Background

The Presidio's use as a former military post dates back to 1776. The original landscape was a mosaic of rolling hills, tidal marsh, dunes, and coastal bluffs covered with grasses and shrub vegetation. Native trees (oaks and willows) grew in valleys along two creeks and a lake and on leeward hillsides. Long before European occupancy, Native Americans visited the area to collect acorns and shellfish and gather reeds for basketmaking. Spanish soldiers and settlers cut trees for firewood and grazed cattle and horses on the land. The U.S. Army fortified the post beginning in the 1850s with the influx from the Gold Rush, and then, during the Civil War, created a central parade ground, rows of barracks for enlisted men, and an "officers' row." The Presidio was landscaped with ornamental trees and flowers, but the post remained barren and windswept in the eyes of the soldiers stationed there.

In 1883, Major William A. Jones created a plan to transform the Presidio into a parklike, forested reserve. His plan was influenced by noted landscape architects Andrew Jackson Downing and Frederick Law Olmsted, and may have been modeled on experiments in planting and vegetation choice at Golden Gate Park. Major General Irwin MacDowell, who was Major Jones' commanding officer, served on the San Francisco Park Commission. The ties between the afforestation of Golden Gate Park and the Presidio were formed as a result of Major General MacDowell's influence. Trees were planted to stabilize dunes, abate severe erosion, and act as a windbreak. The forest was also planted as a physical manifestation of the changing role of the U.S. Army in the late nineteenth century—from frontier fighters to an institution with international stature, and as a means to impress local residents that the Army would retain its presence in San Francisco. By the end of the century, nearly 450,000 trees had been planted.

During the post-Cold-War effort to reduce the number of military bases nationwide, the Presidio was turned over to the National Park Service in 1994 to be managed as a portion of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Presidio Trust was established legislatively in 1996 as an independent federal agency to co-manage the Presidio, with a board appointed directly by the president of the United States and comprised of individuals representing a variety of interests, including historic preservation, cultural programming, education, and the environment. The Secretary of the Interior or a designee is also a board member. Activities and management by the trust are governed to a large extent by its financial mandate of self-sufficiency. The trust is responsible for managing the interior 80 percent of the Presidio's 1,480 acres, including nearly all of the historic structures. The National Park Service manages the outer 20 percent, including the coastal areas.

Management of the Presidio engenders intense public interest from many sources, including the surrounding community, local environmental organizations, and the nonprofit Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy. Formed in 1981, the conservancy works cooperatively with the National Park Service to protect the Presidio, Muir Woods, the Marin Headlands, Alcatraz, and the Point Bonita Lighthouse.