ng relationship with puc and the ridge trail and working on opportunities to make sure that all of the trails are connecting. we find that the [inaudible] ridge in particular would offer access between the other trails and support the connections down to the [inaudible] estate and the san andreas connection and we support puc management in this proposal. we do think there are opportunities for reasonable access and making sure that we're providing the connectivity to public open space. thank you. >> thank you very much. and mr. lef itd thank you. i think we have supervisor pine up next if mr. pine is here. supervisor pine welcome. >> thank you. good afternoon supervisor. my name is dave pine. i'm the supervisor representing district 1 which includes many communities that abut the sf puc lands and

supervisor wiener i am no longer the president. we have a rotation system in san mateo county so i am back to a secondary seat. i have lived in san mateo county for 30 years now and my first exposure to this watershed lands was a few years ago when my son went on a cub scout tour in this area and somehow ranged special permission and it is spectacular. i urge you to get out there if you haven't. it's an incredible resource and one that i strongly believe that the public should have extra access to and that's what brings me here today is that there is a real shortage of open space in the northern part of san mateo county. when you go south of 92 you have the midpeninsula open space land, a lot of county parks, and of course the coast side has tremendous opportunities for outdoor

activities including the san pedro valley park which we operate and the referenced [inaudible]. but when you get to the north county there aren't as many opportunities and this area really is one of the most densest populateed in our county, and also has a lot more folks have socio-economic challenges that need opportunities to get outside so the idea of expanding access is one that i just think makes tremendous sense. i am supportive of the puc proposal. i had the opportunity to meet with mr. ramirez who has done some terrific work on the topic and each of the outlines are good ones. i think the hard part is the east-west connection in the whitening trail. i think there's a foundation in place to

make that happen but the important thing is we don't want to spend 13 years making that happen because last time we addressed this issue was 2002 and it was a tough debate about opening access at all that was done and the sf puc now has some great proposals for expanding it so when we go to the next phase let's not take 13 years to get there. finally two final points i think there's a tremendous opportunity for collaboration in this effort. today on the peninsula there's a group called the peninsula park working group that brings together the leaders of [inaudible] puc, our park system, coastal conservancy and others and they're a key group to work on the connector and finally i

think we all understand how environmentally sensitive the lands are but i think we can balance the needs of access and environmental preservation. i had the opportunity to serve on the committee for green hills and on this group and the sierra club and i think they will raise concerns and we need to hear those but i think we can make this work and meet these objectives of access and environmental protection. i also should mention that our parks -- park director is here and can answer other questions if you have them. marlene is a terrific leader in the peninsula. we're happy to have her and i think she would be involved in the east west trail discussions as we go forward. all right. thank you. >> supervisor pine. thank you very much. thank you for coming. that's all i have for

speakers presenting on the plans. i do have a list of questions i wanted to go through. mostly are for the public utilities commission so if mr. rich i, mr. ramirez -- probably mr. ramirez is available to answer some of these, about 10 of them all together. i might not go through all of them. i guess the first is like if you can go into a little more detail about conservation especially of sensitive habitats that are there? what are the plans to limit invasive plants? overall what are the most sensitive areas that you're seeing? >> wow. i will try to be very brief. so our group within the organization we manage the property we own and do all of the environmental compliance for the water supply system and the activities and our staff deal with this everyday. and steve can speak to some of the details how they affect our ability to

operate the reservoirs after the construction and part of the projects as part of the capital program. long story short we have a lot of species that are state and federally listed as endangered or threatened and in a few cases only on our property. we have the ones that most people have heard about, red leg red legged frog and the garden snake and hard to -- [inaudible] and marlene can talk about. we have mirabel [inaudible] and a rare bird and spend the day at sea and have others and we closely monitor the population and share the data especially in santa cruz

