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| GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year Kick-Off is only 4 days away!  January 6, 2008
1 pm Bernard Osher Great Hall SF Zoo See a Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and a San Francisco Garter Snake! Plus, a trip to see Western Snowy Plovers at Ocean Beach! Everyone is Welcome!
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January 2, 2008 In this issue:
Go online, email or call 415-564-4107. Nature in the City is a project of Earth Island Institute, a 501(c) California non profit public benefit corporation. We are now selling the 2008 San
Francisco Green Zebra guide, and receiving $10 of the proceeds!
 Go to Green
Zebra's website, and find the edition you like. Be
sure to enter or mention the code NIC955
when you check out so that
we will be credited $10 for each guide you purchase. Volunteer Opportunities 
Thursday January 3 Crissy Field Landscape Lands End Stewards Friday January 4 Presidio Plant Patrol Saturday January 5 Mt. Sutro Stewards CANCELLED Mt. Davidson Buena Vista Park Presidio Park Stewards Fort Funston Nursery Lake Merced Lands End Stewards Presidio Nursery San Bruno Mountain- Brisbane Acres For more information, contact info, and directions to natural areas go to the Community Calendar on the Nature in the City website. Up Calendar
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| Jan. 6 |
GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year Kick-Off! Bernard Osher Great Hall Sf Zoo 1 pm See a Bald Eagle, Peregrine Falcon, and a SF Garter Snake! Plus a trip to see Western Snowy Plovers at Ocean Beach. Event is Free. |
| Jan. 9 |
Muir Woods Centennial Celebration
10 am Free admission all day Cake, special exhibits, speakers, guided tours and habitat restoration throughout the day! Dress warm, bring a mug and wear work clothes if you plan on doing restoration! For more information and a schedule of events visit the National Park Service website. |
| Jan. 30 |
2007-2008 Fall/Winter Talks Counterpulse 1310 Mission Street 415-626-2060 Free Peter Brastow and Brent Plater discuss the GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year |
*For more calendar items, as well as regular volunteer opportunities, go to the Nature in the City Calendar to view all posted events.
News
Coast Live Oak Urban Wildlife RestorationNature in the City Steering Committee member and Franciscan native phenomenon, Josiah Clark is propagating local native coast live oak trees for people to plant in their backyards, front yards, places of businesses or anywhere they can get permission!
As we reported in our email newsletter, 2007 was a wondrously productive year for acorns, and Josiah has taken this as a reproductive sign from Mother Nature that human production of Franciscan urban oaks must happen now! Of course this is part of the larger Nature in the City vision to restore the ecocity and create wildlife-friendly habitats in every neighborhood.
If you're interested in a Nature in the City oak tree, we hope you'll become a member. Give us a call at 564-4107 to find out how to get one, or call Josiah Clark at 668-5097 to help with propagation. Josiah needs all the help he can get. He'll give you a milk crate with 9 oak seedlings that you can tend.
If you're extra interested in native plant propagation, give another of our steering committee members and local native, Greg Gaar, a helping hand at the Haight-Ashbury Native Plant Nursery in Golden Gate Park.
Up
GGNRA Endangered Species Big Year
The Big Year Kick-Off is just days away! Make sure to stop by and see a Peregrine Falcon, Bald Eagle, and an endangered San Francisco Garter Snake! Meet at the Bernard Osher Great Hall at the San Francisco Zoo. Load up on some snacks and beverages then take a short trip to Ocean Beach to see your first Big Year species, the Western Snowy Plover.
Kick-Off Event
January 6, 2008
1 pm
Bernard Osher Great Hall
SF Zoo
January 6, 2008
1 pm
Bernard Osher Great Hall
SF Zoo
Also:
On Sunday, December 30, the Big Year was featured as a "Bright Idea" in the San Francisco Chronicle Magazine. Unfortunately, slanderous comments and letters to the editor have been posted in response to the article. Please feel free to respond to these comments and write to the editor in support of the Big Year!
You can email letters to the magazine, fax: 415-543-6956 or mail them to:
Letters Editor
Chronicle Magazine
901 Mission St
San Francisco, CA 94103
And today, January 2, an article about the Big Year by Jane Kay ran on the front page of the SF Chronicle's Bay Area Section.
Don't miss:
Tomorrow, January 3 at 10am, the Big Year will be the focus of KQED Public Radio's show Forum hosted by Michael Krasny!
On January 4, KQED will air a Perspectives story about the Big Year and the loss of the Xerces Blue Butterfly!
Up
SF Greenbelt Circa 1954
Mt. Sutro steward, Dan Schneider excavated an article dating back to 1954, that was in support of the city purchasing the last 3.5 acres of Sutro Forest near Clarendon and Palo Alto Streets.
"The Greenbelt Plan is an ambitious project to adorn San Francisco from Golden Gate Park to Candlestick point with a living necklace of parks, bridle paths and trails and help the city compete with the suburbs in providing outdoor living to residents. 'The SF Planning and Housing Association, riding and hiking clubs, and neighborhood improvement associations long have talked of the day when you will be able to embark from GG Park, up thru the UCSF hospital, into Sutro Forest, along Twin Peaks and down thru Glen Canyon’." - SF Chronicle; March, 24 1954
Clearly, stewardship was a passion of people in 1954, it is now our job to try and actualize the dream of a usable, connected network of trails.
Up
Inter-species Communication
(Treehugger)
Strange... but true:
Do your plants get enough water during the day? Botanicalls has the solution. They open a new channel of communication between plants and
humans, in an effort to promote successful inter-species understanding.
Instead of using an automatic watering system the Botanicalls team has created the means for a more personal relationship. Each plant has a unique voice based on its botanical characteristics, and each has the ability to tell people when they are in need of assistance. They're also polite: they make sure to call and say thank you when they get a good watering.
Project BudBurst
Starting February 15th,
people across the nation can join together to collect important climate
change data through Project BudBurst. This national citizen science
field campaign targets native tree and flower species across the
country. By recording the timing of the leafing and flowering of
native species each year, scientists can learn about the prevailing
climatic characteristics in a region over time.
You can now view the 2007 report of
data here. (PDF)
Conference on Global Warming
Wednesday, January 30, 9 am - 9 pm
Thursday, January 31, 9 am - 6 pm
SFSU
Jack Adams Hall
1600 Holloway Ave
San Francisco
This free, two-day event features world class speakers, such as Van Jones, expert panels, a roundtable discussion with elected representatives, and a live satellite webcast featuring Hunter Lovins of the Rocky Mountain Institute and many others. Click for more info or call 415-405-0326.
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