San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
2 Presidio projects bring city splendor
Tidal wetlands, hilltop park take root in dramatic transformation
Amid everything else going on in this painfully tumultuous year, an initial look at the firstever extension of Crissy Field’s marsh can seem underwhelming.
At low tide right now, the area known as Quartermaster Reach in San Francisco’s Presidio is little more than two threads of salt water amid wide banks of moist sand. It’s no comparison to the much grander show to the east — a 14acre reconstructed hillside that by next fall will be draped in vegetation, with trails offering vivid perspectives on the postcardworthy landscape.
But the two projects are the latest elements in a remarkable ongoing transformation that will be cherished in the decades ahead. They also serve as needed reminders that no matter how bleak 2020 can seem, welcome changes are still taking root.
“Seeing the return of natural landscapes is a very inspiring thing,” said Christine Lehnertz, president and CEO of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, which has worked to bring these and other projects in the Presidio
to pass. “One piece at a time adds up to so much more.”
In terms of the 7 acres directly south of Mason Street in the Presidio, the phrase “taking root” is literally true.
Quartermaster Reach is the northernmost section of Tennessee Hollow, the watershed for much of the Presidio. Hidden in a culvert since before the 1915 Panama Pacific International Exposition, it also spent 70 years buried underneath Doyle Drive, the commuter link between downtown San Francisco and the Golden Gate Bridge. But the 2015 conversion of the unsightly viaduct into lowslung Presidio Parkway, complete with two segments tucked into tunnels beneath recreated bluffs, made it possible to turn back the environmental clock.
There’s been so little rainfall this season that the freshwater creek is still mostly dry. Even so, the bay itself flows south through Crissy Field’s marsh — itself a seminatural restoration — and at high tide makes the reach resemble an inland pond.
The barrier between Crissy Marsh and Quartermaster
Reach was breached without fanfare last month, and workers are still placing the last of 23,000 small plantings into the sand. Within two years, they should cover the acreage with everything from pickleweed in the watery tidal channels to thick willows along the edge. As of next Friday, however, visitors will be able to get up close via a new footbridge and path between Mason Street and Girard Road.
While Quartermaster Reach might be of longterm interest primarily to birdwatchers — coots and plovers already scout the sandy scene — the 14acre park taking shape to the west could become a Crissy Fieldlike destination.
The reason why was obvious on a tour of the windswept site this week: The clatter of construction equipment couldn’t distract from the vistas offered of such internationally known landmarks as Alcatraz and Golden Gate Bridge.
Even in the current state, with Presidio Parkway loudly visible below, the drama is profound. It will come into sharper focus as several feet of topsoil are added to lift the completed bluff 35 feet above Crissy Field and as the topography is sculpted to create features like a campfire nook and two large meadows.
The design also includes an abundance of mostly native vegetation to, among other things, filter views of the adjacent roadways. A halfdozen oaks sit at the bottom of the bluff waiting to be planted, their root balls encased in 60inch wooden boxes. “We can see Angel Island clearly up here,” said Michael Boland, the head of planning for the Presidio Trust. “After everything is planted and settles in, you be able to see Mason Street.”
Put all these endeavors together — including Crissy Field, which opened in 2001 on what had been a mechanical yard for military vehicles — and they add up to the unmatched environmental resurrection of the backside of an Army post.
It hasn’t been easy, by any stretch.
The cost of conjuring up Tunnel Tops Park exceeds $ 100 million, mostly from private donors. The budget for Quartermaster Reach was $ 23 million, funded in part by the Environmental Protection Agency, and work couldn’t begin until the new parkway was done. Both projects also were delayed by laborious negotiations to transfer the sites from Caltrans to the Presidio Trust — Caltrans built Presidio Parkway,
while the trust manages nearly all of the 1,491acre national park.
The removal of Doyle Drive also means that Battery Bluffs, which were severed from the rest of the Presidio in the 1930s, will be reconnected next year. The western segment of the parkway tunnels is being topped with fresh soil, and a trail will wend through the historic Army batteries and mature trees.
The road ahead will be arduous, too. Plans to finetune Crissy Field and its offerings — optimistically dubbed Crissy Next — are on hold because of the financial pressures on the conservancy from coronavirusrelated shutdowns. The trust also is buffeted by the pandemic’s economic ripples.
But through it all — and every other twist and turn — the Presidio has blossomed since it was transferred from the U. S. Army to the National Park Service in 1994.
Large public endeavors rarely go smoothly. Fortunately for the Bay Area, the outcomes often are worth the wait. If you doubt this, make a resolution to visit Tunnel Tops Park when it opens, and Quartermaster Reach as it matures.