ANNOUNCEMENT

Updated Document: Urban Bird Refuge Map (July 2014)

Staff Contact: Andrew Perry, andrew.perry@sfgov.org

Although skyscrapers and other glassy towers are usually thought of as the main culprits behind bird collisions, a recent study shows that collisions may be more or less split evenly between low-rise towers and smaller residential homes, with skyscrapers accounting for less than 1% of all collisions. If you’ve experienced a bird collision with your home in the past, we’re looking for your help!

Between now and the end of November, SF residents can volunteer in the Department’s Bird Friendly Monitoring and Certification Program, an effort in attempt to better understand bird collisions in residential areas of the city. To encourage participation near Urban Bird Refuges, the Planning Department has sent out a postcard mailing to over 1000 residents near Mount Davidson and West Portal, hoping to make it the most bird-friendly area in the city. Residents near Lake Merced, Golden Gate Park, the Presidio, and elsewhere shouldn’t feel left out though – we’d love to see you all get involved and get out and monitor for the birds!

Participation is very simple and open to any resident throughout the City, especially for homes near large parks or Urban Bird Refuges.* The monitoring program will focus on collecting data with one-time questions about the building and its potential hazards. Then on a weekly basis, participants will monitor the perimeter of their building, and especially under windows, for dead and injured birds. This activity will run during migration season, which for the fall runs through the end of November, picking up again in the spring. Monitoring data can be submitted at www.sf-planning.org/birdmonitor.

Participating residents that can demonstrate that their building contains hazardous windows or other hazardous glazing elements may be eligible to receive some financial assistance from the Planning Department for window treatments. Eligibility for assistance and treatments will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis. Additionally, all participants will be entered into a raffle, based on the number of monitoring entries submitted. Prizes include museum passes and guided birding tours, with more still to come!

Do you live near an Urban Bird Refuge? Or, are you interested in participating in the program? Let us know! Contact Andrew Perry.

To learn more about the program, or to subscribe to receive email updates, visit www.sf-planning.org/birdsafe.

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*Urban Refuge Map

In 2011, the Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance requiring bird-safe building treatments for certain building types when doing new construction, additions, or window replacements. More information on Section 139 of the San Francisco Planning Code and Standards for Bird-Safe buildings can be found here.

While free-standing glass hazards are regulated citywide under the ordinance, the bulk of the requirements are triggered when a project is inside of, or within 300 feet of an Urban Bird Refuge. An Urban Bird Refuge is defined as “open spaces two acres and larger dominated by vegetation, including vegetated landscaping, forest, meadows, grassland, or wetlands, or open water.”

City open spaces were analyzed for tree canopy cover, other vegetation, and the ability to provide a diversity of habitat options. Supplementing this analysis with visual surveys and communications with the local birding community, open spaces were then grouped based on their habitat quality. From this analysis, the Planning Department is updating the Urban Bird Refuge map in three ways:

1. High-quality open spaces that meet the above definition, but were not part of the initial map, are now included as Urban Bird Refuge. Additions include linear open spaces along Sunset Parkway, Park Presidio Blvd., and Brotherhood Way, as well as Levi’s Plaza and Sue Bierman Park along the Embarcadero, and Adam Rodgers Park in the Bayview to name a few.
2. The map now includes high-quality open spaces that are individually over 1 acre in size, but are adjacent to other existing Urban Bird Refuges, and thus function as a single open space area. Only a few areas meet this criteria – Sydney Walton Square along the Embarcadero, Portola Open Space along Clipper Terrace, the Stanford Heights Reservoir, Dorothy Erskine Park, and Quesada Street Park.
3. A tree canopy analysis was conducted for the whole city, and contiguous areas of dense canopy over 2 acres are also now considered Urban Bird Refuge. These areas are also adjacent to existing Refuge areas, and so function as continuous habitat.

Finally, low-quality habitat open spaces included in the original Urban Bird Refuge map have now been removed. Three areas fell into this category – a large portion of Treasure Island, West Sunset Playground, and City College of San Francisco’s campus.

Together, all of these changes represent a net addition of 743 acres to the Urban Bird Refuge zone.