The Green Hairstreak Corridor will be on TV this Friday!
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Weed Awareness Week!
Next week is California Invasive Weed Awareness Week, an annual event supported by the California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC), that brings attention to the problems caused by invasive plants in California, and to the work of local groups that work to protect our natural areas and rangelands.
Cal-IPC works with the California Invasive Weeds Awareness Coalition (CALIWAC) to address legislation and agency policies related to invasive plants. They host Invasive Weeds Awareness Day at the Capitol in Sacramento every year. They also work to sustain funding for local weed management areas (like ours!) and helped form California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP) which started the Plant Right campaign!
Nature in the City is has been a major participant in the San Francisco Weed Management Area. We recently published The San Francisco Six: The City's Worst Wildland Weeds, and hired an intern to study and map all of the invasive weeds in San Francisco's natural areas.
Another important leader in the fight against invasive weeds is the Bay Area Early Detection Network (BAEDN), which coordinates Early Detection and Rapid Response to infestations of invasive plants, proactively dealing with new outbreaks before they can grow into large and costly environmental threats.
Both Alameda and Marin are holding restoration events to celebrate Weed Awareness Week, so get outside and help!
And, if you haven't seen it yet, the Chronicle recently had an article about a new invasive seaweed that has come to the San Francisco Bay:
"An exotic seaweed that can grow an inch a day has invaded San Francisco marinas, alarming boat owners and harbor operators who fear it will spread in the bay, clinging to hulls, pier pilings, docks and riprap." Read the full story here.
For information about invasive weeds or restoration opportunities, refer to:
Bay Area Early Detection Network (BAEDN)
California Horticultural Invasives Prevention (Cal-HIP)
California Invasive Plant Council (Cal-IPC)
California Invasive Weeds Awareness Coalition (CALIWAC)
Plant Right campaign
San Francisco Weed Management Area
The San Francisco Six: The City's Worst Wildland Weeds
Save Our State Parks Update
California State Parks Foundation
"It was relatively quiet on the budget front last week, as legislative leaders and the Governor remained deadlocked on a budget resolution. Late last week and this past Saturday, the leaders came to the table again and have been expressing optimism about a solution. Right now, the sticking point is related to education funding and calculations... This leaves the status of the park closure proposal up in the air, along with other budget proposals. From all reports, legislative leaders still can't find the votes required for the State Park Access Pass, and are looking at ways to find up to $70 million from other budget sources to loan to the state park system to stop the closure of 220 state parks.
Many of you have seen media reports in the last week or so about a letter from the National Park Service to California regarding the park closures. Some media articles have suggested that the federal government is ready to take back state parks, or take over state parks. When you read the letter, you'll see that neither is so obviously the case. NPS has put California on notice that there are parks that could revert to the federal government, but it also very clearly says that if our state does close parks that have federal requirements to be made available to the public, it could have long-term consequences of making CA ineligible for any future Land and Water Conservation Fund funding...
I encourage folks to continue to send messages to the Governor and Legislature about keeping state parks open. We dropped another 12,000 petitions from park supporters to the Legislature and Governor last week, and continue to receive individual and group petitions that we're getting out every day. It is making a difference - legislators from both sides of the aisle are calling to say they've heard the message and want to make sure they help keep parks open. We're certainly counting on them to make that a reality in their budget votes."
Nature in the City and the ROSE
Last week, we submitted our final rewrite of the Biodiversity Objective of the evolving draft new Recreation and Open Space Element (ROSE) of the City's General Plan. We have urged the Planning Department to include our entire coherent and comprehensive policy framework so that the City's natural heritage can have the strongest possible protection and conservation commitment from the City family. The following organizations signed on to our policy rewrite in solidarity for excellence in urban nature conservation and stewardship:
San Francisco Tomorrow
Mt. Sutro Stewards
Urban Watershed Project
Visitacion Valley Greenway Project
California Native Plant Society
Kids in Parks
Golden Gate Audubon Society
Planet Drum Foundation
Sustainable Watershed Alliance
Sierra Club, San Francisco Group
San Francisco League of Conservation Voters
To comment on the Draft ROSE, e-mail openspace@sfgov.org, or fax to 415-558-6409 Attention: Sue Exline, or mail them to:
Sue Exline
SF Planning Department
1650 Mission St, 4th Floor
San Francisco, CA 94103
The comment and review period will run through the end of September 2009. Further comments are needed related to Funding and Acquisition, Access and Connectivity, Community Stewardship, and the Regional Conservation Context, e.g., the relationships of the City's natural areas with San Bruno Mountain, the Marin Headlands, and GGNRA lands in San Mateo County.
