Nomore Turf plans for Golden Gate Park

The San Francisco Planning Department is thinking about an appeal from bird lovers that get rid of their original plans. The original plan was to install new artificial turf and lights on four soccer fields. The Audubon Society calls that "a crucial habitat for birds and other critters."

The Audubon Society and other environmental and groups that are in support of preserving the habitat of the birds want a city to conduct an environmental review of the 8.9 million dollar project. This is an important place with grass because there are not many places in San Francisco that have spaces for the birds to rest and eat. The Audubon Society said that if they disagree with the request they would appeal to the board of Supervisors and sue if it is necessary to get their point across of keeping the grass fields.

Even though there are many birds that need this place there are also soccer players who believe there are not enough fields to play soccer. The four soccer fields in Golden Gate Park are used so much that they have to keep one field closed to let the grass grow back. The new turfs would provide lights that could provide much more soccer playing time, but the Audubon Society, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. want people to shut off lights at night during spring and fall migrations because the light confuses the birds migration. Lynes said, ""We've already seen huge declines in our coastal shorebirds," "We have to do what we can to protect what's left.""

I am torn between two sides and I cannot decide which is better. Being a soccer player I believe the lights let us have so much more time to have soccer fields to play, but at the same time I know it would hurt the birds migratory patterns and I don't want the bird population to decline either. The turf fields are nice, but I still prefer the grass fields even though they are much harder to maintain. I think they could have a compromise and have one or two turf fields, and have the other stay grass. I believe everyone has what they believe is important. The habitat for the birds or having people play a sport they love.