SAN FRANCISCO — Next week on Friday, December 18, the Presidio National Trust will open a new trail that connects the park to the San Francisco Bay.
Called the Quartermaster Reach, this tidal marsh is named after the United States Army’s Quartermaster Corps, which had operations in the area back when it was a military post.
The new marsh has seven acres and is located along the “Presidio’s northern shoreline near Crissy Field” with “freshwater stream” from the park’s largest watershed, the Tennessee Hollow, as stated on the Presidio’s website. The Tennessee Hollow flows into Crissy Marsh and eventually connects to the San Francisco Bay.
The Quartermaster Reach is viewed as a “huge milestone in the 20-year effort of the Presidio Trust, the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, and the National Park Service to restore the park’s largest watershed,” according to a press release.
The Presidio was transferred to the National Park Service (NPS) 26 years ago on October 1, 1994.
Two years later in 1996, then-President Bill Clinton signed bipartisan legislation known as the Presidio Trust Act, which formed a new federal agency called the Presidio Trust.
Under this Act, the Presidio Trust would operate 80 percent of the park and the NPS would operate the other 20 percent. In addition, the Trust was mandated to “preserve areas of the Presidio under its jurisdiction and attract non-federal resources to the park to ensure” sustainability “without direct annual taxpayer support,” according to the Trust’s website.
If it fails to do so, the park “would be sold as excess federal property.”
The Presidio became financially self-sufficient in 2013.
The Quartermaster Reach will be located east of the Presidio Tunnel Tops, which is expected to open in October 2021.
