June meetings to affect fate of natural areas throughout San Francisco

The future of one of the best `nature in the city' programs in the country is in the balance.

For eight years San Francisco's Natural Areas Program (NAP) has been operating without any master plan. A Natural Areas Management Plan was drafted in June 2002, but became the focus of a contentious debate, with the money earmarked for the consultants working on it in jeopardy.

After extended behind-the-scenes negotiations, the plan is at last moving forward. The public has been asked to review the plan at a series of public meetings in late June.The meetings will give you a chance to learn about the program and the opportunities to protect it.

The plan has been significantly reworked. It now carefully divides the management prescriptions for each of the 31 natural area sites into three priority levels. It clarifies access issues to resolve problems of conflicting uses.

What You Can Do

Please come support the program and nature in San Francisco. Each natural area will be discussed at one meeting, generally corresponding to the meeting location. The meetings will be 6 - 9 pm at:

• Wed., June 22, Glen Park Recreation Center (at Bosworth and O'Shaughnessy);
• Tue., June 28, Trocadero Clubhouse, Stern Grove;
• Thu., June 30, Southeast Community Center, 1800 Oakdale.

Come tell the Recreation and Parks Department to move forward with the program and get protections in place for all the natural areas.

For more information on the plan see www.parks.sfgov.org (click on "Significant Natural Areas" at top of screen).

To get involved in the San Francisco Group's efforts to protect the natural areas, contact Pinky Kushner at (415) 731-9486 or by email at pinkkushner-at-netscape.net

Pinky Kushner, conservation chair, Sierra Club San Francisco Group