Collaboration
Like San Francisco's natural ecology, the city's social and institutional landscape is extremely fragmented. For example, the National Park Service and SF Recreation and Parks, due to budget constraints, are unable to collaborate on a more holistic, watershed approach to natural resources management and ecological restoration. Likewise, we have no unified effort for countywide ecological advocacy among local NGOs nor ecological education among our institutions of higher learning.
Nature in
the City cultivates
collaboration among agencies,
our steering
committee,
our symposium committee
members and other local
NGOs,
around issues and projects that contribute to
the conservation,
restoration and stewardship of our local nature and
biodiversity.
Ongoing collaborative
projects include:
· The MAP, Nature in the City: San Francisco's Natural Heritage.
· Supporting the Natural Areas Program of the SF Recreation and Park Department.
· Implementation of the Urban Nature elements of the Urban Environmental Accords.
· Planning for McLaren Park Earth Day 2007.
· The San Francisco Weed Management Area (SFWMA).
Future collaborative efforts, pending funding, will include:
· Developing and implementing a total nature conservation advocacy strategy.
· Catalyzing, nurturing and supporting the community ecological stewardship network.
· Developing a common local ecological language for local nature education and the delivery of our urban nature conservation and stewardship message to the public.
· Developing a total watershed strategy and biodiversity recovery plan.
· Collecting and managing a full inventory of San Francisco's biodiversity.
Past Nature in the City collaborations included, in particular:
· Planning and implementation of the Nature in the City Symposium.
Nature in the City is an active member of the Presidio Environmental Council.
In K-12 environmental education, some wonderful collaborations, not facilitated by Nature in the City, are also happening.
SEEC-SF emerged out of the 2004 San Francisco Ecological Restoration Conference, and contains broad-based membership among the local ecological education community, offering "integrated, accessible, place-based education programs that inspire San Francisco’s diverse school community to explore, appreciate, and care for nature in the City. "
The San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance promotes community driven processes that create healthy and sustainable learning environments in the city's schools. They "envision a future in which each school operates in concert with its neighborhood and local ecology to foster academic achievement, environmental stewardship, creativity, and community building."
The most mature urban ecological conservation collaboration in North America is Chicago Wilderness, a nature reserve consortium with over 190 member organizations collaborating for the protection and restoration of the natural environment of the Chicago Region. Nature in the City hopes to foster the development of San Francisco's analogue to Chicago Wilderness. Ultimately, we want to create capacity and sustainability for setting scientifically- and collaboratively-based priorities for ecological protection and watershed restoration. Through bridging jurisdictions and communities and creating a unification of purpose, we will be successful with ecological restoration of nature in the city.
Members of the Chicago Wilderness Consortium
Members of the Nature Network of NY, NJ, & CT
