Vote NO on Measure FF!!

October 9, 2018

San Francisco Forest Alliance supported The Forest Action Brigade in opposing Measure FF. This article, republished here with permission from Death of a Million Trees (a website/ blog opposing unnecessary tree destruction and pesticide use) , outlines why it’s important to vote NO on Measure FF. These are our reasons for opposing this Measure. We believe its impact on parklands will be negative and environmentally destructive,  with more toxic herbicides – like glyphosate (Roundup) – and the loss of thousands of trees.

 

A vote against Measure FF on the ballot for the November 6, 2018 election is a vote against pesticide use in the East Bay.  If Measure FF passes, it will renew a parcel tax for 20 years.  For the past 15 years, the parcel tax has funded the destruction of thousands of trees on thousands of acres of public parks in the East Bay.  The renewal of the parcel tax will increase the percentage of available funds for tree removals and associated pesticide use from 30% to 40% of funds raised by the parcel tax.

Tree removals increase pesticide use because herbicides are required to prevent the trees from resprouting.  Also, when the shade of trees is eliminated, the unshaded ground is soon colonized by weeds that are then sprayed with herbicide.  The destruction of trees has put public land managers on the pesticide treadmill.

The public tried hard to convince the East Bay Regional Park District to stop destroying healthy trees and quit using pesticides in our parks.  We attended public hearings and wrote letters to Park District leadership and its governing board.  We made many suggestions for useful park improvements that would be constructive, rather than destructive.  Our requests and suggestions were ignored.

After making every effort to avoid opposition to Measure FF, we reluctantly take a stand against it.  The parks are important to us and we would much prefer to support park improvements.  Unfortunately, Measure FF will not improve the parks.  Rather, it will continue down the destructive path the Park District has been on for the past 15 years. In fact, Measure FF would escalate the destruction and poisoning of our public lands.

On Friday, August 31st, the Forest Action Brigade participated in a press conference rally at Bayer headquarters in Berkeley. Bayer is the new owner of Monsanto, the manufacturer of glyphosate. The rally was sponsored by a labor organization that is concerned about exposing workers to glyphosate, which is probably a carcinogen.  The President of the Forest Action Brigade, Marg Hall, spoke at the rally.

The Voter Information Guides in Contra Costa and Alameda counties have published the following argument against Measure FF that was submitted by the Forest Action Brigade.  We hope you will read it and take this important opportunity to protect our public parks from being needlessly damaged.

Million Trees

Argument Against Measure FF

“We love public parks, and we support taxation which benefits the common good. Nevertheless, We urge a NO vote. East Bay Regional Parks District (EBRPD) has previously used this measure to destroy, unnecessarily, thousands of healthy trees under pretexts such as “hazardous tree” designations and “protection against wildfires”. But fire experts point out that tree shade retains moisture, thereby reducing fire danger. The measure has also funded so-called “restoration”—destruction of “non-native” plants, in a futile attempt to transform the landscape back to some idealized previous “native” era.

EBRPD’s restoration and tree-cutting projects often utilize pesticides, including glyphosate (Roundup), triclopyr, and imazapyr. We agree with the groundswell of public sentiment opposing the spending of tax dollars on pesticides applied to public lands. Not only do pesticides destroy the soil microbiome; they also migrate into air, water arid soil, severely harming plants, animals, and humans. Because EPA pesticide regulation, especially under the current administration, is inadequate, it is imperative that local jurisdictions exercise greater oversight. While EBRPD utilizes “Integrated Pest Management” which limits pesticide use, we strongly advocate a no pesticide policy, with a concomitant commitment of resources.

Given the terrifying pace of climate change, it is indefensible to target certain species of trees for eradication. All trees—not just “natives” —are the planet’s “lungs,” breathing in carbon dioxide and breathing out oxygen. When a tree is destroyed, its air-cleansing function is forever eliminated, and its stored carbon is released into the atmosphere, thus worsening climate change.

Throughout history, plants, animals, and humans have migrated when their given habitats became unlivable. Adaptation to new environments is at the heart of evolutionary resilience. To claim that some species “belong here” and others do not strikes us as unscientific xenophobia.

