San Francisco Cutting Down its Ancient Trees – Sutro Forest/ Clarendon

MAY 1, 2020 (sfforest.org)

This article is republished from SutroForest.com, with permission.

Sutro Forest extended along Christopher to Clarendon Avenue.
The section at Christopher and Clarendon was decimated for the rebuilding of the pump station in 2009, possibly poisoned in 2013… and in 2019, it’s been clear-cut. It’s gone.

THE FOREST BEFORE

In 2009, the forest area on the corner of Christopher and Clarendon was a lush dense grove before the pumphouse was built in 2009 (as shown in the poster visualizing the pump station):

Pump Station on poster

In 2013, here’s what it looked like. At the time, there was concern that someone was poisoning some of these trees. After that, the poisoned trees and a couple of others were removed.

In 2019, the entire grove was clear-cut. There’s no grove between Clarendon and the pumphouse, just a couple of trees left.

All that is left of these beautiful 125-year-old trees are stumps.

Meanwhile, the planned trailhead from Clarendon is being built. It’s going to look *very* different from the charming visualization presented by UCSF.

CLARENDON LOSES ITS CENTURY-OLD TREES

Also gone – the tall trees that lined Clarendon Avenue in front of the Aldea San Miguel UCSF student housing.

I remember a time when you couldn’t even see the fence from the street. When UCSF thinned the vegetation there many years ago, they promised plantings that would conceal the chain link fence. Well, they planted some vines, but the concealment didn’t happen.

The chain-link fence is more prominent than ever.

And across the road, a swath of trees adjacent to the homes on Clarendon have been felled too, probably by SF Rec and Parks (or possibly Sutro Tower, not sure).

The destruction of Sutro Forest – and indeed, many of the ancient trees of San Francisco – continues. It’s probably not a coincidence that nearly all the trees felled are eucalyptus.

Note: This article is based (with permission) on a version published on ForestKnolls.info

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