CITYDOGS -- advocating for the recreational needs of urban dogs and their owners

Home
ACTION ALERTS
* * *
OUR PURPOSE
* * *
NEWSLETTER CONTENTS
* * *
NEWS PAGE ONE
NEWS PAGE TWO
NEWS PAGE THREE
NEWS PAGE FOUR
NEWS PAGE FIVE
* * *
MEMBERS PAGE
BECOMING A MEMBER
* * *
HEROIC DOGS
* * *
CALENDAR OF EVENTS
* * *
LINKS
* * *
GOVERNMENT CONTACTS
* * *
Contact Us/GUESTBOOK

ACTION ALERTS

Here are some great ways you can help ...

  

NATURAL AREAS HEARING!

CONTINUED

DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED

TREES, TRAILS, PETS, AND PUBLIC PARTICIPATION!

The Recreation and Park Department's CITYWIDE DOG POLICY bans dogs, on or off-leash, from all so-called SENSITIVE HABITAT AREAS and would effectively ban dogs from all other NATURAL AREAS.  Our only recourse would be to go before a Dog Advisory Committee appointed by RPD and loaded with opponents of off-leash recreation (California Native Plant Society, Audubon Society, Sierra Club, Coleman Advocates, etc.). 

While always describing NATURAL AREAS as small or very small, draft Management Plan, Table 3-3, shows that RPD expects Natural Areas to encompass 2,350 acres, 67% of San Franciscos parklands, including 200 acres of Golden Gate Park and such popular offleash areas as: 

·        Bernal Hill

·        Glen Canyon

·        McLaren Park

·        Stern Grove/Pine Lake

·        and 30 other parks -- 2,350 acres 67% of San Franciscos parklands 

Draft plans call for extensive tree removals, trail closures, and restrictions on pets, recreation and public access in the Natural Areas. The Natural Areas Program has already started extensive tree destruction without proper notice or review, killing thousands of trees at Bayview Hill, McLaren Park and elsewhere.

RPD is attempting to take our parklands out of recreational use without public process. The 3-year, $400,000 Natural Areas planning project is near completion. RPD has ignored the requirement to include public participation from the beginning of the planning process, including the creation of a Citizen Task Force that would monitor the progress of the consultant.  Having been discovered, they are offering a biased and meaningless Green Ribbon Panel that would comment on what has already been decided.

A Green Ribbon is Only a Decoration!

The San Francisco Parks Coalition and CITYDOGS believes that RPD should be required to halt the Natural Areas planning process until it has been subjected to full review by the public, including the primary users of San Franciscos undeveloped parklands, dog owners,  and by the Board of Supervisors. 

The Neighborhood Services and Recreation Committee has granted us a hearing -- DATE TO BE ANNOUNCED.

The committee members are Gavin Newsom, Mark Leno, and Jake McGoldrick.

 Please contact them and/or your supervisor (see sample letter at end of this message) to express your concern and insist on a moratorium on the Natural Areas planning project until it fully surveys, consults with, and includes the community, especially local park users (sample letter below).

Neighborhood Services and Recreation Committee:

District 2 Gavin.Newsom@sfgov.org 

Office: 554-5942  Fax: 554-5946

District 1 Jake.McGoldrick@sfgov.org            

Office: 554-7410  Fax: 554-7415

District 8 Mark.Leno@sfgov.org          

Office: 554-7734 Fax: 554-7739

Other Supervisors:

District 3 aaron_peskin@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-7454/ phone: 554-7450

District 4 leland_yee@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-7751/ phone: 554-7752

District 5 matt_gonzalez@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-7634/ phone: 554-7630

District 6 chris_daly@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-7974/ phone: 554-7970

District 7 tony_hall@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-6546/ phone: 554-6516

District 9 tom_ammiano@ci.sf.ca.us          

fax 554-6255/ phone: 554-5144

District 10 sophie_maxwell@ci.sf.ca.us

fax 554-7674/ phone: 554-7670

District 11 gerardo_sandoval@ci.sf.ca.us

fax 554-6979/ phone: 554-6975

 

Sample letter or email: 

TO: SAN FRANCISCO BOARD OF SUPERVISORS

1 Dr. Carlton Goodlet Place, Rm 244

San Francisco, CA 94102

RE:NATURAL AREAS MORATORIUM 

Dear Supervisor: 

I am very concerned about tree cutting, trail closures, and restrictions on pets and recreation in the proposed Natural Areas.  

Please support San Francisco Parks Coalitions request for a MORATORIUM on the Natural Areas Program and planning process until full public disclosure and participation is ensured.

The public should be given full information and allowed full participation in the planning process from the beginning. After-the-fact review by a Green Ribbon Panel is insufficient. 

Thank you for your concern,

 

ANNOUNCEMENT FOR REC & PARK DOG POLICY HEARING
from Supervisor Leland Yee

The Recreation and Park Commission will hold a hearing on Wednesday, May 8, 2002, 6:30 p.m. at City Hall, 1Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place in the Board of Supervisors Chamber, Room 250.

All persons interested in responding to the Recreation and Park Department Draft Dog Policy should make plans to attend this hearing.  The Draft Dog Policy is available on line at http://parks.sfgov.org or by writing to the Department at 501 Stanyan Street, San Francisco, CA 94117.

The GGNRA Watchdog site always has great info and important action alerts. Click here to visit.

FORT FUNSTON AND VICINITY
ENDANGERED SPECIES RECOVERY PLAN PUBLIC MEETINGS
THURSDAY, 24 JANUARY, 1-3:00 PM and 6-8:00 PM
Golden Gate Club, Presidio, San Francisco


The Coastal Plants Recovery Plan calls for extensive removal of trees and for experimentation with temporary, rotating closures of lands at the Presidio and Ft. Funston.

Although the plan calls for existing recreation to continue at Ft. Funston (to an unspecified extent) and for small, rotating closures, the Park Service is free to do as it has in the past and ignore reasonable advice. As in the past, closures could grow and become permanent.

It's important for off-leash advocates to turn out for these public meetings to give the Park Service and the general public the message that we are concerned and that we view this as another threat to our recreational opportunities.

This is also an opportunity for us to chronicle and publicize the mismanagement of our recreational and natural resources, including the Park Service's ill-conceived, poorly managed, community-unfriendly approach to plover protection, bank swallow protection, and the Crissy Field Marsh restoration.

I hope others will attend and use these meetings as a platform as well as an opportunity to ask questions and create a record.

These meetings are also an opportunity to join with tree preservationists and neighborhood associations who are very distressed by this plan.

Please contact us if you have questions or suggestions.

citydogs@hotmail.com

You can get a copy of the "Draft Recovery Plan for Coastal Plants of the Northern San Francisco Peninsula" from US Fish and Wildlife by phoning Patricia Foulk at (916) 414-6600. *Deadline for public comment is May 4, 2002.*

The GGNRA Watchdog site always has great info and important action alerts. Click here to visit.