1. Children's Summer Solstice Bird Count in the Presidio
2. Go To place for San Francisco butterflies
3. 17th Annual San Francisco Butterfly Count postponed because of weather - will be rescheduled
4. Low-key group champions butterflies, as well as other spineless creatures
5. Report on innovative birding - Green Big Day Competition, by bicycle
6. Nature in the City potpourri:
Bay Area Chapter for Children in Nature Collaborative
Nature in the City needs web help
Job opportunities
Meetings re new Community Garden in Golden Gate Park
Save Our State Parks Rally in Sacramento June 21
7. Filmmaker trying to save state parks $1 at a time
8. Bay Area Open Space Council Triple Threat June 18 - peak bagging w/o a
2. Go To place for San Francisco butterflies
3. 17th Annual San Francisco Butterfly Count postponed because of weather - will be rescheduled
4. Low-key group champions butterflies, as well as other spineless creatures
5. Report on innovative birding - Green Big Day Competition, by bicycle
6. Nature in the City potpourri:
Bay Area Chapter for Children in Nature Collaborative
Nature in the City needs web help
Job opportunities
Meetings re new Community Garden in Golden Gate Park
Save Our State Parks Rally in Sacramento June 21
7. Filmmaker trying to save state parks $1 at a time
8. Bay Area Open Space Council Triple Threat June 18 - peak bagging w/o a
car/Fog Gathering July 21
9. Grass identification workshops June 11 and June 25-26
10. What we need is here - Wendell Berry
11. Comment on Presidio Habitat exhibit's actually attracting wildlife
12. North Beach Library: Meritorious National Register Nomination
13. Author-photographer Sharon Beals on Friday June 10
14. Comment on quail and ravens in GGP
15. EBRPD Botanic Garden: Pollinator Paradise June 11/identifying dragonflies June 18
16. Obama Stealth Amnesty Challenged in FOIA Complaint
17. PCL reports huge victories for the environment at legislative session's mid-mark
18. SF Natural History Series June 16: Getting to Bottom of the Bay - Subtleties of the Subtidal/report on last month's program
19. Presidio Coastal Trail/Lincoln Blvd Bike Lane improvements - walk on June 11
20. High Country News - two big items by San Franciscans about San Francisco
21. Marital advice from Ogden Nash
"Be cheerful, even after considering all the facts." Wendell Berry
_____________________________________________
1. Children’s Summer Solstice Bird Count in the Presidio!
This free event is sponsored by the Presidio Trust and Golden Gate Audubon
Saturday, June 11th, 10 am to 2 pm. Meet at Rob Hill Campground, 900 Washington Blvd., San Francisco, CA
Did you know that the Presidio is a birding hotspot in the Bay Area? After a short “binocular bootcamp and birding basics” youth ages 8 to 15 and their families will join experienced birders in teams on different routes throughout the Presidio. After an easy 2 hour walk counting observed bird life, groups will return to Rob Hill Campground to tally their numbers during lunch. The day will be topped off with presentations of the day’s numbers by…kids!
Lunch will not be provided, so we recommend bringing a paper-bag lunch and snacks as needed. Please remember to dress in layers and bring water. Binoculars are not required, but recommended if you have them (a supply of binoculars will be available to borrow for the day).
Because space is limited for this event, please RSVP to Pete Bidigare at: pbidigare@presidiotrust.gov or 415-561-4449
###################################################
2. Go To place for San Francisco butterflies:
Jake -- Would love for you to let folks know now that there is somewhere for novice lepidopterists to go to figure out the name of that thing landing in their San Francisco gardens: www.sfbutterfly.com
###################################################
3. If people would like to participate in the re-scheduled 17th Annual San Francisco Butterfly Count (canceled due to heavy marine layer on the 6th), they can send their e-mails to liammail56@yahoo.com Although no date has been selected, the window to hold the count runs through the end of July. Contingent on the sunshine, Liam will try to give folks some days notice before the count."
###########################################################
4. Low-key Group Champions Butterfly
Xerces Society aids conservation of invertebrate species
Audubon Society speaks for the birds. Defenders of Wildlife protects the wolves. World Wildlife Fund champions the polar bears.
So who's left to fight for the butterflies, the bees, and the mussels?
It turns out, it's a little-known national group headquartered in Portland, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Operating from an unmarked office building on bustling Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, the Xerces Society is collaborating on projects in 36 states to protect the "neglected majority"--animals without backbones that constitute more than 95% of the world's critters.
"They're the basis of every food chain," says Scott Black, Xerces Society executive director. "Without them, we wouldn't have most flowering plants."
Other wildlife conservation groups catch the public eye championing what Black calls "charismatic megafauna"--species like polar bears, pandas or salmon.
"The closest we get is the Monarch butterfly," he says. "We've worked on springs where 20 mini-snails may fit on your pinkie finger. Those just aren't charismatic".....
