Programs, Projects & Resources
1 Public Education
GGNRA BIG YEAR
McLaren Park Earth Day
MAP of San
Francisco's Natural Heritage
natureinthecity.org
Newsletter
TALKS about Nature in the City
2 Habitat
Restoration &
Stewardship
Catalyzing Ecological Stewardship
Backyard Oaks for Wildlife Habitat
Green Hairstreak
Ecosystem Corridor
Haight-Ashbury Stewards
Mt. Sutro
Mission Greenbelt
San Francisco Weed
Management Area
Yerba Buena Island
3 Conservation
Policy & Advocacy
Candlestick Point Campaign
Natural Areas Program,
SF Recreation and Parks
Public Land Management Agencies
Public Education is integral to inspiring wonder, celebration and respect for our local nature and bioregion and for restoring San Franciscans' sense of place with their local biodiversity, wildlands and natural areas.
City Treks
We are looking for volunteers to help implement this program. Join us for weekend walks, hikes, and treks to and through the City's natural lands. These urban ecological adventures will include learning about San Francisco's rare habitats, wildlife and endangered species, as well as trips to the City's seeps, lakes, springs and creeks. In collaboration with Tree Frog Treks, whose director, Chris Giorni, Mr. Science, is a member of our Steering Committee, we will work with the network of diverse local talent of Franciscan naturalists to bring the public a wonderful program of eco-adventures, right here in the City!
If you are interested in urban nature tours on Friday afternoons, call 564-4107.
The brainchild of Brent Plater, member
of our Steering
Committee and
former Bay Area Director of the Center for Biological
Diversity,
the GGNRA 2008 Big Year Project will be an incredible public educational opportunity for San Franciscans, Californians and all who want to learn more about our local urban national park and the federally listed endangered species that call the GGNRA home.
Please visit www.ggnrabigyear.org to learn more about this exciting project, a collaborative effort with Golden Gate Audubon Society, Center for Biological Diversity, San Francisco Zoo, San Francisco Naturalist Society, California Native Plant Society, National Parks & Conservation Association and many others.
Trips to see endangered species in the GGNRA will be happening throughout 2008.
MAP of
San Francisco's Natural
Heritage
Working with our partners, Recreation and Parks Natural Areas Program and the Presidio Trust, we have produced an updated 2nd edition map, published in July, 2007.
The 2nd edition includes:
- an updated and enhanced list of 49 natural areas
- a beautiful new cover photo of the local native coastal variety of the California poppy
- inset maps of the Bay Area, Alcatraz and Yerba Buena Island
- new photos and information about our local Franciscan ecology and how
you can get involved in caring for nature in the city
- a much improved main map with better colors, layout, and bike and transit routes
Please consider becoming a member of Nature in the City,
and we will send you a map in the mail.
In collaboration with our Recreation and Parks and Presidio Trust colleagues and in partnership with SEEC-SF and the San Francisco Green Schoolyard Alliance, we are delivering the 2nd edition MAP to San Francisco public school classrooms.
McLaren Park Earth Day
Check out our Earth Day page. Read the great press we received about last year's Earth Day and McLaren Park, and visit last year's Earth Day page to see our previous stage lineup and habitat restoration opportunities.
TALKS w/ Shaping San Francisco
We have teamed up with Shaping San Francisco to bring the public a rich diversity of talks about local urban nature conservation & urban ecological sustainability. All talks are at Counterpulse, 1310 Mission Street, San Francisco, at 7:30 PM, the last Wednesday of the month. Check the calendar for the next talk. If you are interested in volunteering with outreach for this program, call 564-4107.
Fall/Winter TALKS 2008
Spring
TALKS 2007
The goal of this website is to be the
place to learn everything there
is to know about the city's natural heritage and biodiversity. This is
where people find out how to connect with nature where they
live. We want this to be an optimized community
resource, so feedback
and help is
welcome and necessary.
Be sure to check out www.urbannature.org, with hundreds of links to local (and national & international) urban nature and biodiversity, also accessible from links on this site.
--Return to Table of Contents--
Habitat Restoration & Stewardship
In January, 2006, we co-hosted a community stewards gathering with SF Recreation and Parks. We received initial feedback from the natural areas stewards on building and expanding the local ecological stewardship network and developing a support program.
In June, 2006, we co-sponsored the 6th Biennial San Francisco Ecological Restoration Conference, where we engaged the stewards in a further needs assessment and feedback process to help us serve the community best.
Where gaps exist in locally-based natural areas stewardship, we will catalyze communities to get involved with caring for their neighborhood natural lands. Check the calendar for wildland stewardship work-parties.
Backyard Oaks for Wildlife Habitat
Nature 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 wonderously 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 668-5097to 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.
