Guest guest Posted October 1, 2008 Report Share Posted October 1, 2008 Forwarding The Message. Nature in the City <steward wrote: Nature in the City Newsletter /* place css box model fixes for IE 5* in this conditional comment */ .twoColFixLtHdr #sidebar1 { width: 230px; } /* place css fixes for all versions of IE in this conditional comment */ .twoColFixLtHdr #sidebar1 { padding-top: 30px; } .twoColFixLtHdr #mainContent { zoom: 1; } /* the above proprietary zoom property gives IE the hasLayout it needs to avoid several bugs */ a:visited { text-decoration: none !important; color: #660000 !important; } a:hover { text-decoration: underline !important; color: #CC9900 !important; } a:active { text-decoration: none !important; color: #FF6600 !important; } Restore Sharp Park Golf Course Task Force Meeting TONIGHT, Monday, September 29 City Hall, Room 278 6 - 8 pm Please attend this meeting and ask the Golf Course Task Force to consider restoring Sharp Park! Check out the new Restore Sharp Park website for more information. If you can't attend, please use the Center for Biological Diversity's ACTION ALERT to ask public officials to restore Sharp Park! If this page is not displaying properly, click here or copy and paste this URL into your browser: http://natureinthecity.org/NTCnews9-29.html September 29, 2008 NEWS Sharp Park Updates Press Release Peter on ABC 7 Action Alert New Website New Butterfly Species! Wildlife Gardening @ GFE Upcoming FALL TALK Crissy Field Snowy Plover Monitoring Report Warning of Lead Fallout California Biodiversity Council Fall Meeting SF Bay Wildlife Tours Job Opening @ Randall Nature in the City Calendar Links Calendar of Events September 29 Golf Course Task Force 6 - 8 pm October 2 Presidio Trust SEIS Workshop 8:30 am Golden Gate Club 135 Fisher Loop CNPS Program Lessons in Forest Management From a Relict Mixed-Conifer Forest in Baja California 9th Ave & Lincoln Way 7:30 pm October 10-11 Green Schoolyard Alliance Conference October 11 Big Blue Bucket Eco-Fair 10 am - 2 pm October 12 Geology Walk 1 - 3 pm October 19 Mountain Jam 5 pm - 9 pm 23 Club 23 Visitacion Avenue, Brisbane PLEASE RSVP An evening of music for your listening pleasure, music to sing along with and music that will make you get up and dance! Suggested Donation of $15. All proceeds from this event will be used for San Bruno Mountain Watch Education and Stewardship programs October 29 Fall TALK Candlestick Point-State Park for the People 7:30 pm Study Group Home Study Course on Bird Biology Group will follow the syllabus together, set a comfortable pace, and have occasional visiting lecturers, multi-media resources, and quarterly field trips to reinforce learning. The total cost of the roughly year-long effort would be about $365 per person, which includes the $300 Cornell course material. For further information, contact Kristen Bunting or call 510.843.2222. *For more calendar items, as well as regular volunteer opportunities, go to the Nature in the City Calendar to view all posted events. More Calendars BIG YEAR Calendar California Native Plant Society Department of the Environment Garden for the Environment Golden Gate Audubon Society Green City Calendar Parks Conservancy San Francisco Botanical Society San Francisco Naturalist Society San Francisco Nature Education SF Natural Areas Links Green Hairstreak MAP Mission Greenbelt Mt. Sutro Native Plant Sale Natural Areas Program NTC's Programs SF Weed Management Area Past Newsletters Up News Sharp Park Updates I have nothing against golf, itself. Though I do wonder whether California and its rain-stingy Mediterranean climate is an appropriate place for a sport invented in Scotland, where it rains...a lot. I know nothing of the sport's origin story, but I have been to Scotland - in September. While Calilfornia is still cooking with heat and parched from summer drought (except for lush green golf courses), Scotland in August and September is as green as can be, a very sensible place for golf, a sport that requires acres and acres of emerald green grass. Not only does the golf course at Sharp Park require the spring, summer & fall water that all courses in California do (never mind Nevada and Arizona), Laguna Salada and the course surrounding it are prime habitat for the federally threatened red-legged frog and " the most beautiful serpent in North America, " the San Francisco garter snake. Remember, this is not the common garter snake, but a special species with a brilliant blue stripe, which only occurs on the San Mateo County coast. The narrow range of the San Francisco garter snake makes every single acre of habitat critical for its future survival. Should we pay attention to the needs of other species, at least equally with our own? In fact, by saving other species and by definition, the ecosystems of which they are a part and on which they depend, we are saving ourselves. We are of the Earth. Shall we continue to destroy our own habitat? Sharp Park Golf Course is literally built on a wetland. The site has to be drained in order to keep the greens from flooding. Draining the site obviously makes the habitat worse for the frog and the snake, which depend on perennial water. And what of global warming and the inevitable sea level rise that will result from the melting of the Arctic Ocean, Greenland, and giant chunks of Antarctica? Will we continue to try to manage a coastal golf course at sea level or will we get smart and create conditions for the local habitats and critters to adapt to future environments? The more habitat we protect and restore, the more resilient ecosystems and species are in the face of global climate change. Sharp Park is virtually surrounded by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area, the incomparable national park in our own backyard. This Franciscan Bioregion harbors truly fantastic