SMC Parks Removing Invasives on San Bruno Mountain

Before-After of vegetation management work at San Bruno Mountain, for the benefit of grassland & butterfly habitat. The target for this work was scrub – you can see that many of the scattered shrubs were removed in the after photo, and the treatment effort involved the use of herbicide to prevent the shrubs from growing back.

The San Mateo County Parks Department has been monitoring the area on San Bruno Mountain that burned last fall.  Since that area was high quality grassland, which is prime butterfly habitat, they hired contractors to treat the invasive plants that sprung up following the fire.  They also had contractors treating areas with invasions of fennel this spring, to improve butterfly habitat and native species cover in these areas.

For the work on San Bruno Mountain, herbicide may be applied in small and limited duration, when wind and weather conditions allow, in a strategic effort to remove these targeted invasive plants. The contractors follow strict guidelines, and use a focused spot spray application of the target species, not broadcast spraying.  Efforts to remove invasive species throughout San Bruno Mountain greatly benefit the grassland habitat, improve native diversity, and increase opportunities for butterfly host plants like lupine to thrive and expand.

Please be advised that all San Mateo County Parks, including San Bruno Mountain, are currently closed to the public to slow the spread of COVID-19. For updates on when the park will reopen, please visit https://parks.smcgov.org/.