Volunteer for Sharp Park!
Restore Sharp Park needs your help!
The San Franciso Recreation and Parks Department will release a preliminary analysis of alternative uses at Sharp Park on July 31, 2009. Get ready to write letters to the editor in support of the restoration alternatives at Sharp Park!
If you want to volunteer for the campaign contact Brent Plater.
Starr King Park Needs Your Help!
Portrero Hill's open space, Starr King Park, is under threat!
The owners of the property that borders the open space to the south are proposing the removal of a single family home, and replacement with a 3 unit building with underground garage with a driveway through the openspace to serve the garage. Demolition and construction access are also being proposed through the openspace.
The Starr King Park Board is asking neighborhood groups to write a letter to the Planning Commission in support of the park and for denial of the proposal.
Please see the background info and form letter.
Please e-mail to Diego Sanchez by Thursday, July 16.
The hearing is scheduled for July 23rd.
Eleven San Francisco Parks to Get Upgrades & Renovations
SF Gate
"The mating dance of the hummingbird goes something like this: Start from a height equivalent to a downtown skyscraper, drop as if shot from the sky, then, at the last minute, swoop back upward in a graceful J before your beloved.
It's the kind of nature show park lovers can expect to see more of in San Francisco, as the Recreation and Park Department begins using $5 million to restore 18 miles of trails and natural habitat in 11 city parks.
The money, part of a $185 million parks bond passed by voters last fall, will be used to restore trails, install steps, shore up erosion and thin parks of invasive, non-native species."
Read the full article, featuring Nature in the City Steering Committee Member Lisa Wayne, here.
Save Candlestick on YouTube
Arc Ecology has created a video appeal on behalf of Candlestick Point State Recreation Area to the California State Legislature and the San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Watch the video on YouTube now.
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Volunteer Opportunities |
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Green Hairstreak Corridor Volunteers Photo by Iris Clearwater |
| Wednesday July 15 |
| Alcatraz Gardens Presidio Park Stewards @ Battery East California Native Plant Society @ Bernal Hill North Redwood Creek Presidio Nursery |
| Thursday July 16 |
| Crissy Field Landscape Lands End Stewards |
| Friday July 17 |
| Alcatraz Gardens Presidio Plant Patrol @ Battery Easy |
| Saturday July 18 |
| Friends of Glen Canyon Friends of Shields/Orizaba Rocky Outcrop Area A Landscape &Maintenance Presidio Park Stewards @ Dragonfly Creek Fort Funston Friends of Brooks Park Lands End Stewards Presidio Nursery Redwood Creek |
| Sunday July 19 |
| Haight-Ashbury Native Plant Nursery Ocean Beach Cleanup Sundays of Service Bernal Hilltop Native Grassland San Bruno Mountain |
Up
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More Local Nature News |
Fishers Give Up Presidio Art Museum
SF Gate
"Gap founder Donald Fisher and his family have decided to abandon their efforts to build a contemporary art museum at the Main Post of San Francisco's Presidio..."
Brandt's Cormorants Not Breeding?
WildCare
"A report was recently released from the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary with some interesting information on Brandt’s Cormorant breeding populations on the Farallon islands off the coast of San Francisco.
Brandt’s Cormorants were one of the species found dead in large numbers on Bay Area beaches last May in a still mostly unexplained die-off. Data from the Farallon Islands shows additional problems for these birds...
Brandt's Cormorants are not even bothering to breed this season... reports say that as of mid-July there are a few birds breeding, but nowhere near normal numbers. The report also says that Pelagic Cormorants, who also breed at the Farallones, built nests but showed no apparent breeding activity. By the end of May, there was just one nest with chicks and a handful of nests with probable eggs."
Check out the rest of the story at WildCare.
Alcatraz is a notoriously great place to view breeding sea birds. Take a ferry to Alcatraz, and see some (hopefully) breeding Cormorants! In fact, according to the National Park Service, "the name Alcatraz itself came from a European explorer who named one of the islands in the bay 'Island of the Seabirds' for the multitudes of avian life he observed."
Take a look at our Alcatraz photo gallery!
City Behind Parking Meters in Park
SF Examiner
"Enjoy the prized free roadway parking in Golden Gate Park while it lasts, because by April [2010] The City plans to charge for parking in 1,849 spaces.
The controversial proposal to install parking meters in the 1,017-acre park has surfaced and been shot down in the past, but the current budget woes in The City have officials backing the idea."