Until EBRPD modifies its approach, we urge a NO vote.”

Forest Action Brigade

Do not be misled

The arguments in favor of Measure FF are misleading.  East Bay Regional Parks District attempts to portray a destructive agenda as a constructive agenda.  Please look beneath these pretty-sounding euphemisms for the destructive projects of Measure FF:

·       EBRPD claims Measure FF will “protect against wildfires.”  Destroying harmless trees miles away from any residential structures and replacing the shaded, moist forest with dry grassland that easily ignites will NOT “protect against wildfires.”

·       EBRPD claims Measure FF will “enhance public safety” and “preserve water quality.”  Spraying thousands of acres of open space in our water shed with pesticides will endanger the public and contaminate our water supply.

·       EBRPD claims Measure FF will “protect redwoods and parklands in a changing climate.”  Destroying hundreds of thousands of healthy trees, storing millions of tons of carbon, will exacerbate climate change.  Our redwood forest in the East Bay was confined to less than 5 square miles prior to settlement because of the restrictive horticultural requirements of this treasured native tree.  Because redwoods require more water than most of our urban forest, it is a fantasy that they can be expanded beyond their native footprint.  Where they have been planted outside of that range, many are already dead.

·       EBRPD claims Measure FF will “restore natural areas.”  Our pre-settlement landscape in the East Bay was predominantly grassland in which fire hazards are greatest.  A landscape that has been sprayed with pesticide cannot be accurately described as “natural.”  Previous attempts to convert non-native annual grassland to native grassland have consistently failed, partly because the soil has been poisoned with herbicide.

You can help

The Forest Action Brigade is offering yard signs in opposition to Measure FF (shown below).  You can get a yard sign and/or help to place them in your neighborhood medians by sending an email to mildredtrees@gmail.com.  Please state how many signs you would like and the neighborhood where you plan to place them.  These are the East Bay cities in which Measure FF will be on the ballot:  Oakland, Alameda, Piedmont, Berkeley, Emeryville, Albany, Richmond, San Pablo, El Cerrito.  These cities are the top priority for yard sign placement.

Million Trees

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San Francisco’s Tree Casualties

October 7, 2018

This article originated in a letter from one of our supporters, Matthew Steen, who is active in numerous causes including protecting street trees. San Francisco, as we have said before, is doing a very poor job of protecting its tree canopy, which, at 13.7% is well below the 25% benchmark for a Western city. Instead of seeking ways to expand this tree cover, to fight global warning and protect the health of residents, San Francisco is cutting down trees for any and every reason, whether on the streets and in the parks.

Graph showing urban tree canopy cover in major US cities

San Francisco Has the Least Canopy Cover of any Major US City

Read the letter below.

LETTER ABOUT TREE DESTRUCTION IN SAN FRANCISCO

San Francisco Forest Alliance,

There has been an ongoing mass removal of street trees and parklands canopy occurring throughout the City since the 2016 passage of Prop E and before. Keeping up with these proposed and ordered removals has proven a large challenge to me.

I have been speaking with individual city Supervisors, their staff and political candidates over the last year about this continuing war on trees and wildlife habitats, its negative impact on the city’s efforts to mitigate the effects of climate change locally and being out of conformity with the city’s General Plan and its 8 priority elements.

As we well know, our urban forest canopy provides many public benefits, from improved respiratory health, erosion and subsidence control, carbon sequestration, reduction of storm water drrainage into the aging sewer infrastructure, outfall discharges into the ocean and Bay waters, building heating and cooling and the urban aesthetic. According to the Urban Forestry Council, we had a total net gain of but 121 trees in 2017!! [Note: This is not even  fraction of a percent of the total number of trees.]

