News
Frog Sightings
From Jim McKissock
The Pacific Chorus frogs are popping up again! Local naturalist Josiah Clark said he heard the frogs calling out at Crissy Field just last week. "It sounds like fifty calling out there," he proclaimed, saying he could hear them a hundred yards away. This is the second self sustaining population in the city!
Mountain Lake Needs Cleanup
San Francisco Examiner
The reportedly slow response to cleaning up one of San Francisco’s last remaining natural lakes in the idyllic Presidio is drawing criticism by a supervisor who now wants signs installed alerting passers-by to the dangers.
A 2000 study by students on pollen levels in the area led to the discovery of “high concentrations of lead” and pesticides in Mountain Lake, according to Doug Kern, who sits on the Presidio Restoration Advisory Board.
Click here to read the full article.
Audubon Richardson Bay Job Opening
The Audubon Richardson Bay is seeking an Ecologist who will be responsible for working with public and private partners to oversee all restoration and monitoring activities for Richardson Bay. In addition, the Ecologist will work with partners to identify and implement additional restoration projects around San Francisco Bay, and seek ways to engage Audubon chapters in these projects. To read the full job description, click here (PDF).
New Yerba Buena Island Web Page
Nature in the City recently added a new page to our Local Ecology section, featuring Yerba Buena Island - one of our community stewardship projects. Please take a look to learn more about the island's history, ecology and more!
While you're at www.natureinthecity.org give us some feedback! We're in the process of a major overhaul and we would love to hear what you like and dislike. We're trying to make our new website more user friendly and an even better portal to nature where you live.
Make a poster featuring one of the 33 local endangered species in the Golden Gate National Parks to be displayed at Earth Day events at Crissy Field, McLaren Park and other public locations. All submissions receive a free eco-passport to the Earth Stroll adventure at Crissy Field. Grand prize: $50 program certificates to the Crissy Field Center! For more information click here.
Check out Your TV 20 for a brief, whimsical interview with Brent Plater, the mastermind behind the Golden Gate National Recreation Area Endangered Species BIG YEAR project.
The International Ecocity World Summit 2008 is convening April 22-26 2008 in San Francisco. The conference will focus on key actions that cities and citizens can take to rebuild our habitats (cities) to be in balance with living systems (nature) and in the process slow down and even reverse global warming and the effects thereof.
Would you like to help produce the conference? Your participation will play a key role in providing attendees with a positive experience and ensuring the conference runs in an organized fashion. The work exchange program is $50 and includes your lunches and an all-access pass to all the conference. If you are interested, please contact Matt Gunderson as soon as possible - the deadline for work exchange applications is March 15th.
Volunteer Opportunities
For more information, contact info, and directions to natural areas go to the Community Calendar on the Nature in the City website.
Wednesday March 12
Presidio Park Stewards at Wherry Dunes
Presidio Nursery
CNPS at Bayview
Thursday March 13
Crissy Field Landscape
Lands End Stewardship
Friday March 14
Presidio Plant Patrol at Battery Crosby
Saturday March 15
Friends of Glen Canyon
Presidio Park Stewards at Dragonfly Creek
Fort Funston Nursery
Friends of Shields/ Rocky Orizaba Outcrop
Friends of Brooks Parks
Lands End Stewards
Presidio Nursery
Sunday March 16
Bernal Hilltop Native Grassland
San Bruno Mountain
More Eco News and Events
ACT locally, ADVOCATE globally
Grass Makes Better Ethanol than Corn Does
Scientific American
Farmers in Nebraska and the Dakotas brought the U.S. closer to becoming a biofuel economy, planting huge tracts of land for the first time with switchgrass—a native North American perennial grass (Panicum virgatum) that often grows on the borders of cropland naturally—and proving that it can deliver more than five times more energy than it takes to grow it...
Yields from a grass that only needs to be planted once would deliver an average of 13.1 megajoules of energy as ethanol for every megajoule of petroleum consumed—in the form of nitrogen fertilizers or diesel for tractors—growing them. "It's a prediction because right now there are no biorefineries built that handle cellulosic material" like that which switchgrass provides, Vogel notes. "We're pretty confident the ethanol yield is pretty close." This means that switchgrass ethanol delivers 540 percent of the energy used to produce it, compared with just roughly 25 percent more energy returned by corn-based ethanol according to the most optimistic studies.
To read the full article, click here.
First Ever Photo of Sierra Wolverine
Seattle Post Intelligencer
A research project aimed at martens has turned up a bigger prize: a picture of a wolverine, an elusive animal scientists feared may have been driven out of the Sierra Nevada long ago by human activity.
The discovery could affect land-use decisions if the wolverine is declared an endangered species, a step the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is considering, although the animals typically live at high elevations where there is limited development.
Read the full article here.
Hunters Point Shipyard/ Candlestick Point Workshops
Saturday, March 15
10 am - 12 pm
Bret Harte Elementary
1035 Gilman Ave
Monday, March 17
6 pm - 8 pm
Southeast Community Center
1800 Oakdale Ave
The Office of Economic and Workforce Development and the San Francisco Redevelopment Agency invite you to participate in a community workshop near you to provide comments on the proposed land use plan for the Hunters Point Shipyard/ Candlestick Point development project.
For more information contact Thor Khaslofsky or Wells Lawson.
The Bountiful Container
March 22nd
10am – 12pm
Garden for the Environment
7th Ave at Lawton Street
San Francisco
This workshop will focus on edible and ornamental plants and plantings in containers. Join Richard Meacham from Stillpoint Gardens for this Organic Gardening workshop. $10; No one turned away for lack of funds.
To Pre-Register, please call (415) 731-5627 or email info@gardenfortheenvironment.org.
Earth Hour San Francisco
March 29
8pm - 9pm
Join thousands of your Bay Area friends, neighbors and businesses and millions of people around the world to make a bold statement about climate change and turn off your lights for one hour!
To learn more go to the Earth Hour website and sign up!
Volunteer for the Foothill Yellow Legged Frog
Marin Municipal Water District needs volunteers to help protect the Foothill Yellow Legged Frog. Help educate the public about this federally listed endangered species of special concern, hike the beautiful new trail to Carson Falls, and inform other hikers about how they can help preserve frog habitat.
Volunteers are needed to fill shifts on weekends from March until June. Contact John for more information about docent training and dates.
Envision 2050
Is the Future Nature?
Envision 2050 is looking for poster art works, designs and ideas created by students like you, in grade 6 through 12. You are encouraged to think about the future of tomorrow’s cities, from how they will look to how people will move within them, with an eye towards nature and natural processes. The issues of global warming and carbon emissions should also be considered. And your city should definitely be sustainable.
You can register for the poster competition here. Go to Re:Vision for more information about the contest.