biodiversity, including dozens and dozens of endangered species. These local native plants and animals are endangered of course because their habitats are endangered. If not for the California Coastal Commission, our west coast wetlands probably would have gone extinct. Thank goodness for government regulation! Of course, citizens have played the pivotal role in all of the ecological victories of the last few decades, including the establishment of our great national park. Isn't it time for a Sharp Park Restored to take its seamless, interdependent place among the remaining patchwork quilt of rich natural areas on the central coast, where local people can be proud that they live and interact sustainably with some of the country's rarest critters? - Peter Brastow The Center for Biological Diversity filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the City and County of San Francisco for illegally killing and harming two endangered species at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. Activities at the golf course have been killing federally protected California red-legged frogs, and recent studies show that ongoing course operations may be threatening endangered San Francisco garter snakes. Read the full press release on the CBD website. View 3 articles printed in the SF Chronicle: Pacifica: Old tires getting the boot, Rare frog, snake at center of golf dispute and City Insider Blog. Also see the Pacifica Tribune, Sierra Club, KTVU, & the San Mateo County Times for more articles. See Peter Brastow and Jeff Miller on ABC 7 News, discussing Sharp Park and its diverse endangered species habitats. Check out the action alert created by the Center for Biological Diversity - sign it and come to the Golf Course Task Force meeting! The new website dedicated to the restoration of Sharp Park has been launched! Up Another New Butterfly Species at the Presidio! From Matt Zlatunich " ...We would have been perfectly contented with the thirteen species we had found by mid-afternoon during our Presidio-wide survey. But again, Liam O'Brien and I felt the thrill of discovery when we added our fourteenth species of the day, a Mournful Duskywing (Erynnis tristis) that was nectaring on mock heather (Ericameria ericoides) in the Lobos Creek Valley. Although the Mournful Duskywing is considered to be fairly common throughout the Bay Area, this is the first solid Presidio record and only the second San Francisco record, the first being a specimen in the California Academy of Sciences dated Sept. 24, 1910 with the location given only as San Francisco. The Mournfull Duskywings larval host plant is oak, including the Coast Live Oak (Quercus agrifolia), which grows along the banks of Lobos Creek and elsewhere throughout the Presidio. We are consulting with some of the regional academic experts regarding this sighting. Some butterfly species are known to " stray " beyond the normal limits of their range, which may be the case here. Infact, this butterfly may not be a Mournful Duskywing, rather a nearly identical species from the south called a Funereal Duskywing. Stay tuned... " Up Wildlife Gardening @ GFE Josiah Clark (ecologist & NTC Steering Committee member) will be leading a class called Wildlife Gardening. The class will focus on methods to increase the resources and carrying capacity for native SF fauna in all kinds of backyard settings. Meet at the garden on October 25 at 10am. Registration and more information is available through Garden for the Environment. Up Join Nature in the City! Become a member today and get a new map! Go online, email or call 415-564-4107. Nature in the City is a project of Earth Island Institute, a 501©3 California non profit public benefit corporation. Fall TALK Come to CounterPULSE on October 29, for the Nature in the City co-sponsored TALK, " Candlestick Point-State Park for the People. " Speakers include, Alan Hopkins, Patrick Rump, and Claude Everhart. Up Crissy Field Snowy Plover Monitoring Report Check out Golden Gate Audubon's 10-page Crissy Field Snowy Plover monitoring report (by Matt Zlatunich) for 2007/2008. This is the fifth conescutive year the bird has returned to Crissy Field. Up Warning of Lead Fallout The SF Chronicle ran an article this morning about lead pollution at the Petaluma Trap and Skeet Club. It brings to mind the current controversy at the Pacific Rod and Gun Club at Lake Merced, where the gun club should be required to remove all lead from the lake and its uplands. Up California Biodiversity Council Fall 2008 Meeting - Children in Nature Preservation Park October 8, 2008: Field Tours and Dinner Tours start at 10 a.m. from Oakland October 9, 2008: 8 a.m. - 3 p.m. Meeting Go to the CBD website for the agenda, posters, and more information. Up SF Bay Wildlife Tours San Francisco Bay Wildlife Tours help protect wildlife and encourage conservation through fun and exciting forays into the great outdoors. Customize your own private voyage, while their award-winning photographer documents your trip with your own camera. Available for wildlife presentations and lectures, and to guide group tours and classes. Just go to the SF Bay Wildlife Tour website - tell them Nature in the City referred you and we recieve 15%! Up Job Opening @ Randall Museum The Randall Museum is hiring a few new staff members in the coming year. The first step requires the applicant to be on the Recreation and Park Department list. An application and qualifying exam are neccesary to get on this list. Application to take the qualifying exam due October 6! The application is available thru the SF GOV website. Up To to the Nature in the City Newsletter click HERE. Our postal address is PO Box 170088 San Francisco, California 94117 United States Enjoy life and smile. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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