Trail access gains support
Environmental groups opposed to proposal, cite potential damage to rare plant, animal species
SAN FRANCISCO — A proposal to open the 23,000-acre Peninsula Watershed to greater public access is gaining broad support, with the notable exception of environmental groups, who criticize the plan for its potential to damage sensitive animal and plant species.
Elected officials in San Francisco and San Mateo County, government agencies, hikers and mountain bikers have lined up behind the project, unveiled in February by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission, which owns and manages the vast refuge that runs from San Bruno to Woodside above the Crystal Springs reservoirs.
The watershed has been mostly off-limits since the SFPUC bought the property in 1930. The agency long claimed that allowing more people onto the land could threaten wildlife, such as the endangered marbled murrelet, and risk contaminating reservoirs that are key elements of the Hetch Hetchy Regional Water System, which serves 2.4 million people in the Bay Area.
But in 2003 the SFPUC opened up the 10-mile
Fifield-Cahill Ridge Trail to docent-led tours three days a week. Now the agency plans to expand access on the trail, allowing visitors who obtain a yearly permit to visit seven days a week, and build a six-mile extension, creating a single path running north and south along the entire length of the property. The new trail could open by late 2016 if the commission formally approves the plan later this year.
At a hearing Thursday afternoon of the San Francisco Public Safety and Neighborhood Services Committee, San Mateo County Supervisor Dave Pine joined San Francisco Supervisors John Avalos and Scott Wiener in backing the idea. Pine said opening up the watershed would provide valuable recreation for residents of northern San Mateo County.
“This is an area that is really one of the most densely populated in our county,” said Pine, “and also has a lot more folks who have socioeconomic challenges who are looking for opportunities to get outside.”
The San Mateo County Parks Department and the Golden Gate National Recreation Area also support the SFPUC’s vision. The
“We are in the fourth year of a historic drought, with no end in sight. This is no time to be playing games with our water supply.”
— Jake Sigg, California Native Plant Society
GGNRA has three properties abutting the watershed: Phleger Estate, Rancho Corral de Tierra and Sweeney Ridge.
But three environmental organizations — Committee for Green Foothills, the Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society — have lodged their opposition to the proposal.
The groups say they are concerned about the myriad rare plant and animal species in the watershed and the damage a major fire could inflict on both the unique ecosystem of the watershed and the drinking water in the reservoirs.
Jake Sigg, of the plant society, wrote in a letter to the SFPUC that now is not the right time for the agency to relax its restrictions.
“We are in the fourth year of a historic drought, with no end in sight,” Sigg wrote. “This is no time to be playing games with our water supply.”
Proponents of access, including a public grassroots group of Peninsula residents, say other water agencies in the Bay Area have successfully balanced recreation and security. They point in particular to the Marin Municipal Water District’s Mount Tamalpais Watershed, which has 130 miles of trails and unpaved roads.
Scott Wiener said that allowing more access to the watershed would inspire visitors to take care of it.
“When people are actually able to experience the absolute majesty of lands like this watershed,” the supervisor said, “it only builds support for good stewardship.”