 66 photos and 18 posts to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • 2nd Saturday of each month from 10:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location

Twin Peaks

Description

Twin Peaks is the second highest hill in San Francisco, after Mt Davidson. It has fantastic areas of grasslands and coastal scrub that support lots of important and rare critters, including the endangered mission blue butterfly. Along with Mt D, Twin Peaks has extensive coverage of Pacific reed grass, Calamagrostic nutkaensis.

Twin Peaks consists of a patchwork of jurisdictional fiefdoms belonging to the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission and the Rec&Park Department. The Natural Areas Program manages the Significant Natural Resource Areas within the RPD holdings.

The primary volunteer groups are REI employees and Hands on Bay Area, which work with Natural Areas Program staff every other month or so. In addition, the Yerba Buena Chapter of the California Native Plant Society rotates through Twin Peaks on a regular basis.

Management challenges on Twin Peaks include the usual problems of French broom, cotoneaster, oxallis, and ehrharta grass. Here is the management plan.

Twin Peaks currently has 24 volunteers who have subscribed to our regular email newsletters and work at this site. They have posted 11 photos and 1 post to their blog.

Regular Workparty Schedule

  • Last Saturday, about every third month from 9:00 to 12:00

Regular Meeting Location