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Glen Canyon trail improvements coming along

December 15, 2014 by Elizabeth Weise

photo

Story and photos by Murray Schneider

The Recreation and Park Department’s 15-month Glen Canyon Trails Improvement Project is expected to be completed in early 2015.

Work crews soon will maneuver their last Bobcat earth mover along Alms Road, exiting San Francisco’s 70-acre natural area, leaving in their wake freshly minted recreational trails built with scores of sturdy box steps.

photo 1As recently as December 10, Yerba Buena Engineering & Construction workers fashioned straw berms along Islais Creek banks, designed to prevent mudslides impinging on their work as they anticipated the next day’s deluge.

photo 1-1Funded by the 2008 Clean and Safe Neighborhood Parks Bond to the tune of $900,000, the project was supported with two additional grants totaling $320,587. More financing came from the 2013 Habitat Conservation Fund in the amount of $130,000.

photo 2Recreation and Park’s Glen Canyon Trails Project, which was planned over several years during 12-different community meetings, also removed hazardous trees, improved drainage, conducted sediment basin repair, and updated Americans for Disability Act (ADA)) access between Bosworth Street and Silver Tree camp-Glenridge nursery school.

photo 2-1Glen Canyon strollers, dog-walkers, summer campers, nursery school children and their parents will now enjoy improved pedestrian access in a sanctuary removed from the city’s urban bustle. Along trails named Gum Tree Girls, Islias Creek and Coyote Crags, they can continue observing coyotes, red-tailed hawks, great horned owls and white-crowned sparrows.

photo-1“The canyon trail work is great and it’ll benefit the young and old, joggers and walkers,” said Jim Hanratty, a Friends of Glen Canyon Park volunteer, and who lives on the first block of Stillings Avenue. “There’s a little something for everyone.”

Winding through a variety of habitats, from riparian willow to rocky grass and scrublands on the canyon’s steep eastern slope, recreational walkers can negotiate a path from Elk Street to Christopher Playground.

photo-2It was possible to do so before construction began in October 2013, but now, assisted by durable box and stringer steps, hikers have a reduced fear of faltering or straying off trail, which in past years contributed to erosion and endangered sensitive habitat areas.

Taking advantage of three new stream crossings, canyon users of all ages can now better take in several Islais Creek restoration refuges. While protected by new retaining walls and split-rail fencing, hikers can observe Franciscan chert outcrops and eucalyptus and redwood trees, each of which borders either the east or west side of one of San Francisco’s two remaining above ground running creeks.

photo-4What caps the project, though, is a final 300-yard segment of trail mosaic.

Yet to be constructed is a path that will be the length of three football fields, which will eventually switchback through San Francisco Unified School District property and add the last link to Recreation and Park’s Creeks to Peaks trail vision.

With the project in mind, Phil Ginsburg, General Manager of Recreation and Park weighed in:

“The Creeks to Peaks trail project is a model trail system. It provides easy public access to a natural oasis in an urban environment.”

Seeded with $85,000, Creeks to Peaks is a featured project of the San Francisco Park Alliance, which held a gala dinner in September at the Randall Museum to trumpet Recreation and Park’s greenway centerpiece.

When completed walkers will be able to dogleg west of stanchion-built Turquoise Way houses, step over a freshly-built Islais Creek stream crossing and, following interpretative and wayfinding signage, strike a path to Portola Drive. Utilizing this green-belt throughway, walkers never again need suffer exhaust fumes from cars along O’Shaughnessy Boulevard.

Heading north, leaving the School of the Arts behind them, hikers can cross the heavily trafficked street at Glenview Drive and continue up an uninterrupted stretch that leads to Twin Peaks.

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IMPORTANT UPCOMING DATES

Upper Noe Neighbors Community Meeting Wednesday, May 21, 7 p.m.
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District 8 Cleanup Day
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Explore all the Colors of the Rainbow
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Weeding Party
June 21, 10 a.m. to noon
100 block of Arlington at Charles
Join neighbors on the North end of the Cut to keep down the weeds and beautify top to bottom. Tools, lunch and good company provided.



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Glen Park Association is in Glen Park.
37 minutes ago
Glen Park Association

Tuesday was a star-studded day at Glen Park BART when Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde spent much of the afternoon filming a new romantic comedy titled “The Invite” in the station.

For more on this story..Check out the article by Elizabeth Weise on the Glen Park News Blog:
“Seth Rogen & Olivia Wilde filming at Glen Park BART”

Visit Link in Bio or our website: www.glenparkassociation.org
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Tuesday was a star-studded day at Glen Park BART when Seth Rogen and Olivia Wilde spent much of the afternoon filming a new romantic comedy titled “The Invite” in the station.

For more on this story..Check out the article by Elizabeth Weise on the Glen Park News Blog: 
“Seth Rogen & Olivia Wilde filming at Glen Park BART”

Visit Link in Bio or our website: www.glenparkassociation.org
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Glen Park Association is at San Francisco Public Library Glen Park Branch.
3 days ago
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Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library!
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

San Francisco Public Library Arion Press | Artist Books Museum of Craft and Design Rafael Mandelman 🏳️‍🌈 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #InCommunity
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Photos and Fun courtesy of the Glen Park Library! 
It was a great turnout at the Glen Park Library Open House on Saturday May 17th!

Thank you to all who attended and a big thank you to Glen Park Branch Library Manager Darren Heiber and his staff for a fantastic day!! 🙌🏽

@sfpubliclibrary @arionpress @museumofcraftanddesign @rafaelmandelmand8 #glenparklibrary #arionpress #museumofcraftanddesign #glenparksf #sanfrancisco #incommunity
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Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Upper Noe Recreation Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

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