Published in the SustainableLife section of The Portland Tribune on 21 January 2011. The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=1295052740577356200
(JS: Think hard about that sentence "They're the basis of every food chain; without them, we wouldn't have most flowering plants." Or, he might have continued, polar bears, pandas, salmon, and all the creatures higher up the food chain, including us. World Wildlife Fund has a relatively easy job raising money for the cute and cuddly, but the un-cute and un-cuddly are ultimately much more important. Yet they need help even more than the endearing fuzzy ones. One thing he didn't mention is the fascinating journal Wings, containing very interesting articles by good scientific writers, complemented by beautiful photographs.)
##################################################
5. From Josiah Clark:
Hi there naturalists and media folks.
Wanted to send out this draft report of a noteworthy Green Big Day by bicycle, a birding competition we participated in earlier this month. At 145 species our team won the Green Big Day Competition with some 20+ teams competing in the US and even more abroad. As some of you may know this is a growing sport and the next big chapter in birding. Bay Area birders are leading the pack with the three highest scores of the competition.
(JS: Josiah's report on this formidable and inspiring marathon is posted as a discrete item on my http://naturenewssf.blogspot.com/)
###########################################################
6. Potpourri from Nature in the City
Children in Nature Collaborative
Richard Louv's movement finally has a Bay Area Chapter! Check out what's going on with the Children in Nature Collaborative, reconnecting with the natural world.
Nature in the City Needs Web Help
We need someone to manage Nature in the City'swebsite, the online resource for natural San Francisco - we need someone to manage our current website, and someone to build our new one.
Email peter@natureinthecity.org.
Job Opportunities
Staff Scientist at http://www.tamariskcoalition.org/
Environmental Project Manager/Volunteer Coordinator (Channel Islands)
http://www.cirweb.org/jobs.htm
Outreach Coordinator at http://www.planetdrum.org
Meetings re new Community Garden in Golden Gate Park
Check out these new meetings, and make sure that the native plant nursery, run by Greg Gaar, with solid and professional ecological support, plays a central role in the vision for the site.
"Everyone is invited to participate as a member of theAdvisory Council. The mission of the Advisory Council is to provide the Recreation and Park Department with input on the design, implementation and programming of the future community garden. The Advisory Council meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in the Commission Room, McLaren Lodge, located at Fell/Stanyan Streets (unless noted otherwise). Meetings are held at 5:30-7:00 PM."
Save the Date: June 21 at the Capitol
Save Our State Parks Rally & Expo in Sacramento
"Please join us at the Capitol on Tuesday, June 21 for a Save Our State Parks Rally! Help us urge state policymakers to not make our state parks just a memory. While you are in Sacramento you can also stop by our state park expo, where we will be showcasing the 70 state parks planned for closure. At the expo you will be able to speak with representatives from organizations throughout the state that have joined the Save Our State Parks campaign and learn more about work being done to stop park closures, increase volunteer efforts and raise awareness. For more information, please contact us at advocacy@calparks.org."
###########################################################
Sunday, June 5, 2011 (SF Chronicle)
7. Filmmaker trying to save state parks $1 at a time
Filmmaker Alden Olmsted's effort to prevent California state parks from closing fits every known definition of a grassroots campaign.
The son of a renowned naturalist, Olmsted is visiting every one of the 70 state parks slated for closure and dropping off plastic donation buckets that were once used by a friend for storing marijuana. His goal is to collect a dollar from every Californian.
Story at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/06/05/BAIM1JOH45.DTL
###########################################################
8. Bay Area Open Space Council
Join us for the Triple Threat on June 18
Is it possible to live in the Bay Area without a car? YES it is! It is also possible to ride to the tops of 3 Bay Area peaks in one day without a car. Really!
On the longest Saturday in 2011 a group of riders will take their bikes to the tops of Mount Hamilton, Mount Tamalpais, and Mount Diablo and use trains and ferries to get between the three mountains. It’s the 2nd annual Triple Threat bike challenge.
Fog Gathering on July 21
Join us for our third Gathering of the year! The Fog Gathering will be held on July 21 at the Log Cabin in the Presidio.
Getting From Here to There: Transportation, Open Space, and Climate Change
http://openspacecouncil.org/community/events.php
###########################################################
9. Grass identification workshops from the California Native Grasslands Assn
1. June 11, 9 am - 3 pm: Introduction to California Grasslands and Grass ID. Location: Pepperwood Preserve, Santa Rosa.
Fees: $30 CNGA & Pepperwood members, $35 Non-members, $25 Students w ID
Instructor: Wade Belew, Restorationist & CNGA Board President
This new CNGA workshop features lecture, lab, and field components in a 6-hour format. It is designed for landowners, students, ranchers, professional resource managers, and anyone who wants an entry-level opportunity to learn more about grasses. Prior botanical experience not needed.
