Sgt. Kirk Yin from the SFPD updated us on police actions in our area.  He warned of an increase in bicycle thefts from unlocked garages and also residents entering their apartment buildings and allowing people to follow them inside.  Sign up for the Taraval Station Newsletter by sending an e-mail to: Curtis.Lum@sfgov.org

Katherine Howard spoke against the proposed changes to the Beach Chalet Soccer Fields, including 7 acres of artificial turf and 150,000 watts of bright night lighting. The lights will be on every night until 10:00 p.m. and have an impact on wildlife in the park and on Ocean Beach.  Her group, SF Ocean Edge, is proposing that the playing fields be renovated with real grass and no lights, and that the rest of the funding for this project be used to renovate other playing fields for kids all over San Francisco.

Eric Miller from the San Francisco Forest Alliance spoke on the need to use scarce city resources to preserve existing greenery in parks and open spaces. The group’s main focus is to stop the Recreation & Park Department’s costly “Natural Areas Program” plan to destroy 18,500+ healthy trees, spray dangerous herbicides, disrupt healthy ecosystems that support hundreds of species, and restrict public access to popular trails in areas like Mount Davidson, Glen Canyon, and Grandview Park. The Forest Alliance is on facebook here.  Send e-mail to sfforestnews@gmail.com

Jake Sigg spoke on the need and strategies to preserve Sutro Forest.  UCSF held a series of community meetings regarding the management of the Mt Sutro eucalyptus plantation in the late 1990s and published its plan in 2001.  All viewpoints were represented. Therefore, the University had good reason to expect to be able to proceed with its implementation.  But milliontrees.org and its successor, the Forest Alliance, didn’t respect the process and was able to stop it—not difficult, as the funds would have come from FEMA, which doesn’t fund controversial projects.  Opponents of tree cutting have no understanding of the management problems the University is facing on this aging plantation.  All land must be managed.  Time will reveal that delay is costly.