| Mount Sutro | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Highest point | |
| Elevation | 911 ft (278 m) NAVD 88 [1] |
| Prominence | 208 ft (63 m) [1] |
| Listing | San Francisco Hill |
| Coordinates | 37°45′30″N122°27′26″W / 37.7582636°N 122.4571935°W [2] |
| Geography | |
| Location | San Francisco, California, U.S. |
| Climbing | |
| Easiest route | Hike, Paved Road |
Mount Sutro is a hill in central San Francisco, California. It was originally named Mount Parnassus.
The low mountain is 909 feet (277 m) in elevation. Mount Sutro is one of the many named hills within San Francisco, and among its original "Seven Hills".
Most of Mount Sutro is owned by the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). A 61-acre (25 ha) parcel, including the summit, is protected as the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve by UCSF, and open to the public. [3]
Sutro Tower, a large television and radio broadcasting tower for the San Francisco Bay Area and very visible City landmark, is not on Mount Sutro. It stands on a lower hill to the south between it and Twin Peaks. [4]
Mount Sutro has been covered by a dense forest, with about 80% being introduced eucalyptus trees, that was planted in the late 19th century. [5] The older trees are now over 100 feet (30 m) tall. The mountain is within San Francisco's fog belt, receiving fog throughout the summer. The tall trees precipitate the fog, with the moisture being absorbed by the duff and tree roots, and the forest remains damp through the summer months. It receives some 30 to 40% of its moisture from fog drip. There is a dense understory of non-native Himalayan blackberry (Rubus armeniacus) and several other plants. The forest provides habitat for a number of bird species, including great horned owls and various woodpeckers. Over thirty species were recorded in a single morning of bird watching. [6]
The 19-acre (7.7 ha) city-owned portion of Mount Sutro and the eucalyptus forest, called the Interior Green Belt, is contiguous with the UCSF-owned 61 acres (25 ha) Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve portion. The forest is bounded on the north by the UCSF Medical Center and the UCSF Stem-cell Research Building; on the west by the Sunset District; on the south by the Forest Knolls neighborhood, built in the late 1950s on cleared forest land; and on the east by the Cole Valley neighborhood.
Rotary Meadow, a garden of California native plants, is at the summit within the Mount Sutro Open Space Reserve. It was funded by a $100,000 grant from the San Francisco Rotary Club #2 and its members in 2004. The garden is maintained by the Sutro Stewards volunteers, and has water supplied by UCSF. [7] It is accessible by paved road from Clarendon Avenue through UCSF's Aldea San Miguel housing complex. Most of the garden's plants reach peak bloom in the spring. It is encircled by the Eucalyptus forest, and therefore has no views of the city, as the nearby non-forested Twin Peaks and Tank Hill do.
The hill and forest are accessible by hiking trails, many of which are suitable for mountain bikes. Sutro Stewards.org: Map of Mount Sutro [8] [9] Another access to the summit is from 7th Avenue on the west side of the mountain, climbing the 355-step public stairway from Warren Drive to Crestmont Drive (named Oakhurst Way on many maps), then turning left/north and entering the forest where Crestmont makes a sharp right/east turn.
In 2009, UCSF applied for a grant from FEMA to remove a majority of the eucalyptus trees on 23% of its land, for campus and residential neighborhood fire safety. It was supported by native habitat restoration advocates, for the return and expansion of indigenous habitats that support native flora and fauna within the city. [10]
Some local residents opposed the plan, so in February 2010, UCSF announced it was withdrawing its application to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and would instead conduct a full Environmental Impact Review (EIR) under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) before proceeding with plans to restore the original ecology of Mount Sutro. [3] After over four years, the first step, a preliminary Draft EIR for public review and comments, has yet to be completed by UCSF. [11]
Much of 19th century Mount Sutro was within the Rancho San Miguel of Alta California, a Mexican land grant given to Jose de Jesus Noe in 1846.
The ranch property was acquired by Adolph Sutro in 1879, shortly after his Comstock Lode stock was bought out by his partners, the "Silver Big 4." That enabled Sutro to invest in San Francisco real estate on a very large scale, at one point owning almost 10% of San Francisco's total acreage. Sutro used annual Arbor Day celebrations to plant trees (eventually thousands of them) on the rocky coastal sage and chaparral clad slopes and hollows and in sand dunes on his properties.
Sutro originally planned to develop residential neighborhoods on the hill, then named "Mount Parnassus," and on another to the east he named "Mount Olympus." The hill was later renamed Mount Sutro, in honor of Sutro who also was the 24th mayor of San Francisco, from 1894 to 1896. [3]
In July 1895, Sutro donated a 13-acre (5.3 ha) site on the "Parnassus bench" overlooking Golden Gate Park, to serve as a campus site for the Affiliated Colleges of the University of California, the present day University of California, San Francisco Parnassus Campus. [3] Adolph Sutro died land rich but cash poor in 1898, resulting in the settlement of his estate being long and arduous. Some plans of the Sutro Development Company were completed, including a street railway on Parnassus Boulevard that operated to serve those developments, while many others were stopped by litigation.
With the settlement of Sutro's estate, after almost twenty years of litigation, much of the developable, eucalyptus-covered land began to be cleared around 1930, and continued through the 1960s. The city expanded westward, and the land was developed for commercial and residential needs.
Though planned as a recreational forest, some areas were logged by Sutro's heirs. [5] In 1934, after a fire, this effort was discontinued. The forest was logged again during World War II, for use as a domestic fuel due to war rationing.
