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Nature in the City News
Tell the Big 5 to Save State Parks!
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!
The budget isn't fixed yet!
Please contact the Big 5 and tell them to Save Our State Parks!
Stay tuned to our website for up to date info!
Candlestick Still Needs Your Help
If you remember from our last newsletter, Candlestick Point State Recreation Area is in trouble again. If Senate Bill 792 is passed, 42.8 acres of the park are proposed for development while 7 acres of City-owned land will be made available to the Park along its southern border. The latter is a much needed addition but even with this addition the City/Lennar will still end up taking 36 acres of park land for development, a little over 23% of the Park's current acreage.
Please send an e-mail to Tom Ammiano's aide, Matthew Bunch, who is working on this issue. Please also send a letter to Senator Leno through his aide Carlos Machado. Click here for a sample e-mail!
Best of the Bay!
Back in April, San Francisco magazine's editors and readers were asked to pick the people, places, and things that make the Bay Area the best place to live, work, and play. The votes were tallied and we are excited to reveal that the Mt. Sutro Stewards are among the 'Best of' picks for 2009!!
Thanks to people like you, the Stewards have been honored for all of the hard work they do!
Celebrate Independence Day with the Mt. Sutro Stewards and some hard work, pizza & refreshments this Saturday! Click here if you are interested in volunteering.
India Basin Shoreline Draft Plan
From Nature in the City member, Margo Bors:
"The Area C - India Basin Shoreline Draft Plan - by the SF Planning Department was presented to the community June 25 and I am cautiously optimistic about the Hunters Point Hillside, owned by PG&E, where the locally rare yellow mariposa lilies (Calochortus luteus) are found.
HP Hillside is the southern part of a Hillside Transition District within Area C that transitions between Hunters View public housing and the India Basin Shoreline area. The Hillside Transition District is zoned RM-1 (residential, mixed housing types) with denser housing in the north along Evans Ave. and with the steeper southern calochortus hillside area designated as potential open space.
Comments on the draft plan can be sent to: lily.langloise@sfgov.org
The period to comment on the draft plan is only 60 days and ends August 25."
Coyotes and Poison Oak
From Nature in the City Steering Committee member, Jake Sigg:
"Rich and I have been working in the upper part of Glen Canyon, not far from where the indigenous Garrya elliptica [Coast silk-tassle] are. I've been clearing rambunctious poison oak here for three years, as it is the chief threat to the only garryas in the city. We worked there last autumn and found a coyote den. We followed up with more p.o. clearing yesterday, and found there are a total of three coyote dens. It is a perfect place for them, as the brush was impenetrable, and infested with vigorous p.o. I'm sure we are the only people who have been in there in the last 20 years. Even with our clearing it's not easy to get in, and the p.o. is going to be an effective deterrent.
BTW, this is a rich area--mostly shrubs--and this is another reason I'm taking the time to discipline the p.o. There are no exotics in an area of approx one acre!! Other items are our best stands of ocean spray (Holodiscus), lots of cow parsnip, golden yarrow (Eriophyllum confertiflorum), slim Solomon (Smilacina stellata), wood fern, goldback fern, polypody fern, soap plant, oso berry, clarkia, manroot..."
Check out the photos of a coyote spotted at the CNPS workparty in Glen Canyon a few weeks ago!
Butterfly Count RESULTS
From Nature in the City Steering Committee member, Liam O'Brien:
"After one postponement due to 'June Gloom' earlier in the month, the 15th Annual North American Butterfly Assocation's San Francisco County butterfly count was held on Wednesday, 24th.
Fighting a thick marine layer coming in from the west, seven parties of 14 participants spread out to tally all the species and individual butterflies they could find.
Total Species: 22, Total Individuals: 530| W. Tiger Swallowtail (17) | Pipevine Swallowtail (6) |
| Anise Swallowtail (48) | Cabbage White (190) |
| Orange Sulfur (2) | Painted Lady (25) |
| West Coast Painted Lady (14) | Red Admiral (20) |
| Common Buckeye (20) | Field Crescent (6) |
| Mylitta's Crescent (1) | Gulf Fritillary (13) |
| Monarch (1) | California Ringlet (20) |
| Unid. Nymphalidae (13) | Gray Hairstreak (4) |
| Acmon Blue (21) | Spring Azure/Echo Blue (18) |
| Unid. Lycaenidae (1) | Fiery Skipper (17) |
| Umber Skipper (29) | Common Checkered Skipper (29) |
| Woodland Skipper (1) | Sandhill Skipper (10) |
| Unid. Hesperiidae (4) |
Paul Johnson found perhaps the first Woodland Skipper of the season up on Bayview Hill. The Monarch, sighted by the Presidio group, was the first brought to the count since 1990! The inclusion of Yerba Buena Island and Jerry Powell's time out there this year (before the howling fog took over) gave us the Pipevine Swallowtails that tipped the new record in our favor.