and about the plants and a lot has been carved out to mitigate for the program so we have polygonos the property that are going to be managed in perpetuity to meet specific standards and we have to have money set aside to do that in an endowment and in the city treasury and this is relatively new for state and federal compliance with regulations and eventually there will be a third party that holds easements over the property and our staff has the obligation to monitor those sites forever into the future and so it's a very tricky thing to navigate but we do it on a regular basis and these things on the trails are not insurmountable but takes time and additional funding and make a change in the design to navigate those institutional hurdles but i know a lot of folks at the resource agency are concerned as well about the potential change always in the management and they made us

aware of those concerns and things that we have to work through. >> great. and so is there old growth forest in the area? there is. >> the watershed looks very different from what it was. if you look at the old photos when the city purchased the property a lot was grass land. many came in over time. we have plants and trees that were planted when owned privately and we're taking some of the trees out to restore the grass lands and some of the important fanna and flora that are there and encroached upon by the trees themselves. we have sudden oak death on the watershed and somebody mentioned earlier and a big problem and dead trees and oaks and at the ridge on the south end. we did our best to clkt with all of the -- collaborate with all of the researchers in california. we tried in some cases

experimental things to get trees that are infected and unfortunately that didn't work and we have to wrestle with that and protect the watershed and prevent we hope a catastrophic fire. >> does the puc have any kind of a trail stewardship program? are you envisioning already one at this point and what does it look like? >> i think the dosein program is part of that and they're part of the [inaudible] trail and in a nutshell we have a staff person who is a capable person who has been with us for a long time. he's the point person for this. his job is train them and they run the trail system. they go online and i am running a program this saturday and it's a bike trip or hike trip and

people sign up for it and the folks that sign up have to be in the dosen and that's part of that and we want to expand that and even though we're going to a permit system we want them to have a role and whether they're on the property everyday and walking the length of the trail, being able to answer questions at locations. there are different parks that have volunteers there on their own time and easily identified and basically an extension of the staff and we want to do something like that so we're looking to expand that. >> i went to another area recently and there are dosens there. great. and there are questions whether it's possible to implement the permit program earlier than we're planning have access there and rather than through a dosen and do the actual permit very soon. is that public? >> i think the proposal described to me is if we were to

delay the construction for some reason can we jump to the change in the permit system? >> we're hoping to do it in one system to get approval for everything. that is one option. the permit system would be on the puc website so we would need to make a change to be ready and physically change on the it side to be ready so i hope we're not delayed on construction and everything is timed to happen in 2017 but if we get hung up we're working in parallel right now on the details website and the documents and there is an option to change it that if we're not ready to go with the southern extension. >> it's my hope even earlier in terms of starting the permit program. that would be i think the intent of a lot and open up the watershed as well. the

other question i have related to that or a statement about the permit system is that it should be educational to establish a permit. i think people should also get a sense as they're going through the permit process what is there -- they're learning what is there before they get there and anticipate that and be part of their intention of protecting that as well while they're accessing it. >> absolutely and one example is there is no water at the moment and so rain, sufficient water to navigate a very long rigorous hike is a very important thing and we want everyone to get the information on the front end so they're prepared. >> okay great. i do have other questions and i can take those off line and i know we have a hearing coming up and there are people for that and i have a number of speakers for this card and i think the questions raised on public comment for this item i want to mark them and come back to you to get a response and we're looping people in with that

response afterward. >> absolutely. >> okay great. so i have a number of cards that i will call up. if you can come up -- >> supervisor avalos before you start to the speakers in this next part on item two there's about 20 speakers. we're going to limit the speaking to two minutes per person. soft buzzer goes off 30 seconds bferdz but if you can keep the comments short. we may lose our quorum for the next hearing we're holding afterwards so it's important to move through the public testimony as quickly as possible. >> and i might be able to switch my schedule around and stay and be a member for the next item as well so i will work on that at the same time so let's go to the list of cards that we have. if you can come up in the order your name is called and it can line up along the windows and starting before the tv by the windows would be

great. supervisor pine we already had you but if you want to come for public comment you're welcome. [calling speaker name s]. >> first let me thank the board and all of you for being here on this issue. the project that the puc i am a member of the open -- sf watershed group so this is something i have been working on for some time now. the projects that the puc outlined today i think are wonderful steps in the right direction and i will speak and my group will speak and we all support these projects and