Mount Sutro itself, and most of its remaining forest, was within the 90 acres (36 ha) parcel purchased by the University of California in 1952. [3]
The University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) is a public land-grant research university in San Francisco, California. It is part of the University of California system and is dedicated entirely to health science and life science. It conducts research and teaching in medical and biological sciences.
Mount Parnassus is a mountain in Greece, sacred in mythology and a metaphor for the arts and learning.
Grandview Park, also referred to as Turtle Hill by local residents, is a small, elevated park in the Sunset District, San Francisco, California. It is surrounded by 14th and 15th Avenues, as well as Noriega Street.
Claremont Canyon Regional Preserve is a small regional park mainly located in the city of Oakland, California, and administered by the East Bay Regional Park District. The park is named for the canyon in which it is situated, Claremont Canyon, out of which Claremont Creek flows on its way to its confluence with Temescal Creek. Originally, the canyon was named Harwood's Canyon, and then later as Telegraph Canyon. The name was changed to Claremont by a developer of the nearby Claremont district.
Adolph Heinrich Joseph Sutro was a German-American engineer, politician and philanthropist who served as the 24th mayor of San Francisco from 1895 until 1897. Born a German Jew, he moved to Virginia City, Nevada and made a fortune at the Comstock Lode. Several places in San Francisco bear his name in remembrance of his life and contributions to the city.
Glen Canyon Park is a city park in San Francisco, California. It occupies about 70 acres (28 ha) along a deep canyon adjacent to the Glen Park, Diamond Heights, and Miraloma Park neighborhoods. O'Shaughnessy Hollow is a rugged, undeveloped 3.6 acres (1.5 ha) tract of parkland that lies immediately to the west and may be considered an extension of Glen Canyon Park.
Mount Davidson is the highest natural point in San Francisco, California, with an elevation of 928 feet (283 m). It is located near the geographical center of the city, south of Twin Peaks and Portola Drive and to the west of Diamond Heights and Glen Park. It dominates the southeastern view from most of Portola Drive. It is one of San Francisco's many hills and one of its original "Seven Hills".
The University of California, San Francisco Medical Center is a research and teaching hospital in San Francisco, California and is the medical center of the University of California, San Francisco. It is affiliated with the UCSF School of Medicine. In 2022–23, it was ranked as the 12th-best overall hospital in the United States and one of the top three hospital in California by U.S. News & World Report.
San Bruno Mountain is a fault-block horst in northern San Mateo County, California; its northern slopes rise in San Francisco. It is surrounded by San Francisco Bay and the cities of Brisbane, Colma, Daly City, and South San Francisco, and has played an important role in the history of all these communities.
The Golden Gate Biosphere Network is a voluntary coalition of federal, state, and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, and private partners within the Golden Gate Biosphere region. The Network aims to protect the region's biodiversity and conserve its natural resources, enhancing quality of life for local residents. The Network has been part of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme since 1988 and is part of the US Biosphere Network and EuroMAB. It is recognized by UNESCO due to the significant biodiversity of the region, as well as the Network's efforts to demonstrate and promote a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.
The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,116 acres (33,231 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the second-most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15.6 million visitors in 2022. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.
Sutro Heights Park is an historic public park in the Outer Richmond District of western San Francisco, California. It is within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area and the Sutro Historic District.
The Berkeley Hills are a range of the Pacific Coast Ranges that overlook the northeast side of the valley that encompasses San Francisco Bay. They were previously called the "Contra Costa Range/Hills", but with the establishment of Berkeley and the University of California, the current usage was applied by geographers and gazetteers.
The UCSF School of Dentistry is the dental school of the University of California, San Francisco, in San Francisco, California, in the United States. It was founded in 1881 and is the oldest dental school in California and the western United States. It is accredited by the American Dental Association. In 2016, it had received the highest NIH funding of any US dental school for 25 consecutive years. It is one of the top dental schools in the world, being ranked #5 by QS World University Rankings and 7 by Academic Ranking of World Universities.
The UCSF School of Medicine is the medical school of the University of California, San Francisco and is located at the base of Mount Sutro on the Parnassus Heights campus in San Francisco, California. Founded in 1864 by Hugh Toland, it is the oldest medical school in California and in the western United States. U.S. News & World Report ranked the school fifth in research training and fifth in primary care training. Six members of the UCSF faculty have received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine and five have received the National Medal of Science.
Sand to Snow National Monument is a U.S. National Monument located in San Bernardino County and northern Riverside County, Southern California.
Forest Knolls is a neighborhood of San Francisco, located within the Inner Sunset built on the southwestern side of Mount Sutro, near the main UCSF campus. Warren Drive is the southern and western border, Mount Sutro is the northern border and the Midtown Terrace neighborhood is to the east. Homes are mostly fully detached and many have views of the San Francisco Bay or Pacific Ocean.
UCSF Helen Diller Family Comprehensive Cancer Center is an NCI-designated Cancer Center, affiliated with the UCSF School of Medicine and the UCSF Medical Center. It is one of 69 cancer research institutions in the United States supported by the National Cancer Institute, and one of three in Northern California. The HDFCCC integrates basic and clinical science, patient care, and population science to address prevention and early detection of cancer as well as the quality of life following diagnosis and treatment.
LandPaths or Land Partners through stewardship is an organization formed in 1996 to foster a love of the land in Sonoma County, California. The organization owns open space preserves throughout Sonoma County, and encourages outdoor experiences where people can learn to understand and appreciate natural environments.
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