As the only non-profit organization dedicated to restoration & stewardship of San Francisco’s natural heritage, Nature in the City plays a critical role in securing our city’s wildlands for future generations.
With its diverse neighborhood villages and tremendous grassroots energy, San Francisco has unparalleled potential to restore healthy relationships between people and the nature where they live. San Francisco's biodiversity and wildlife habitats are fragmented and severely impacted by invasive plants, insensitive uses, agency neglect, and a lack of awareness.
Kids and adults are increasingly disconnected from nature; global species extinction proceeds at an epic pace.
How you can help save nature in the city:
* Volunteer to do habitat restoration
* Plant a wildlife-friendly backyard
* Advocate that City officials take care of San Francisco's nature and natural areas.
Native wildflowers in the Coast Guard grassland on Yerba Buena Island The Ecology of San FranciscoWild Nature in the City Local Environmental CrisisConsensus has emerged that Earth is warming rapidly toward a potential global climate catastrophe. San Francisco is located in a global biodiversity hotspot, harboring myriad rare and threatened habitats for endangered plants and animals, and the wild nature of San Francisco is experiencing its own environmental crisis:
·The
City's watersheds and biodiversity are fragmented and
severely impacted
by invasive plants,
ecologically insensitive uses, and public and institutional lack of
awareness; Our Local Nature
Imagine the future city of San Francisco when our rare critters and their habitats are conserved for generations within an ecologically sustainable network of restored watersheds and wildlife corridors. Such an ecological future is possible if we evolve a new cultural ecology of local nature stewardship. **************************************************************
Save Our State Parks!!
[For current information and updates, please visit the California State Parks Foundation website!]
To catch up, please check our our newsletter archive, where you will find a number of newsletters and action alerts about the state parks crisis. ******************************************************** UPDATED JUNE 2, 2010
"Earlier this week the Legislative Analyst's Office (LAO) released their Summary of LAO Findings and Recommendations on the 2010-11 Budget, which analyzes the Governor's May Revision and makes recommendations to the legislature on the Governor's budget proposals.
In the report, the LAO:
Recommends that the Legislature not restore funding to $140 million, but instead provide state parks with no more than $118 million. This would be $8 million below the current-year funding level - which the LAO acknowledges will likely result in additional seasonal closures and further reduced services."
Read the entire LAO Findings & Recommendations report here. TAKE ACTION NOW and email your state legislator to support state park funding! Learn more about the State Parks budget crisis and the Governor's budget revision in this San Francisco Chronicle article from May 13.
********************************************************* Update from California State Parks Foundation September 25:
"Moments ago, the Governor's office released a statement on his plan to avoid the full closure of state parks... this is much more political cover than it is an actual restoration of funding for state parks - in fact, it is not at all a restoration of funding. The way he proposes to get $14M in savings without fully closing parks is to partially or seasonally close some parks (which was already part of the plan to generate savings), eliminate major equipment purchases this year (also already on the table), reduce spending on seasonal staff (already on the table), reduce hours of operation at most state parks, and reduce ongoing maintenance.
We all want to see our state parks open, and I know that it's been the efforts of advocates under the SOS campaign that have kept the Governor's feet to the fire since late May. But CSPF isn't fully celebrating this news yet. While the Governor has found a clever way to get political cover on this issue, it's not clear that this plan won't actually leave Californians with just as limited access to their state parks as if they had been fully closed. The 'found money' here is from having less lifeguards on state beaches, not maintaining restrooms, not staffing parks for health and safety standards, etc. And you'll see at the end of the release, a $22M cut in next year's budget is still on the horizon.
So for now, we should all go out to state parks this weekend and appreciate that they're open. After that, back to planning for a long-term solution so we don't keep getting put in this situation."
Read the Governor's press release here.
******************************************************** Update from California State Parks Foundation September 10:
"Yesterday, the State Assembly passed Senate Bill 679 by Senator Lois Wolk (D-Linden), a bill sponsored by CSPF to protect our state park system and ensure that lands used as state parks cannot be used for non-park purposes without providing substitute lands to make Californians' investment in our state parks whole.
SB 679 will now be taken up for a final vote in the State Senate - and we need your help to make sure your senator hears from park supporters (like you!) who want stronger protection for state parks. Now, more than ever, we need to make sure that these places that have been specifically set aside for their natural, cultural or historic value are not made vulnerable to development projects or other proposals that would use parks for non-park purposes.
Your senator's vote is extremely important to ensure the bill's successful passage. Please take a moment to contact your senator and urge them to vote for SB 679 and help protect our park lands from damaging development and infrastructure projects."