Thanks to everyone that made it out. Each year we give this scrappy, little count more and more dignity."
A Landfill Becomes a Beautiful Overlook
By Nature in the City Steering Committee member, Lew Stringer:
"Beginning this summer, the Presidio Trust will start clean up on the Presidio's largest hazardous waste site, Landfill 10. Between 1946 and 1959 the Army deposited 140,000 cubic yards of waste in the dunes above Lobos Creek valley. The material deposited in LF10 consists of imported soil and building debris from demolition of the former U.S. Marine Hospital and includes building material rubble, concrete, rebar, and bricks, as well as imported soil. Contaminants of concern include PAHs (Poly-Aromatic Hydrocarbons), lead and zinc. Filling activities stopped with construction of the existing parking lot by 1955 and the former helipad by 1963.
Unlike other Presidio landfill cleanups such as Disturbed Area 3 (Coyote Gulch) or Fill Site 5 (Sunset Scrub) where all of the waste was removed, Landfill 10 will be reshaped to lessen the risk of slope failure in a major earthquake. The newly contoured landfill will then be capped to protect human and ecological health with a new parking lot and, on the slope above Lobos Creek, two feet of clean soil. Initital removal of invasive species such as blue gum eucalyptus, matress wire weed and cape ivy have already occurred to reduce the risk that birds would nest on site and then be disturbed during construction. After the clean soil is placed on the recontoured slope, three acres of the site will be ready for Park Stewards to plant. We hope to restore the mosaic of dense coastal scrub, oak-willow-riparian and open dune habitats. Please join us in November when we begin planting over 9,000 natives."
| Wednesday July 1 |
| Alcatraz Gardens Presidio Park Stewards @ Lobos Creek California Native Plant Society @ Mt. Davidson Redwood Creek Presidio Nursery |
| Thursday July 2 |
| Crissy Field Landscape Lands End Stewards |
| Friday July 3 |
| Alcatraz Gardens |
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| Saturday July 4 |
| Mt. Sutro Stewards Buena Vista Restoration Area A Landscape & Maintenance Presidio Park Stewards @ Mountain Lake Friends of Mt. Davidson Fort Funston Presidio Trail Work Lands End Stewards Presidio Nursery Redwood Creek Friends of Lake Merced San Bruno Mountain - Brisbane Acres Plants Gone Wild Nursery |
| Sunday July 5 |
| Haight-Ashbury Native Plant Nursery Ocean Beach Cleanup |
For more information, contact info, and directions to natural areas go to the Community Calendar on the Nature in the City website.
Rebooting Urban Watersheds
High Country News
"We have just crossed Rumrill Boulevard from North Richmond into San Pablo, two working-class towns northeast of San Francisco. We've been tracing the overgrown course of Wildcat Creek upstream from its mouth near the junkyard at the corner of Gertrude Avenue and Richmond Parkway. Josh Bradt, a spry Berkeley-based stream restorationist, plods rapidly ahead, his mane of short dreadlocks snapping from side to side as we lurch along a weedy, garbage-choked easement..."
Greening San Francisco Wiki
A class of 17 juniors and seniors at the Urban School of San Francisco have brought environmental education into the 21st Century with their comprehensive eco-wiki, Greening San Francisco. Currently the site covers six main topics: Environmental justice, Waste reduction, Climate change, Reducing toxins, Alternative fuels, and Water use.
Post a comment on their guestbook and suggest that natural habitat be an area of focus to consider in the future!
California Salmon in Trouble
Congressman Jerry McNerney voted June 19 for an amendment by Central Valley Representative Devin Nunes to HR 2847 that would have stripped funding for court-mandated protections for Central Valley salmon. The amendment was defeated this time, but can always be reattached to something else.
If you live in Congressman McNerney's district, please contact him immediately about his vote. Click here for contact info.
Also in local salmon news:
"The California Board of Forestry this week is considering proposed state timber-harvest regulations that would continue harmful logging adjacent to critical salmon streams, prevent recovery of key salmon watersheds, and essentially guarantee extinction of coho salmon from California." Read the full press release from the Center for Biological Diversity.