California U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi joined hundreds of Presidio Trust members and national park rangers this week, braving a rare San Francisco heat wave to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Presidio national park.
The Presidio Trust is a federal agency that aims to preserve the Presidio, a green expanse that sits atop the northern tip of San Francisco, overlooking the Golden Gate Bridge. Thirty years ago, Pelosi helped lead the creation of a national park on the former military post.
“It’s easy to forget that the Presidio’s transformation from an Army post to a national park site was not easy or certain,” said Mark Buell, chair of the Presidio Trust Board of Directors.
In 1776, Spanish expeditions colonized the area and established a “presidio,” which translates to “military garrison,” at the entrance to the San Francisco Bay. For the next 218 years, the site served as a military post. The U.S. Army took control of the base in 1846 after 24 years of Mexican rule in Alta California.
In 1989, the U.S. Department of Defense announced that it planned on closing the Presidio as a military installation. This sparked debate about the area’s future.
“The army said they were going to sell the land within a billion dollars (sic) and use the money to move troops all over the country,” Pelosi said. “This is nature and this is what we will have here. You’re not selling.”
On Oct. 1, 1994, the Presidio joined the national park system after the Army lowered its flag for the last time the day before.
“The beauty of the Presidio is a tribute to more than two centuries of military history and pride,” Buell said. “This Army post has sheltered within its boundaries an abundance of resources, historic buildings, rare native ecosystems and it’s stately planted forest.”
Two years later, Pelosi spearheaded bi-partisan legislation to establish a partnership of the Presidio Trust, the National Park Service and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy as an agency to manage the conservation, funding and transformation of the site as a park.
“Nancy Pelosi, understanding the priceless value of the Presidio as a park, stepped up to lead the charge and to talk about the partnership she created and what it meant,” Buell said.
While Pelosi was serving in her second term as Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, she helped secure a $200 million investment to improve the park’s infrastructure as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The funds are being used to replace the Army-era power grid with more energy efficient electricity and brand-new power lines.
Healing relationship with nature
Tuesday was also the hottest day of the year so far in the city, with temperatures nearing 90 degrees even at coast-side spots like the Presidio. The heat was a stark reminder of climate change and the need for sprawling green spaces like the Presidio.
Favianna Rodriguez, a local artist and activist, emphasized how the park is a critical preservation of nature within San Francisco’s urban environment.
“We are in a moment of climate crisis … our friends in the Southeast are experiencing right now the tragedy of what it has meant for our governments to not move towards solutions fast enough,” she said while referencing Hurricane Helene, a tropical storm that began ravaging Southeastern portions of the U.S. last week.
“I grew up just across the way in Oakland … in a community that isn’t ready to withstand the impacts of extreme heat because of zoning laws that left us without trees,” Rodriguez said. “This is precisely why we need parks because national parks like this that are in cities allow for us to heal our relationship to nature.”
