The unwitting deforestation of the Park Presidio greenbelt continued today when a large pine tree fell across the park’s path on Funston between Anza and Balboa.
Unlike other recent tree falls, no cars were harmed in today’s incident which occurred around 4:15pm. Instead the large pine fell across the cleared walking path where pedestrians sometimes pass. Thankfully no one was out for a stroll at the time.
The falling pine took out a few other small trees, and as of 4:45pm, it had been reported to 311.
Thanks to Quimby M. for the photos.
Sarah B.
One groundskeeper once a month is not sufficient to perform anything beyond rudimentary operation of a riding mower over ten blocks. Sprinklers are routinely destroyed for dry campgrounds.
Any ideas why this is happening often? Can’t see it’s an irregular occurrence but seems more common lately?
‘can’t say’ i meant
Not surprising this is happening. Potholes in the streets. Public parks in ruin. Trees falling literally all around you. This is our government giving us less and charging more. It is the public sector equivalent of paying more for a smaller box of cereal.
Perhaps instead of glibly disparaging the government, we should exercise our rights as citizens of a democracy and go down to City Hall. We should get together and say something, express our fear that one of our neighbors is eventually going to be hit and killed by a falling tree.
Anyone with me?
Steph, It took a decade of lobbying by Park Presidio Neighborhood Group to even get City Hall to consider some maintenance to the trees in the greenbelt (work was done coming up on a decade ago now). Maintenance used to be part of the City budget, but that started vanishing during Feinstein’s tenure and significantly eroded in favor of Social and Health Services during Agnos’ term as Mayor. Think long and carefully about the real priorities of candidates to replace termed-out Mar this fall.
4thGenRichmond – thanks for that explanation and background, I have been following this topic for a while and it’s been hard to wrap my brain around the history. My though is that getting them to maintain the trees when they are standing still is one thing, but bringing their attention to potentially drought-related tree fallings in a residential neighborhood is quite another.
This has become a pressing safety issue, which goes beyond maintenance in my opinion. Maintenance is part of it, but we need to know pronto what’s going on.
Maybe the “design” is not maintainable? Could be that planting a “pine tree” on a sand dune with 4 inches of top soil was a bad idea in the first place? I’m not saying we should revert back to native coastal chaparral, but selecting plants that can survive with little or no care is worth considering. I’d rather go native than spend on a landscape design that seems environmentally and fiscally impractical.
Chris, the Greenbelt trees were planted many decades ago (before WWII) as a demonstration of various species. They were properly maintained until 1978. By 1985 maintenance of the Greenbelt had been reduced by City Hall to an occasional pass by a groundskeeper with a riding mower and responses neighbor calls to pick up large scale dumping or shut off vandalized sprinklers by DPW. There has been only one proper pruning by trained and licensed arborists about a decade ago. There are zero licensed arborists on the City payroll.