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Peter Brastow, our Founding Director, started Nature in the City in 2005 to build, strengthen and unify the movement to conserve San Francisco's natural areas and biodiversity, and to catalyze ecological restoration and stewardship in San Francisco by connecting urban people and nature where we live. Peter entered the fray of the city's environmental activist community with a unique set of skills and experience, as an urban natural resource manager and community stewardship coordinator, from his former position as the Presidio's National Park Service Ecological Restoration Specialist.

 

Greg Gaar, local ecological activist extraordinaire, propagates local native plants at the Haight-Ashbury Native Plant Nursery.

 

Liam O'Brien, our local lepitopterist, created the Green Hairstreak Project. He helps Nature in the City in numerous ways including leading TREKS, giving TALKS, providing his artwork, and of course helping inspire and guide everyone involved with the Green Hairstreak Corridor Ecosystem Restoration.

 

Deidre Martin, our Backyard Nursery Network Coordinator, is our "go to" person for our Backyard Native Nursery Network and Haight Ashbury Native Plant Nursery. She comes to us with over a decade of experience in landscaping with native plants, and work in the greenhouse/nursery trade. She spent several years in the early 1990s as an organic farm apprentice, and hopes to further develop urban farmers' appreciation of native plants and wildlife conservation.

 

Melanie Trelles & Sarah McConnico, our Green Hairstreak Stewardship Coordinators, enthusiastically came to us from San Francisco State University Environmental Studies and Geography programs. Sarah works at the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Advisory Committee


Members - Expertise


Amber Hasselbring - Artist/Designer

Charlotte Hill - Environmental Education
Chris Giorni - Reptile & Amphibian Ecology/Environmental Education
Craig Dawson - Media Specialist/Trail Stewardship

Damien Raffa - Environmental & Stewardship Education

Deidre Martin -Stewardship Coordinator/BYNN/Farmer

Deirdre Elmansoumi - Butterfly & Environmental Education
Dylan Hayes - Sustainable Business/Plant Propagation/Natural Areas Management
Greg Gaar - History/Photography/Plant Propagation/Habitat Stewardship
Jake Sigg - Plant Ecology/Habitat Stewardship
Josiah Clark - Wildlife Ecology/Habitat Restoration
Laura Castellini - Aquatic Invertebrate Ecology/Environmental Remediation
Lew Stringer - Invasive Plant Ecology/Ecological Restoration 

Liam O'Brien - Butterfly and Moth Ecology (Lepidoptery)

Steven Chapman - Environmental Advocacy

 
Advisory Committee members are active in, and in many cases, lead and represent the following organizations, among others:
Art-eco.org
California Native Plant Society
Community Gardens for Butterflies

Habitat Potential
Haight-Ashbury Native Plant Nursery
Kids in Parks  

Sierra Club, SF Group
TreeFrog Treks

Urbia


Other ecological organizations with which we work include Center for Biological DiversityGolden Gate Audubon Society, SF League of Conservation VotersSF Tomorrow, Literacy for Environmental Justice, Sustainable Watershed Alliance, Wild Equity Institute and Shaping San Francisco. Nature in the City cultivates collaboration with these and other local ecological and environmental organizations, agencies, and our WED 2005 symposium committee members around high priority local nature advocacy issues, educational and stewardship projets, and restoring habitats and biodiversity throughout the City. 

 

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What is Nature?

Urban Biodiversity

 

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