08/20/2026
The Presidio’s forest didn’t happen by accident.
In the late 1800s, Army leaders looked across a landscape of sand dunes and open hills and imagined something completely different. A park-like forest that would protect the military post, stabilize the dunes, and transform the southern edge of San Francisco.
Over the following decades, hundreds of thousands of trees were planted. The Monterey pines, cypress, and eucalyptus that frame many of the golf holes are part of that remarkable vision.
Without that ambitious project, Presidio Golf Course would look nothing like it does today.
Next: How golf came to the Presidio in 1895.
A Vision for the Presidio
Believe it or not, the Presidio wasn’t always a forest.
In the late 1800s, much of the landscape was made up of open sand dunes, grass-covered hills, and pasture.
In 1878, Army engineer Major William A. Jones proposed an ambitious plan to transform it into a vast, park-like forest, protecting the military post from wind, and reshaping the landscape for generations to come.
Soldiers, civilians, and even local schoolchildren helped plant trees across the Presidio. More than 300,000 trees transformed the windswept landscape into the forest we recognize today.
Most of the iconic species weren’t native.
The Army intentionally planted:
• Monterey Pine
• Monterey Cypress
• Eucalyptus
• Coast Redwood
• Acacia
Without this forest...
There might never have been Presidio Golf Course as we know it.
Those tree-lined fairways exist because of one of the largest landscape transformations in San Francisco history.
Next: How golf arrived at the Presidio in 1895.