Green Hairstreak Ecosystem Corridor
We just started the initial planning for an exciting new project to restore the ecological corridor of the locally rare Green Hairstreak Butterfly, a charismatic critter that only flies on the west side of the city in remnant dunes. The project is exciting for its integrated goals and approach. We propose both to restore & to connect 4 hilltop natural dune areas from Grandview Park to Hawk Hill. While we are primarily concerned about the fate of the butterfly, the project will naturally also benefit the mosaic of native plants and animals within this habitat. To learn more and to view the corridor of this hilltop flier, check out our brief project document (PDF).
There are three upcoming walks scheduled to see the butterfly with Liam O'Brien and Deirdre
Elmansoumi. Please come along to see the butterflies and lend a hand in creating vital habitat for generations to come!
Saturday, April 12
Sunday, April 27
Saturday, May 10
All walks begin at 1 pm and meet at the corner of 14th Avenue and Rivera. For more information call (415 )564-4107, or email steward@natureinthecity.org.
Haight-Ashbury Stewards helps agencies and organizations including the Natural Areas Program, UCSF, & the Haight Ashbury Native Plant Nursery to steward the natural communities at Buena Vista Park, Golden Gate Park, Tank Hill, Twin Peaks and Mt. Sutro.
Mission Greenbelt
On Saturday, Novemer 17, 2007, the Nature in the City Stewardship Committee installed a Native Plant Demonstration Garden to educate the public about sustainable landscape practices and conservation and to draw people into Amber Hasselbring's Mission Greenbelt Project Campaign HQ at the Arts Commission Gallery, there at Van Ness and McAllister. We'll be working with Amber to
install a native plant garden at the Mission Pool and Playground, near the west end of the proposed Mission Greenbelt.
San Francisco Weed Management Area (SFWMA)
Invasive weeds are the single largest threat to the conservation of Franciscan biodiversity and the long-term ecological sustainability of our natural communities. They cause major impacts in both natural and designed landscapes of the City. The SFWMA is a collaborative group of public agencies and non-profit organizations working together to educate the public about invasive weeds, and to manage weeds across jurisdictional and landscape boundaries.
Working closely with island residents
and the Treasure Island Development Authority, we are restoring native habitat and conserving the natural areas of Yerba Buena Island. The island residents are eager to learn the ecology of the island, and to engage in its long-term sustainable ecological stewardship. For more information, contact us at 415-564-4107. For more information about the Island, click here.
--Return to Table of Contents--
Conservation Advocacy & Policy : Grassroots Public Participation in Nature Conservation Policymaking
San Francisco nature advocates and natural
areas supporters can get
involved with conserving local biodiversity in myriad ways. Besides
volunteering
with habitat
restoration and community stewardship
programs, people can
communicate directly with parkland and other City, State and Federal
decision-makers at public meetings occurring in the City
every
month.
Key public agencies at which Nature in the City is currently engaged
with civic leaders include:
Natural Areas Program of SF Recreation and Parks (SFRPD)
The Natural Areas Program is the keystone of the City's fledgling effort to manage its lands for the conservation of local nature and biodiversity. However, it is under constant surveillance and attack from those who don't find natural areas conservation or connecting urbanites with nature to be a priority for the City and its residents.
The Significant Natural
Resource Areas Management Plan
addresses management of all of the 31 natural
areas under SFRPD's juridiction. The Plan is currently undergoing
environmental review, a process that may take as much as a year and a
half. Read more to learn about
the Plan and the Program.
Presidio
of San Francisco, Golden Gate
National Recreation Area
The Presidio is the crown
jewel of the city's natural environment.
Many large projects are in various phases of planning, including Doyle
Drive, Tennessee Hollow and Crissy Marsh Expansion. We are working as a
key member of the Presidio
Environmental Council to support and urge the
Presidio Trust and the National Park Service to
protect and restore the natural resources of the Presidio and the
GGNRA.
Public Agencies (that own/lease
natural lands in the City)
Agencies with which Nature in the City is actively engaged:
° SF Public Utilities Commission - Water Department at Lake Merced & Laguna Honda
° Department of Public Works (DPW)
° Fire Department on Twin Peaks
° Treasure Island Development Authority on Yerba Buena Island
° US Coast Guard on Yerba Buena Island
° U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
Agencies with which we are not currently actively working (but colleagues are):
Urban
Environmental Accords at the Commission on the Environment
On the heals of the Nature in the City Symposium, held
during World
Environment Day 2005,
we are championing the Urban Nature section of the Urban Environmental Accords, advocating strongly that the the City implement better and more robust urban nature conservation policies and programs.
--Return to Table of Contents--
The programs of Nature in the City
are designed to achieve our mission and
goals.
Few of these
projects
have specific funding at the current time. We are
seeking funding
not only for projects, but also for
organizational development and capacity-building.
f you or anybody you know wants to join, or is otherwise interested
in helping Nature in the City
financially, or in volunteering, please contact
us.
--Return to Table of Contents--
