Craig Dawson is NPC's July 2009 Volunteer of the Month. Craig founded the Mount Sutro Stewards to care for Sutro Forest, a 61-acre forest of blue-gum eucalyptus trees in the middle of the city, west of Twin Peaks. The property was planted by Mayor Adolph Sutro for an Arbor Day celebration in 1886 on what was then known as "Mount Parnassus."
The acreage is owned today by UCSF. The university is working in cooperation with the Stewards and other stewardship groups to create the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve Management Plan. The plan includes trail restoration and construction and restoration of native plants.
The Stewards meet on the 1st Saturday of each month from 9:00 AM to 1:00 PM. Volunteers meet at Woods Lot on Medical Center Way (for a map of the meeting location, click here.) Keep up with the Stewards on their web page: http://www.natureinthecity.org/mtsutro.php
What are your favorite aspects of volunteering at Mount Sutro?
The reason that I've dedicated so much time running a volunteer Stewardship program for the last 3 years is all about building community. The rewards are obvious at the end of each volunteer day as the participants mingle and share experiences, and their own personal reasons for coming out and contributing to our habitat restoration and trail construction program. We have incredible diversity among our volunteers with many neighbors, recreational trail users, experienced habitat volunteers, new arrivals to San Francisco, and a core group of cyclists dedicated to trail maintenance and construction.
What inspired you to do this work?
Mt. Sutro is a very special place, removed from the city that surrounds it. The area was for decades an underutilized open space and I've always felt that with better access we could slowly begin to address some of the management issues found within the area. I wanted to show what a grassroots stewardship program was capable of and how, through the restoration work and improved access, we could engage the community in the care and appreciation of this resource. The first priority of the Stewards is working to conserve what remains of some locally rare plants recently discovered deep within the forest. This year we witnessed the success of our effort as areas cleared of invasive ivy and blackberry experienced a resurgence of the native plant populations.
What are your hopes for Mount Sutro?
I hope that Mt. Sutro is really just the beginning of a more interconnected open space park in the heart of the City. The land that surrounds the UCSF Open Space includes the Interior Greenbelt, Twin Peaks, Laguna Honda Hospital and PUC's Laguna Honda reservoir property. If the City adopted a plan to provide interconnectivity to and through these areas, adventurous people could spend a day hiking, running or riding from Golden Gate Park to Glen Canyon on a multi-mile trail exploring nature and getting fantastic exercise. Why not use the properties that many City departments own for our residents' recreational needs, rather than having them travel by car to experience nature in another county? I support Nature in the City's effort to create the San Miguel Hills Bioregional Park Preserve and hope to see much more discussion on this subject in the coming months.