The case of the trees at 100 Portola in Upper Market is but one small example. A DPW hearing on this proposed removal was held last night as a result of filed protests by neighborhood residents. The reason for removal was because of re-routing a sewer line. There were also half a dozen other tree removal plans (all protested) heard, involving 20 trees at various locations —

https://sfpublicworks.org/project/tree-removal-hearing-monday-9242018-530pm-room-416

Clearly, neither I nor SFFA nor affected neighborhoods can take a piecemeal approach to slow down, impede or prevent this destruction that is rapidly depleting the number and volume of our forest canopy in all of its component parts. As a reminder, there are 29 separate city agencies and special districts reporting to UFC on the status of trees on their properties. Some, like GGNRA and Presidio Trust no longer even bother reporting to UFC.

I have personally intervened in dozens of tree removal plans and involved SFFA in some of these as a matter of record. The death of my partner has slowed me down in 2018 for obvious reasons. The link I provide above leads to hundreds of DPW tree removal hearings over the last several years that document the swathe and size of this destruction. SFFA’s efforts to preserve the canopies on Mt. Sutro and Mt. Davidson and opposition to NAP have valiantly attempted to halt, slow down and reverse this trend.

This is quickly devolving into a catastrophe.
Documenting is merely bearing witness. We need to assume a more proactive approach.

Thank you.

Matthew

MEANWHILE IN SEATTLE

Seattle is a city that’s growing very rapidly. Along transit corridors, small one- and two-story buildings on large lots are being demolished and replaced by 6-story structures for apartments and offices occupying the whole lot. In this atmosphere, San Francisco people would expect that trees would be removed wholesale as the footprint expanded.

Here’s an example of what’s actually happening. The worksite below was formerly a gas station, with a couple of low-rise buildings behind it. It’s on a main thoroughfare in the busy Ballard area. The mature trees along the building site are protected with orange netting and plyboard boxes during the construction period.

Similar scenes are repeated at worksites all over Seattle, including one only a few blocks from here. As a result, Seattle’s tree canopy cover is probably larger than in 2007, the basis of the graph at the beginning of the article – it’s been reported at 28%, with a goal of 30% by 2037.  Meanwhile, the city is proactively protecting trees. If a tree must be felled for development, the city requires a compensatory planting – or a payment into a tree fund. 

THE WASHINGTON SQUARE TREES IN SAN FRANCISCO…

… are gone. A construction company apparently damaged their roots. Not only did San Francisco fail to protect the trees during construction, they did not even try to save them. Rather than cordoning off the area and allowing the trees to recover, the city cut them all down. Will they be replaced? We don’t know. But these iconic mature trees are gone for ever.

All our street trees and park trees are at risk as soon as there are enough funds for any “improvements” – they all start with, Let’s Cut Down the Trees.

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Another Beloved Tree Gone – Buena Vista Park, San Francisco

July 12, 2018

We recently received a message about yet another tree that had been destroyed to the dismay of neighbors. This time it’s at Buena Vista Park (BVP).

The message is from neighbor Deborah Rodgers, who would love for more people to read the tragedy of this tree and its friend who fought back for its untimely demise:

Our beautiful canopy tree was butchered this morning at BVP – 7/11/18

This is the 5th healthy established tree that has been senselessly butchered by Park & Rec at BVP recently. This tree provided a lovely canopy shade on hot days. The directional pruning done the day before was adequate. It was really horrible to watch one of our most established beautiful shade trees get butchered this morning.

There was NEVER a notice put on this tree. It was damaged, according to Ms Sionkowski [Carol Sionkowski, Park Services Manager, SF Recreation and Parks], from splitting done to it by their Rec & Park tree department crew. Further, the canopy pine showed no sign of erosion or splitting from any of its branches. It was a healthy tree that provided much-needed shade for residents traversing the public pathway along BVP. It shaded cars which get so overheated on days like these past few that they are an oven upon entering. It was an established tree of at least a decade old.

It was a beautiful circular ball shaped tree that grew laterally with a very solid foundation on the right. Many circular ball-shaped trees when pruned back properly can last for years without eroding from the soil. This one did for over a decade. Why butcher it?

Our BVP exterior periphery is becoming an ugly graveyard of stumps where there once were beautiful shade trees.

Ms Rodgers was angry and contacted the SF Rec & Park Point Mgr on July 11, 2018, following the destruction of the tree at 8 a.m in the morning at BVP by SF Rec & Park dept. She was unable to stop the tree from being cut down.