2. June 25-26: 2-day, Identifying and Appreciating the Native and Naturalized Grasses of California. Location: Point Reyes Dance Palace and Field Sites, Point Reyes Station
Fees: $220/CNGA members, $240 Non-members, $135 Students w ID
Instructor: David Amme, Wildland Vegetation Program Manager, East Bay Regional Park District, CNGA Founder and Past-President
Grasses are fun and easy to identify! Our goal is to learn the basic skills of identifying grasses.
Day 1: Learn about California’s grassland ecology, the qualities of specific native grasses for restoration, and become skilled at recognizing the basic groups and common species through working with plant samples in the classroom.
Day 2: Explore a local grassland, rich with a diverse assemblage of both native and naturalized grasses
###########################################################
10.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
Wendell Berry
###########################################################
11. Ben Pease (responding to "Help the Park and Presidio identify ways in which visitors can make a deeper connection to the amazing diversity of natural resources in the Presidio", posted on May 10):
I do wonder if the Presidio Habitat exhibit actually attracted any wildlife. The "Fox house" is useless (just a narrow tunnel through the center, no place for a den); the geodesic owl nest at Immigrant Point may stand a chance of attracting some sort of bird, but I wonder about the thermal mass (plywood vs. tree) and visibility to passing ravens. All the birds I've seen gathering nesting material are after fine string, grass strands, etc.; nothing as thick as sterile straw. We humans are not quite as smart as birds.
(I apologize for the long delay in responding to this feedback. It was posted on my blog site, and I didn't know how to handle it on that strange medium, so I just let it sit there.)
###########################################################
12. NORTH BEACH LIBRARY: MERITORIOUS NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION
Applying national standards used by every state, independent commissions can help inform the public dialogue and public processes. On May 19, 2011, the State Historical Resources Commission (SHRC) recommended that the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) forward the North Beach Library to the Keeper of the National Register for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The recommendation and potential listing adds formal recognition of the Library’s historical and architectural significance, highlighting preservation designs that the environmental review process already gives preferential status.
The Library Department’s technical reports, Planning Department's reports and historical studies were the academic basis for the evaluation of the North Beach Library---under Federal Government Criteria and State of California Criteria. The Historic Resources Technical Report, Continuation Sheets, Case Reports, independent historians, Library, Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department concur that the North Beach Library has high cultural, historical and architectural significance. The North Beach Library is also eligible for a thematically-related Multiple Property Listing, as a remarkable set of libraries completed by the City of San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s, all designed by a single firm (Appleton & Wolfard).
The North Beach Library illustrates the social democratization of the American library movement. Representative of 1959’s national culture, its modernist aesthetics incorporated the popular fascination with technology and democratic education in the face of the Cold War and the “space race”. Serving as a neighborhood center that mixed a burgeoning diverse population, the residential-scaled building mimicked the domesticity of suburban homes with public “living rooms” and fireplaces, in which the idealized postwar family could gather and socialize. Red brick textures, exposed wood beams, outdoor terraces, diffused natural lighting, acoustical balance and an open spatial quality reinforced the suburban theme---reflective of the aspirations of the post-WWII middle-class family.
The North Beach Library has the highest architectural integrity of the remaining Appleton-Wolfard Libraries. Its rehabilitation and expansion would be San Francisco’s showcase mid-century modernist library. The Marina Library has already been designated a City Landmark, and the Library Department has scheduled others for landmark status. These mid-century modernist structures are San Francisco’s first recognized historic resources of their genre and generation, honoring the variety, maturation and historicism of San Francisco’s legacy from every period of time---whether it be in art, culture, music, literature, philosophy, design or architecture.
Mid-century modernism embodies its own unique meaning and cultural significance. Unless protected, this living history will be destroyed or unrecognized. The National Register Listing would keep history alive by recognizing the values and encouraging preservation of irreplaceable historic resources.
Rehabilitation and expansion of the North Beach Library would be the most cost effective and sustainable design, adding several thousand square feet more than new construction, creating more space for the next generation of technology and maximizing the square footage of Joe DiMaggio Playground.
For additional information:
Howard Wong, AIA
Friends of Appleton-Wolfard Libraries
Ph: (415)-982-5055
###########################################################
13. Sharon Beals, photographer and author of Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them, is being hosted for one night pop-up show and talk at Zannah Noe's Dogpatch Studio.
Friday, June 10th - 5 to 9 p.m.
900 Tennessee Street
Weekend viewings available by appointment.
Arstist prints available as well as a collector edition of the book.
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170233979703035
sbeals@sharonbeals
415-377-4214
sharonbeals.blogspot.com
###########################################################
14. Feedback
Ron Wellman:
jake, I saw one (1) quail in ggp on saturday, up in the old rhododendron area, and two (2) ravens hopping around in the dahlia garden, being harassed by 5 or 6 blackbirds. not a crow in sight.
