Environmental Service at the Presidio
Date: (Sat.) Sep. 30, 2006
Location: San Francisco, CA
Event Director: 
- 206.913.3790
Type: On National Public Lands Day, help landscape and remove invasives
Related Information
Event announcement S.F. Chronicle article (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/01/BAGA9LGA3V1.DTL&hw=public+lands&sn=001&sc=1000)
Four representatives of BAOC met at Crissy Field to join the National Public Lands Day activities. Crissy Field is the northern shore area of the San Francisco Presidio. It used to be a military airfield, but during 1998-2000 was made into a recreation area with paths, a lagoon, and native plant landscaping.
About 75-100 people showed up and were put to work on six different projects. We from BAOC uprooted dandelions, clover, and other weeds from the (non-native) lawn east of a native plant area (a diagram is available here (http://www.baoc.org/photos/general/crissy-field.gif)). Because of the lawn's proximity to native plants, the use of herbicide must be minimized. Thus, the need to remove weeds manually.
Our crew of about 50 — by far the largest of the six — was provided with gloves, kneeling pads, and tools. After some instruction by Lynn, our crew leader, we spent nearly 3 hours filling about 100 garbage bags. Afterward the lawn appeared nearly clear of dandelions. The weeding left some patches of bare soil, which will be seeded by a staff gardener. Lynn assured us that, although the battle against lawn weeds can never be won, efforts like ours do reduce the stronghold of the weeds over time.
After the work period, we enjoyed a buffet lunch, then heard a short talk by Richard Louv, author of "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children from Nature-Deficit Disorder". He discussed how children today have less contact with nature than kids did 30 years ago, and presented some facts about how this affects their well-being.
BAOC members attending were President Nick Corsano, Jeff Lanam, Sharon Evans, and myself. An article with photos appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle (http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2006/10/01/BAGA9LGA3V1.DTL&hw=public+lands&sn=001&sc=1000).
Terry Farrah
BAOC Environmental Coordinator