these take san francisco closer to the successful and responsible policies of peers in the area and marin and east bay that successfully managed their watersheds and provides much more access than we have right now in the peninsula watershed while maintaining the quality of the water and the integrity of the environment. let me say also i think going forward we need to have a focus on transparency and public input into the planning process. this -- today to my knowledge is the first time that all of the projects have been presented to the public in one place and i think even though many projects have been in the works for many years, probably a majority of san francisco residents have no idea that these projects exist so i think that is something we should keep in mind going forward and let me say hopefully i think the switch from the

dosen lead program to the permit system is especially important. by all accounts the tours are great but i will say if you're a san francisco resident that doesn't own a car it's nearly impossible to take advantage of the tours. they all begin at the southern end of the trail, the farthest side from san francisco on highway 92 and those without cars and this will allow us to treasure the resource and take care of it. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker. >> hello. i am jason beck and part of the a group of mountain bike enthusiasts and i want to say personally thank you to the supervisors for moving this forward and thank you to the puc. i guess i want to focus on what an amazing opportunity we have here. we're blessed to live where we are. we're blessed to have these opportunities available and

open up more space for recreation and it's amazing and thank you for bringing this forward and i want you move forward and especially with the sense of urgency that was pointed out so thank you. >> thank you. >> my name is iric miester and member of the open watershed movement. i want to thank you for hearing this. my end goal in this regard i am a strong proponent of the mental and physical benefits of getting outdoors. i'm a marine corps veteran and a member of the wounded warrior project and i can speak to the benefit of having open space and unrestricted access to that open space. while i appreciate the dosen lead program that establish stalled for the san francisco watershed more definitely needs to be done.

and the public needs to feel that they have unrestricted access and i completely understand and echo some of the concerns about responsible planning and responsible use of this land and absolutely think that it should be done in responsible and strategic matter that allows for a balance of both sides but we absolutely need more access open to the san francisco watershed. thank you. >> thank you. before the next speaker i will call a few more cards. [calling speaker names] and i think we have him already. next speaker please. >> good afternoon supervisors. my name is mike ferrara. i'm the conservation chair of the loma prieta chapter of the sierra club and a member of the executive committee, and as some

of you may know this project if we call it a project crosses two chapters of the sierra club chapter and the san francisco bay bay chapter and the loma prieta chapter and i am chosen to say the chapters of are one mind and extremely doubtful in going away from the dosen program. we supported it in 2002. and thought it was an excellent idea. we do recall it was the preferred alternative at that time and i was actually on a planning commission on city council at that time and i thought the decision of the board of supervisors was well considered to take the preferred alternative. we don't see any really good reason to get away from that. we could see possibly expanding it, and we're

an environmental organization. john gear was one of our founders and the whole concept of opening up wild places for recreation cuts across the grain. >> >> we think you need to be careful and did a wonderful job with the dosen program and should be commended for that and we hope the pressures to go away from that could be released. we will now get more involved in this. we haven't been involved up to this point. it's our intention to do so in the future because there's a lot here to be saved. thank you. >> thank you very much. next speaker please. >> my name is ray hosher and a former bicycle columnists for the san francisco chronicle and author of bay area bike roads"

. i have been writing about the area in discussion for 30 plus years and it's given me a lot of inspiration. i wrote this magazine adventure rides in santa cruz mountains, and it's something that i think we need to think about for opening up all space possible. there's a concept called freedom to roam. if you look it up in wikipedia there is a lot of discussion about it and it says we want to give access to everything, all land as much as possible and i think that's the way it should go. consider the marin marin municipal water district. they allow extensive recreation. they're just to the north of us. liberal minded just like san francisco. and finally i just want to say that if you don't think -- if you think there is

plenty of open space already try visiting the sawyer camp trail on a weekend. and one last thing i'm going to do another addition of this. it's called adventure rides downtown san francisco. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> hello. my name is andy house and i started a facebook page called open sf watershed. here in the san francisco bay bay we come from -- bay area we come from diverse backgrounds and diverse people and have different stories from our parents and ancestors but what joins us together and what is rarely thought of as a political thing is history, and within the san francisco watershed lies

