McLaren Park Friends and Neighbors,

Happy Spring to you all! The last few months we’ve all been distracted by the November elections and then the winter holidays, but now we’re back to the business of Keeping McLaren Wild. We weren’t in complete hibernation, though:

Celebrate our achievements!

Thanks to your awe-inspiring efforts, we packed the house to overflowing at the McLaren Park disc golf meeting last April, we collected just over 3000 petition signatures to show city officials your commitment to preserving the unique natural areas of McLaren Park, and we currently have over 1000 names of McLaren Park's friends and neighbors on our email blast list.  Our Sunshine Ordinance document requests and other research convinced the Park, Recreation, and Open Space Advisory Committee (PROSAC) to call for Rec& Park Commission hearings on the issue, and Commission President Mark Buell consequently called for further hearings. 

There is still much to do before we can be sure of saving McLaren Park's living history, but ALL of you who pitched in to our efforts last year should give yourselves a big attagirl or attaboy for making a real difference in our community. No doubt about it, folks in City Hall and McLaren Lodge have heard our concerns and know that we are watching the issue very closely.

Check out our savvy new website! 

Learn about the park’s history, hear friends of the park express their passion for McLaren and its unique open spaces, explore the flora and fauna found in the park, view photographs of environmental damage in Golden Gate Park’s disc golf course, see what other community groups say about disc golf, study the City’s own plans for conserving Natural Areas. There’s plenty more that we’ll feature in future email blasts but for now just go and explore and let us know what you think.

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Welcome our new District 10 Supervisor Malia Cohen!

Several Save McLaren Park representatives met with Supervisor Cohen at City Hall on Monday morning, February 28.   We spent almost an hour discussing various facets of McLaren’s history, needs, and future.  Growing up in the Portola district, Supervisor Cohen spent some time in McLaren Park. She is eager to improve facilities and increase staffing levels in the park, and is very supportive of keeping open space accessible to all. 

We appreciate the time and considerable interest the Supervisor has already given to our concerns, and we are excited to see such an energetic, talented, and personable public servant pick up the D10 mantle. Practically all of McLaren Park resides within District 10. We wish her great luck with her new responsibilities.

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Keeping in touch with other groups and officials!

We look forward to meeting with city officials, environmental experts, and anyone else who can help us understand and protect this special piece of our natural heritage. If you would like a presentation to your community group or organization about McLaren Park's unique open spaces, please let us know.

• We had a very pleasant 15-minute conference with California State Senator (and SF mayoral candidate) Leland Yee on Friday, February 25. Senator Yee also seemed supportive of maintaining our Natural Areas and open space, and was quite interested to hear about our organizing successes last year. 

• Several SMP volunteers attended the first two meetings of the McLaren Park Collaborative, which is an exciting new effort to bring together all of the various community groups that have an interest in McLaren Park. The goal is to improve communication between groups and to pool our talents and energies so that we can accomplish more than the various individual groups might. The Collaborative will focus on a variety of issues including safety, infrastructure, maintenance, master planning, environment, PR and education. The next meeting is scheduled for March 23rd at a venue TBA in Visitation Valley. To learn more about the collaborative and to join their facebook group, go to www.facebook.com/pages/McLaren-Park-Collaborative.

• The venerable Franco Mancini of Friends of McLaren Park was guest of honor at our first 2011 Coordinating Committee meeting. Franco grew up literally in the park, as a young boy he delivered newspapers to some of the last homes and farms there.  He shared many stories from his life in and around McLaren, and we enjoyed a wide-ranging discussion of what the future might hold for the park.

• At the District 11 Council Meeting last September, Save McLaren Park presented an informative slide show with photos of McLaren, as well as various graphic representations of our concerns. Jeffery Bowling of the SF Disc Golf Club was also present and presented his side of the story.

• We met with Peter Brastow of Nature In The City to discuss the disc golf proposal's various environmental impacts, and to learn more about stewardship, education, and habitat restoration programs in McLaren Park and beyond.

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Fill up on McLaren hotcakes...

Many of us have enjoyed Help McLaren Park's Pancake Breakfasts, which raise funds for information kiosks, renovated playground areas, and other improvements to McLaren's basic infrastructure. In fact, there's another one coming up this Sunday morning, March 6, from 9am - noon at the Sutter Roundhouse near Yale and Wayland Streets.  So stop by to meet your neighbors and other park friends, and have a hearty breakfast for only $10.

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Take a walk on McLaren's wild side...

Hike the "amazing mile" with SMP on Sunday, March 13th.  Have you ever wondered where those narrow dirt trails lead to south of Mansell or into the woods near the picnic areas?  Join Save McLaren Park volunteer Tom Scott for a guided tour of some of the most beautiful trails you've possibly never seen. The hike is closer to a mile and a half in length and will lead through thick woods and open spaces that offer some of the most spectacular views in San Francisco. Meet at the picnic tables near the Upper Reservoir (dog pond) at 10:30am. The hike is considered moderate and will include some steep hills. We will return to the upper dog pond by about noon. Wear good walking shoes.

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March showers bring McLaren wildflowers...

McLaren Park is green, green, green from all the rain, rain, rain -- tree buds are starting to pop, and prime wildflower season is right around the corner. We know there are squadrons of you shutterbugs that roam McLaren. So take note of your best wildflower shots over the next few weeks, ID them as best as you can, including where the photo was taken (one of our maps may be helpful), and soon we'll tell you how to submit them so we can put up a clickable image map of them all. Time to dig out those macro lenses...

Help us Keep McLaren Wild!