Progress Report: Mount Sutro Re-Forestation

Progress Report: Mount Sutro Re-Forestationflickr/Jennifer Morrow
Camden Avery
Published on February 26, 2013
We reported last week on the upcoming proposed changes to UCSF's acreage in the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. Today, the morning after UCSF held the Environmental Impact Report review hearing, we're back with more.

We spoke yesterday with Barbara Bagot-Lopez, UCSF's Director of Community Relations, to talk about the meeting and progress of the proposed changes to the reserve. Regarding the meeting last night, Ms. Bagot-Lopez warned it would be a "rather rigidly formatted public hearing" that "requires us to be pretty legalistic." She said that while it was open to the community, the formality of the proceedings wouldn't allow University presenters to respond to the community's queries in real time, but only later and in writing. The meeting was structured to bring the draft Environmental Impact Report up for review, to be approved or rejected by various UCSF officials. Until the report is signed off on, no ecosystem re-management will commence. Ms. Bagot-Lopez also refuted claims made by Save Sutro and other community opposition of the project, which the University sees as alarmist. The work proposed in the Environmental Impact Report has to be, she emphasized, a maximum-case scenario: the estimate of trees removed, methods of growth prevention employed, etc. must in other words paint as extreme a picture as might occur. Fewer trees might be removed than the 30,000 estimated, and so on. The actual scope of the work depends, Ms. Bagot-Lopez said, on the outcome of the four test areas scheduled to be prepared in the reserve. She said decisions about re-management of the space would be made based on management techniques and measures that were decided on by the University in collaboration with the community. Eyes open, full steam ahead. We'll keep you posted.