 

We’ve talked before of San Francisco’s casual, even hostile, attitude to its trees. Little effort is made to preserve mature trees, and our urban tree canopy – already one of the smallest among big cities – is shrinking just at a time when trees are being recognized as a way to fight global warming via carbon sequestration.

 

Graph showing urban tree canopy cover in major US cities

San Francisco Has the Least Canopy Cover of any Major US City

Planting new trees is excellent, but it’s no substitute for preserving the mature ones. It takes a decade or more for saplings to provide the same benefits, whether carbon sequestration, or pollution reduction, or habitat. San Francisco must start caring for its trees, not chopping them down.

 

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Oakland’s Vegetation Management Plan – Our Comment (Deadline 11 June 2018)

June 7, 2018

Oakland’s Vegetation Management Plan is to cut down thousands of trees and use toxic pesticides to prevent resprouting. If you wish to comment, the deadline is June 11, 2018. Send your email to VMPcomments@oaklandvegmanagement.org

We’ve published a brief comment here (see below).

Here’s our comment:

The San Francisco Forest Alliance is a non-profit (501 (c)4) organization that was created in 2012 to advocate for the preservation of our urban forest and eliminate the use of pesticides in our public parks. Our mission is Inclusive Environmentalism.

We are familiar with the strategy of justifying the destruction of non-native trees based on the claim that they are more flammable than native trees, because it has been used in San Francisco – although there is no history of and little risk of wildfire here.

Oakland’s Draft Vegetation Management Plan appears to be using the same rationale for destroying healthy trees and using pesticides to prevent them from resprouting. We are therefore writing to request that the draft be revised to limit all tree destruction to the creation of defensible space around structures, as defined by California law. We also request that Oakland not use pesticides to implement its vegetation management plan.

At a time of climate change, destroying healthy trees is irresponsible. Climate change is a global environmental issue that effects everyone, including the residents of San Francisco. Therefore, we ask that unnecessary tree removals be avoided.

Likewise, the use of pesticides in our watershed is an unnecessary health hazard that affects all residents around the San Francisco Bay, including wildlife.

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Mt Davidson: Tree Destruction Imminent?

January 18, 2018 4 Comments

There’s a lot of activity at the Juanita entrance of Mt Davidson, and neighbors fear the San Francisco Recreation and Parks Department (SFRPD) is rushing through its tree-felling program. At a time when we need trees more than ever to fight climate change, and mudslides in Southern California illustrate the devastating effects of destroyed trees and vegetation, this would be egregious.

Here’s a note from a forest-lover:

“What I’ve seen so far as of last week is preparation and road, trail widening with landing areas for equipment, but no big cuttings or equipment in the interior yet. Just the one big landmark, living tree marked with dots, and all the prior destruction.”

Huge eucalyptus tree on Mt Davidson, San Francisco, marked with 3 green dots

Do these dots mark this iconic tree for killing?

TRAILS BEING WIDENED FOR HEAVY EQUIPMENT?


What equipment will go up here? Maybe a “Brontosaurus”?

TREES DESTROYED EARLIER

Tree have been destroyed on Mount Davidson some years ago, and this prior destruction gives some idea of what the desired end-condition is for the next round. The so-called “boneyard” has stumps of dead trees.

 

This tall mature tree was “girdled.” That’s a process of destroying cutting a deep ring around the tree, so that food and water cannot be transported and the tree starves to death.

A beautiful green and flourishing tree that provided food and habitat for birds, and brought joy to forest lovers, is a dead skeleton.

THE BEAUTIFUL FOREST WE ARE LOSING

The lovely forest we are losing is beautiful and historic, and provides habitat for a huge number of birds. But it’s not just beauty and habitat. These trees provide important eco-system services.  Some examples:

  • They stabilize the mountain, with their intergrafted roots forming a living geo-textile. The horrible mudslides in Southern California illustrate how important this is.
  • They fight pollution, especially pollution from particulate matter, by trapping the particles on their leaves until rain or fog drips them to the forest floor where they are not in the atmosphere – or our lungs.
  • They form a wind-break in what would be one of the windiest areas of the city, with the wind blowing in straight off the sea.
  • They regulate water flows, so that when it rains hard, the forest acts as a sponge, absorbing the water and letting it flow out gradually.
  • They catch moisture from the fog during summer, making the mountain damp and reducing fire hazard.