************************************************************ Update from Save Our State Parks, August 13:
2009 Save Our State Parks “I ♥ State Parks” Weekends of Action: August 22 – September 7
Park supporters are encouraged to visit the state park of their choice. However, organizations across the state ************************************************************ Update from Save Our State Parks, August 11:
"Today, California Department of Parks and Recreation announced plans to increase day use and camping fees in state parks. As of August 17th gate fees will be increased $2 to $5 in parks where day use fees are charged (current prices range from $6 to $10). Camping fees will increase $10 to $21 a night (reservations made prior to that date will be honored at the lower price). Please read DPR's press release on the fee increases as well as a statement by California State Parks Foundation." *************************************************************** Update from the California State Parks Foundation, July 28:
"Today, the Governor signed a revised Fiscal Year 2009-2010 state budget, based on the package of bills sent to him by the Legislature on July 24. In using his blue-pencil veto authority, the Governor exacted an additional $6.2 million cut to the state park system, bringing the total General Fund cut to $14.2 million. It is expected (and referenced in the Governor’s budget summary) that more than 100 state parks will be closed." Click here to read a statement from the California State Parks Foundation (CSPF) on the Governor’s veto. *************************************************************** Update from the California State Parks Foundation, July 21:
"As you may have heard, last night the Big 5 (Governor Schwarzenegger plus the Democratic and Republican leaders in the State Senate and Assembly) announced they have reached a deal on the state budget. The details are not yet in print, but several sources are confirming that $70 million of the park system's General Fund allocation will be eliminated, with $62 million backfilled by other funding sources on what appears to be a one-time basis.
This leaves the state park system with an $8 million gap, and is expected to result in park closures. At this time, there is not a list of certain closures, we do not know how many or which parks may be closed as a result of the budget deal.
Considering where we started just 8 weeks ago, this outcome is better for state parks than most people could have imagined. We are not finished - the Legislature still needs to approve the budget deal by the end of the week and more details need to come out regarding the parks that will close - but the fact that we're looking at a much more scaled-down version of park cuts than we started with is welcome news. It is certainly a testament to the Save Our State Parks Campaign, the tens of thousands of Californians - like you! - who stood up for their parks, and the efforts of all of us that we've stared down such a draconian proposal.
In terms of next steps, the deal must be agreed to by 2/3 of the Legislature, and they're expected to vote on it on Thursday or Friday. As you can imagine, there are plenty of pieces in this agreement for all sides to hate, but let's hope there is the will to at least get this passed now, to keep the state moving forward.
Thank you for your efforts to help Save Our State Parks, and we will update you once a final state budget is in place."
*************************************************************** Update from the California State Parks Foundation, July 17:
"Just a quick update on Friday afternoon - the Big 5 stalled out yesterday over more issues related to school funding, but are expected to be back into discussions today. It doesn't appear they've gotten to environmental issues yet, including state parks, but rumors are they're supposed to bring those up soon, possibly over the weekend. As I hear more on developments, will share.
The plight of California's state parks have caught the attention of major media outlets outside of California. In case you didn't yet see it, the New York Times posted an editorial earlier this week opposing the state park closures. And across the Atlantic, they're paying attention, too - the UK Guardian also featured California's state park closures in an article this week. Perhaps not the stories we'd like to see about state parks in those areas of the world, but at this point, if they help shame our own Legislature and Governor into doing the right thing, we'll take it!
Finally, Robert Garcia requested The City Project's latest letter be provided to park advocates. Right now, CSPF is not pursuing a legal strategy, as we are focused on directly trying to restore funding for the state park system. But if you have specific questions about the letter, I encourage you to contact Robert directly."
*************************************************************** Update from the California State Parks Foundation, June 29:
Sunday night, the Assembly passed a "revenue neutral" bill that contained several tax measures, including the State Park Access Pass. But, the Governor has already indicated he will veto the bill.
On Monday, the California State Parks Foundation held a display on the Capitol lawn with more than 200 pictures taken during the SOS weekend and got feedback from many legislators that they want to keep state parks open. They also delivered more than 1,649 pages of petitions and 2,400 postcards to each of the "Big 5." The petitions are in addition to the over 157,000 letters and emails sent to legislators asking them to save our state parks!
Please contact the Big 5 and tell them to Save Our State Parks!
*************************************************************** Update from the California State Parks Foundation, June 22:
The Legislature did not take a budget vote today, they may vote up Wednesday, June 24, possibly even later in the week. The State Park Access Pass is still part of the budget proposal, though you've probably seen that opposition from members of the Republican party to tax proposals remains strong. Your help in generating letters, emails and calls to all legislators remains especially important. Their phone numbers, Capitol and district, are listed below.
There were more than 20 events statewide last weekend, for the Save Our State Parks weekend! Pictures are posted online. *************************************************************** Please stay tuned to the Nature in the City website for more updates. Sign up for our newsletter to receive more information and action alerts.
Sacramento Capital Phone: (916) 651-4006 District Phone: (916) 651-1529 District Phone 2: (213) 620-3000
Riverside/San Diego Counties Capital Phone: (916) 651-4036 District Phone: (951) 676-1020 District Phone 2: (619) 596-3136
Los Angeles Capital Phone: (916) 319-2047 District Phone: (323) 937-4747 Central Coast Capital Phone: (916) 319-2033 District Phone: (805) 549-3381
Statewide (916) 445-2841 (559) 445-5295 (213) 897-0322 (951)680-6860 (619) 525-4641 (415) 703-2218
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