lake po seatos and that most of the public don't know exists. this was the first potable water source for san francisco. this building wouldn't be here if that lake wasn't there and [inaudible] to the mountain and [inaudible] red road flume when san francisco was purchasing water by the barrel for gold so within that valley lies the lake and stone dam and great beautiful places that people don't know exists but are important to the history to the city and all of the great rock and roll out of the city and the things that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for the lakes and with history i would like to thank the bay area ridge council for the vision to see that the stewardship of people to manage

land responsibly is tied to their emotional ownership of that land in the history of it. thank you. >> thank you very much. before the next speaker a few more cards. [calling speaker names] >> thanks supervisors. i want to thank you for this hearing and also thank supervisor avalos and wiener for their leadership on this issue. my name is sasha mcgee and a member of the san francisco urban riders. i want to under line the urgency that supervisor avalos is giving this issue. this is land that people are crying out for. san francisco and our neighbors to the south really have limited recreational opportunities within an easy bike ride or quick transit ride of the city and so i think this is a great opportunity to open that up. i always want to address

supervisor avalos' question around trail stewardship. off road cyclists in san francisco have put in thousands of hours of construction and hundreds of hours and creating world class trails for hiking and cycling around san francisco is an opportunity that we should not pass by. thank you. >> thank you. next speaker please. >> i am speaking for the local chapter of the california native plant society that historically been opposed to increased access of the watershed. we continue to support of dosen lead walks. we think that is the way to go. there are two commoditys in the world that focused world attention on: oil and water.

the quantity and quality of water is a great problem as you know. many nations are in serious trouble because of this. one of those was south south africa which has a government lead program, a lot of funding for control of invasive plant thases are drieg up their streams. volunteers like thousands of people. we don't have that kind of support, but the watershed does need it. this is not a park. people need to understand that. it is not a park. it's a watershed and it must be protected. this is not an opportune time for people to be pressing for greater access with the dry years we're experiencing. san francisco itself has rows of trees that

are dying now from lack of water, and they have not faced up to this problem but they had better soon. we were lucky in 2014. we will not be so lucky this year. we have six, seven, eight months of dry weather ahead of us. humans -- we mess things up. we spread weeds mostly, annual weeds which add to the fuel load. we bring in weeds and envissive organisms and pathogens on boots and clothing. is that it? >> that's it. thank you. next speaker please. >> hello. my name is vern smith. i work for the bay area ridge area council and speaking on behalf of council today. we have other volunteers and

active members and board members in the audience and i will call one out in a moment. the bay area ridge trail's mission is create a 500-mile trail along the entire bay area open to everyone on the ridge lines with views of san francisco bay. i think it's probably obvious to you why we worked for many years and instrumental in getting the ridge trail -- that portion of the ridge trail open in the watershed back in 2003. the development of that trail was partially funded by a grant -- a partner grant that the ridge trail council operates with the coastal conservancy. the funding for the most recent ridge trail work on the watershed, the upper crystal springs trail -- that's the extension that tim talked

about, planning and funding was by those groups secured for the puc. the ridge trail idea goes back to the 30's. part of the trail in the san francisco watershed were identified as part of the california riding and hiking trail route back in the 30's and 40's when the state adopted that, so that is in fact the sawyer camp trail is part of that trail. most recently i want to point out some things that we have accomplished right in the vicinity including last year the ridge trail council secured a trail easement from the skyline memorial park for the ridge trail on portion of the kay hill ridge road and that easement we will transfer to puc as part of this ongoing planning

process. we support liberalizing access to the ridge trail through the puc -- >> that was your time. >> and i would like to invite you to take one of the tours. bob if you could hol up your hands -- >> could you finish up. we have another hearing as well. next speaker please. >> hello. i am [inaudible] and cyclists for sf urban riders and our group works to promote cycling and everyone that can enjoy and since we live in this area we drive cars to search out opportunities and. we want to encourage more [inaudible] (low audio) and do this in participating in habitat trails