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July 1, 2008

Please help
Nature in the City
with a financial contribution.

One of our generous donors has committed to match every dollar you donate, up to $10,000, until September 1!

To those who have already donated or renewed your membership this year,
Thank you. Without you, Nature in the City would not be possible.

We have accomplished a lot in just over 3 years, making it our business to take a leading role in saving San Francisco’s natural heritage, including:

Twice produced the annual McLaren Park Earth Day

Negotiated inclusion of $5 million for nature trails in the 2008 Parks Bond

Secured almost $50,000 to restore endangered species habitat on Twin Peaks

Published the 1st and 2nd editions of the Nature in the City Map & Guide

Won 2 unanimous votes at the Parks Commission for the Natural Areas Plan

Launched natureinthecity.org, currently receiving 1400 hits per day, which peaks when we send out our…

Informative email newsletter to over 2000 people each week. See our graph!

These activities represent a fraction of our work to bring about a new culture of ecological stewardship and to save all of our city’s nature, biodiversity and natural areas.

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We need your support now as we foster greater collaboration in the local environmental community around a Franciscan nature conservation vision, and pursue a more coherent conservation program.

Current Campaigns

Twin Peaks Bioregion Park and Ecological Preserve

Green Hairstreak Butterfly Corridor Restoration

Natural Areas Program & Plan Advocacy Campaign

GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year & Beyond!

Go to the website for a complete list of our current programs, campaigns and resources.

If you would like to donate to Nature in the City, you may do so online or mail us a check, payable to Earth Island Institute/Nature in the City.

Nature in the City
P. O. Box 170088
San Francisco, CA 94117

Nature in the City is a project of Earth Island Institute, a 501(c)3 California non-profit public benefit corporation

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New Nature in the City Natural History Brochure:
Butterflies of San Francisco

Nature in the City is producing a new brochure, the first in what we hope will be a wonderful series of natural history brochures. Butterflies of San Francisco features the hard work of Liam O'Brien, lepidopterist extraordinaire. Liam spent over 200 hours in the field last year, surveying the butterflies of San Francisco, not to mention relentless hours painting them for this beautiful brochure. Keep your eyes open for it in the next few months!

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The Green Hairstreak Butterfly
Needs Your Help!

Your donation could help save the last remaining dune habitat for this beautiful, gossamer winged creature that only flies on the west side of the city.

In addition to becoming a member, you can help Nature in the City in various ways, including:

1. Tell your friends and family about us –suggest they become members or major donors.
2. Find out if your company has a matching or employee-driven grant program.
3. Make a bequest to Nature in the City.
4. Host a house party or other type of fundraiser.
5. Find out if your company wants to deliver volunteers to one of our stewardship projects, such as on Mt. Sutro.

Butterflies (and moths) in the City!

The Green Hairstreak

From Liam O'Brien- "It was an amazing flight season this year for the Green Hairstreak Corridor. Many highlights over the four walks. Around 80 folks attended in all. We witnessed much dispersal between the colonies: one landed at the corner of 14th/Rivera, Quintara and Funston and finally, it was observed sitting on its host at the Golden Gate Heights Park. Great to have Robert Michael Pyle along on one of the walks -- the nations preeminent butterfly expert -- giving his blessings to the project, calling it 'a kind of apotheosis of human beings and the rest of nature coming together.'

Tom Annese, the president of the CNPS Yerba Buena chapter, brought lots of equipment & seeds over to grow all the necessary host/nectar plants we will need to distribute later in the year to the neighborhood. Peter Brastow and I met with the SF Parks Trust to begin the process of securing that piece of land at the corner of 14th & Pacheco to anchor the corridor in a viable, mini garden for dispersing females. This part must be community based and needs to have names of neighbors on the corridor. If there are any folks who attended the walk and are interested in helping us with this piece of the puzzle, please contact me. Thanks."

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The Pipevine Swallowtail

Dylan Hayes, Nature in the City Steering Committee member who lives in the heart of the Mission, planted the California pipevine (larval host of the beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly) in his backyard, and it worked--the butterfly found its way to his garden: Watch the amazing video of her laying eggs!

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The Mission Blue
ABC 7 News

Wednesday, June 25- The bus tours don't mention it and most of us would never even notice. You'd have to be an ecologist like Dr. Stuart Weiss or a naturalist like Dr. Lisa Wayne, who works for the Parks Department...

"We really noticed the problem last year, when we didn't see any eggs or adults flying around here," said Wayne, Ph.D.

She's talking about Mission Blue butterflies. There aren't too many in Twin Peaks, and if you happen to see one there, it's probably a photograph.

Read the full article here.

