Eat Sand, Tree-hugger
Fritz Schrank has a lengthy and balanced post on the many-levelled ironies revealed by this NYT article on a controversial plan to "restore" Presidio Park's "original" sand dunes by chopping down a small number of non-native eucalyptus and cypress trees (a.k.a "wind obstacles.")
Apparently there's a species of flower that can only survive in cleared away, "restored" Presidio dunes and on a "hillside below a housing development" in Daly City.
That's pretty funny, as only something containing the words "Daly City" can be. But the funniest bit is the quotation from an angry editorial in a community newspaper by then-supervisor Leeland "the Lorax" Yee, who identified a bit too closely, perhaps, with the defenseless trees: "How many of us are `invasive exotics' who have taken root in the San Francisco soil, have thrived and flourished?" This isn't land management, it's genocide!
Here's another priceless quotable quote from a UC Berkeley professor of forest ecology: "Historic vegetation is another way of informing people about the past." Historic vegetation. Indeed.
Schrank comments:
For those whose work requires frequent contact with environmental regulators and/or activists, the self-righteous attitudes on both sides of this controversy will seem all too familiar. The irony is that in this case both tree-huggers and sand-lovers are smarting from being subjected to the superior tone they so often display to others, who may not share their sense of proportion about matters environmental compared to other social issues.The other intriguing irony about this controversy is that it illustrates the all-too-human resistance to change. These folks seem to forget, however, that a seaside environment left to its own devices changes constantly.
Fritz asked me to comment as a Bay Arean on the raging controversy, which I confess I only found out about just now. Still, deep within my soul, as befits a true Bay Arean, there is nothing but bitter, divisive conflict. On the one hand, I really like all the eucalyptus trees, whatever their merits as "historic vegetation." I always have. They may be an "invasive species" but they're a comfortable, homey, welcoming invasive species, the kind of invasive species I can really get into. They've been a familiar, characteristic feature of the northern California landscape for my whole life. I can't imagine this part of the world without them. And even though they're not strictly "native," they're at least as native as I am. I'm not going anywhere, and I suspect that by and large, neither are they.
On the other hand, a whole mess of sand dunes down Presidio way would be hell of cool, to use a quasi-native East Bay expression. Way cool. So I'm pretty sure I'll be okay with whatever they decide, either way. Let me know when it's finished and I'll go over and check it out. Like it or not, that's pretty much kind of the just-about-native California way, dude.
Posted by Dr. Frank at March 11, 2003 05:32 PM | TrackBack