* Because the stronger nature is, the more resilient she can be in the face of climate change.
* And for the satisfaction and happiness we receive from working together as a community to do so.
* Because if we can restore an intensely developed place like San Francisco, we can restore anything.
Why give to Nature in the City? |
Nature in the City Program News
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On Saturday, November 22, from 10am to 1pm, the Green Hairstreak Project held its first work party at 14th Avenue & Pacheco Street along the butterfly's migration corridor. Five enthusiastic volunteers, including lepidopterist Liam O'Brien, the driving force behind the project, removed yellow oxalis and ehrharta grass and planted some coast buckwheat and a few seaside daisies. The neighbors at 14th and Pacheco are very supportive of our efforts to restore Green Hairstreak habitat as well as beautify a neglected corner, turning it into a miniature natural area.
More work is needed, including installing erosion barriers, weeding, and planting. The next work party will be Saturday, December 6th, from 10am to noon and/or 1pm to 3pm.
If you have any questions or want to volunteer, please email Alane Bowling or call 564-1388.
* Please help us heal the Hairstreak's habitat! *
Mission Greenbelt & Green Streets
On Wednesday, November 19, 2008, Nature in the City co-hosted a TALK at CounterPULSE, Green Streets: Redesigning San Francisco One Block at a Time. On the panel were Jane Martin (PlantSF), Tom Radulovich (Livable City), and Nature in the City Steering Committee member and Mission Greenbelt grande artiste, Amber Hasselbring, whose project restores habitat for wildlife and people in the Mission.Check out these pictures of the project kick-off at Mission Pool and Playground, which was really spruced up with nature in the city!
* Help us break the nature-culture barrier and restore habitat for people and wildlife! *
Mt. Sutro Stewards: Two Years of Service!
September 2008 marked the 24th month of continuous monthly volunteer activities on Mt. Sutro. It also marked the completion of the last segment of the trail loop which began with the restoration of the Historic Trail in September of 2006. During the same two years the stewards have made significant habitat restoration accomplishments. The Stewards, Nature in the City, California Native Plant Society, One Brick volunteers, the Boy Scouts, the San Francisco Rotary Club, Cole Valley neighbors, and many others have taken great care of the summit, the area along the Historic and North Ridge Trails, and the Nootka reed grass prairies.
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16" fungus found on Mt. Sutro. Photo: Craig Dawson |
Join the Sutro Stewards on December 6th!
Meet at the Woods Lot at 9AM. Remember to travel via Clarendon to Johnstone then down Medical Center Way (due to construction)View the volunteer flyer for more info.
* We need your help to help UCSF make Mt. Sutro an ecological wonderland. *
Brand New Brochures: Butterflies & Weeds
We are literally on the verge of publishing the first ever Nature in the City San Francisco Natural History brochure, entitled Butterflies in the City. Stay tuned as you will be amazed by this brand new beautiful product, a project made possible by a partnership with the Parks Conservancy and the phenomenal skillset of Liam O'Brien. Also, we FINALLY have the The San Francisco SIX: The City's Worst Wildland Weeds available. Right now, you can pick one up at the Natural Areas Office at 811 Stanyan and at more locations in the future.
Visit our publications page to see all of our products and brochures, including the Nature in the City MAP, which comes with Membership!
While funding ran out last spring for development of the 3rd edition of our website, our designer has recently and very graciously offered to pick up where she left off and get paid at some point in the future! The new edition will include some engaging features such as a place to enter your wildlife observations.
We have an ambitious and critically important agenda vis-a-vis RPD's Natural Areas. With the recent temporary appointment of the City's Environment Director, Jared Blumenfeld, to head up Recreation and Parks, we're hoping for a friendlier reception and more steadfast support of the City's incomparable Natural Areas Program. Actually, at a recent meeting between Peter and Jared in his current office, the interim General Manager had a warm fire blazing in the fireplace.
We continue to advocate in the strongest of ways for the Natural Areas staff, the director and their terrific work - on behalf of San Franciscans - to steward our neighborhood natural areas. Current issues include acquisitions, the Interior Greenbelt, the deteriorating state of the natural resources of McLaren Park, Sharp Park, and mountain biking (see below).
* Help us fight for the most important link in the local nature chain, the Natural Areas Program. *
Twin Peaks Bioregion: Opportunities & Challenges
San Francisco was built in a hotspot of biological diversity within a beautiful natural ecosystem, but the 2nd Greenest City in America still lacks a truly ecological vision and commitment to conserving its own natural environment. Recently, we formed the San Francisco Biodiversity Council, a group of local environmental organizations who will create a whole out of the sum of the parts to develop a collaborative strategy and campaigns for Franciscan nature conservation. Under our leadership, the Council has endorsed the idea of promulgating an ecological restoration vision for the Twin Peaks Bioregion, located in the San Miguel Hills, in the geographic heart of the city.
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The Twin Peaks Bioregion - Edgehill Mountain, Glen Canyon, Golden Gate Heights, Grandview Park, Hawk Hill, Kite Hill, Laguna Honda, Mt. Davidson, Mt. Sutro, Tank Hill, & Twin Peaks . |
While regions of the city such as the Presidio, Lake Merced and Bayview Hunter's Point, are critical for our ecological health and are places where we work, the hilly heart of the city, from the coast live oak woodlands of Golden Gate Park to the unculverted reach of Islais Creek in Glen Canyon, presents an exciting opportunity to paint a holistic, integrated picture of a San Francisco Restored. The Twin Peaks Bioregion (a bio-geographical term we coined) has a compact urban geography and incredible potential still for an interior park preserve. The complex plethora of government jurisdictions and acute threats to the diversity of natural resources, both of which are representative of the city as a whole, constitute a key problem in our quest to conserve the entire Franciscan Bioregion.
The Twin Peaks Bioregion vision represents a sustainable ecological future when all public lands are preserved, restored and stewarded; residents are implementing backyard (and front yard) habitat conservation; and all open spaces are interlinked with corridors for wildlife and ecologically sustainable human recreation.
* Help us paint a holistic picture of a San Francisco Restored! *