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The Light Brown Apple Moth

June 19, 2008 - The California Department of Food & Agriculture (CDFA) announced that they will not be conducting aerial spraying of pheromones for the light brown apple moth over urban areas. CDFA Secretary A.G. Kawamura said that a sterile male moth insect release program has been developed ahead of schedule, and this will be used as the primary tool for urban areas. CDFA will still use other techniques such as pheromone twist ties, microbial pesticides, and 'bait & kill" sprays in selected heavily infested areas.

For more information about the Light Brown Apple Moth or eradication techniques that will be used in your area, please refer to the CDFA website.

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The 14th Annual Butterfly Count Results

Interesting Fact: Almost 1/2 of all the butterflies seen in San Francisco were Cabbage Whites.

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Our Campaigns
Restoring Nature in the City Where You Live

Twin Peaks Bioregional Park and Ecological Preserve
In the center of the city, the San Miguel Hills contain almost half of the significant natural habitat areas in San Francisco. These special natural areas are in desperate need of restoration, and we envision connecting them via wildlife and recreational corridors. In addition, we have learned that a very similar vision for a greenbelt park preserve was published in 1950! We are working to excavate that vision for a future ecological wonderland in the heart of the city.

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Green Hairstreak Butterfly Corridor Restoration
The Green Hairstreak range has decreased drastically as a result of the development of San Francisco and other cities around the Bay. Today, this brilliant little green butterfly flies only in the Presidio and in the westernmost hills of the city, at The Rocks and Hawk Hill. The corridor restoration project not only will bolster and restore the natural habitat areas where the hairstreak still flies, but also connect people with nature where they live by connecting the natural areas via backyards, front yards and public rights of way and turning the corridor into a healthy urban ecosystem.

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Natural Areas Program & Plan Advocacy Campaign
Our city’s most important nature conservation entity, the Recreation and Park Department (RPD) Natural Areas Program, which manages 27% of RPD land with 2% of the staff and 1% of the RPD budget, is constantly embattled, both by the vagaries of San Francisco’s political budget battles, and also by a few folks who simply want it to go away. We continue to fight, not only for the program's right to exist and for them to get the respect they deserve, but also to increase their insufficient budget and to get passed their Significant Natural Resource Areas Management Plan. View the list of current organizations who have signed on to the campaign.

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GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year & Beyond
The 2008 Big Year project has been a great success so far, thanks to incredible volunteerism among the city’s conservation community, a multi-organizational collaboration, and to San Franciscans’ desire to experience the great national park in their backyard. 33 federally listed species call the GGNRA home, and the leaders in the Big Year competition have seen well over half those species in the first half of this year in their natural habitats. When the year is out, we hope to build on citizens’ interest in the plight of our local endangered species by campaigning for the long-term health of several of the species.

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Mission Greenbelt
... Is a wonderful experiment in human ecology to connect the very urban Mission District to nature in the city by linking Dolores Park with Franklin Square via sidewalk native plant gardens for attracting urban wildlife, and ultimately to imagine the connection with Twin Peaks by contemplating daylighting of Mission Creek. Check out the photos from the native plant demo garden.

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Mt. Sutro Stewardship
The “wilderness in the city” has become one of the more celebrated urban open space projects in San Francisco. We continue to work with UCSF to help them manage the mountain for native biodiversity and to contemplate ecological restoration actions and trail connections that make Mt. Sutro a gem in the new cultural ecology of stewardship. Visit the Mt. Sutro website to see all of the amazing things that have been discovered and find the next volunteer day.

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McLaren Park Earth Day
1 and 2 were wonderful and successful, and so we’re hungry for a third beautiful McLaren Park Earth Day. Given that “EVERY DAY IS EARTH DAY,” however, we are discussing what that means for next year. We are talking about different ideas to optimize the liveliness of the event and the engagement with the local community around McLaren Park. Take a look at the webpage for pictures from the event, who tabled & performed, and the chance to still pick up t-shirts & posters.

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Haight-Ashbury Stewards
Mt. Sutro and the Oak Woodlands of Golden Gate & Buena Vista Parks are carrying forth a vision of local ecological community stewardship. But less known Tank Hill, land child prodigy of the enigmatic Greg Gaar, is still missing a local community group. We are now working up on Tank Hill once a month to make sure that the ecological investments of Greg and the Natural Areas Program are stewarded for future generations of Cole Vallians. Visit the Stewards homepage if you are interested in volunteering.

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Calendar of Events - visit the Nature in the City Calendar

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Other Ways you Can Give to Nature in the City:

These two graphs show for May and June how visits to natureinthecity.org
peak on Tuesdays, when our email newsletter is sent out.