Please let City Hall and SFRPD know that you want this forest protected and saved, not gutted. The plan is to remove 1600 trees!

[Update 1/19/18:  We spoke with the contractor on site. Seven trees have been cut down, and that completes this contract. Hopefully we will have more public notice and explanation if other tree removals are planned.]

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Montara Chainsawed Trees: Town Hall on Nov 12, 2017

November 4, 2017 1 Comment

We reported recently that some people interested in going on the walk at Rancho Corral de Tierra in Montara were unable to get in. Now a Town Hall has been scheduled on Nov 12, 2017.

In response to public interest, GGNRA will be hosting a second public meeting on Sunday, November 12th from 2-3:30 pm at Farralone View Elementary School. A meeting invite with details will be sent to everyone on our email distribution list.  To stay informed about the November 12th public meeting and other park related matters in San Mateo County, please sign up for our [i.e, GGNRA’s]  “San Mateo County” mailing list here.

 

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What Happened at the Montara Walk with Jacquie Speier – Trees at Rancho Corral De Tierra

November 2, 2017 4 Comments

Recently, we announced the news that a public walk had been planned for Oct 30, 2017 to discuss the sudden and deplorable destruction of trees at Montara’s Rancho Corral de Tierra. (We reported on that here: National Park Trees meet Chainsaws in Montara.) However, when supporters tried to sign up, they found the walk had filled up within days, maybe hours, of the announcement. Fortunately, one person did manage to go, and has sent us this report.

THEY’RE CUTTING DOWN TREES BECAUSE THEY HAVE THE MONEY – FOR NOW

Emotions ran high during a Monday mid-afternoon public hike led by a large contingent of National Park Service officials to quell community uproar over the sudden removal of healthy Monterey cypress and pines along popular trails at Rancho Corral de Tierra.

Congresswoman Jackie Speier kicked off the trailhead gathering of 30 or so nearby Montara and Moss Beach residents with sharp criticism of the Park Service’s “woefully failed” communications effort about its grasslands restoration program.

People questioned whether it was truly necessary to cut down 25 isolated trees – some 100 years old and community favorites – to preserve a rare flower called Hickman’s potentilla by replanting native grasses and wildflowers. They also asked why the Park Service did not publicly identify the trees slated for destruction or disclose its use of the herbicide Glyphosate, better known by the brand name RoundUp. California may soon require cancer warnings on Glyphosate products. [The chemical is considered “probably carcinogenic” by the World Health Organization, and an insider from the Environmental Protection Agency said, “It is essential certain that glyphosate causes cancer.”]

While the Park Service conceded it could have done a better job of communicating plans, they offered tortured answers to critical questions about the project.

Officials said it would be too difficult to identify the trees to be felled because markings could not be placed so they are visible at every angle from various directions people walk. They said the herbicide spraying schedule is unpredictable due to weather and, therefore, does not allow for advance notification or signs but that trails are closed off by staff standing guard during the spraying.

The Park Service said it contracts with outside crews for tree-cutting that must be completed under a $200,000 grant that only funds the project for three years.

It’s not clear whether the Park Service conducted an environmental analysis despite claiming they are required by the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service to protect the potentilla at Rancho under the Endangered Species Act. If that is their rationale they are as matter of law required to conduct a public process before making significant changes that affect the landscape and recreation.

Congresswoman Speier announced she would hold a joint town hall with the GGNRA deputy superintendent to seek resolutions working together with the community. The town hall will be November 12 in Montara in the evening.

It’s important that folks try to attend because the Park Service has only agreed to stop killing trees until that meeting takes place. We’ll post more information when the meeting time and location are set. Stay tuned.

Tree stumps of chainsawed trees in Rancho Corral De Tierra, Montara, CA, USA

Stumps and Sawdust Where there were Beloved Trees

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