##################################################
15. East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden Newsletter June 2011
Last Chance!
Just two classes left this session.
Pollinator Paradise with K. Ruby Blume will be held from 12 Noon to 3 pm, Saturday, June 11.
Understanding and Identifying the Bay Area's Dazzling Dragonflies with Kathy and Dave Biggs will be held from 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday, June 18.
Both classes have space available but you must register right NOW. Click here for the registration form.
Watch for the Summer/Fall Schedule. It'll be coming to your inbox sometime during the month of June.
##################################################
16. Obama Stealth Amnesty Challenged in FOIA Complaint
For decades, one of the most challenging problems facing activists who favor lower immigration levels is “stealth amnesty.” Broadly defined, that means presidential administrations dating back as far as George H.W. Bush and continuing through though Barack Obama's , have willfully ignored illegal immigration and allowed aliens to live openly, take jobs, start families and enroll their children in public school with little fear of deportation.
Because of the Executive Branch’s indifference to enforcing immigration laws millions of aliens have illegally planted roots in the United States over a 25 year period.
Disregard has reached its peak under the current administration. In 2010, an internal memo drafted by four U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staffers for agency director Alejandro N. Mayorkas outlined a plan that would allow the USCIS, under certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to "develop and implement a registration program for individuals who are unlawfully present in the U.S." and to enact “meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action.”
Any of the memo’s recommendations, broadly referred to as “remedies,” have the potential to grant amnesty to large numbers of illegal immigrants without Congressional approval. Among the most blatant circumventions of Congress are: 1) granting “parole-in-place” on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit” to any illegal alien applicant, 2) lowering the standards for demonstrating “extreme hardship, 3) increasing the use of “deferred action” (allowing visa overstayers to remain), and 4) allowing temporarily protected applicants to change status.
Last August, the Houston Chronicle revealed that parts of Obama’s plan had been set into motion. According to Houston immigration lawyers, aliens arrived in court expecting an order of deportation only to find their cases dismissed. Raed Gonzalez, an attorney who acts as the liaison between the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers the immigration court system, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the dismissals a necessary step in unclogging a massive backlog in the immigration court system. A year ago, researchers at Syracuse University discovered that more than 248,000 immigration cases were pending across the country including about 23,000 in Texas.
To block this backdoor amnesty scheme Judicial Watch, a non-partisan Washington, D.C.-based public interest group that investigates and prosecutes public corruption filed two complaints against the Obama administration. In its March 29, 2011 press release, Judicial Watch confirmed that it had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits (on July 2 and August 30) against the Department of Homeland Security demanding to see “any and all records” pertaining to “deferred action,” “parole in place” or other documents that outline a plan that would effectively amnesty millions.
Other than acknowledging receipt of the FOIA requests, DHS has neither responded nor indicated when a response might be forthcoming. And despite evidence to the contrary, Obama has insisted that he has no plans to suspend deportations. On March 28, 2011, Obama claimed that : “There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”
The memo offered an in depth look into Obama’s mindset. While he was unable in 2010 to get amnesty through the traditional Congressional procedures, he appears emotionally committed to the concept and may not, in fact, hesitate to implement his executive powers to grant amnesty.
Whether Obama wins reelection or not, the risk of executive order action is worrisome since last minute action for pet presidential causes are common.
Californians for Population Stabilization
Fast Fact: 61% of likely U.S. voters believe that a child born in the United States to a woman who is here illegally should not automatically become a U.S. citizen. -- Rasmussen Reports
##################################################
17. Planning & Conservation League
HUGE VICTORIES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AS THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION HITS THE MIDWAY MARK
Today marks the legislative deadline for all bills introduced this year to move out of their first house. That means all bills introduced in the Assembly had to pass out of the Assembly and those introduced in the Senate had to pass out of the Senate.
This week Legislators passed bills that reduce waste in our landfills, protect and improve drinking water quality, ensure there is no net loss of state park lands and legislation that would eliminate carcinogenic polystyrene in take-out containers. Bills passed to allow public access to information regarding the chemicals used in oil fracking, water well logs, and the prime groundwater recharge areas in the state. Below are a few of the highlights of the bills still alive half-way through the legislative session. To read the full list of environmental victories click here.
AB 341 (Chesbro) – Bill presents a package of policies that will move California forward from land filling to waste reduction, recycling, and composting, by setting a statewide diversion goal of 75% and finally expanding recycling opportunities to the state’s largest underserved sectors: businesses and apartment buildings.
AB 359 (Huffman) – Bill promotes the management and protection of the state’s groundwater supplies by requiring, as a condition of receiving a state grants or loans, local water agencies to map the recharge areas that substantially contribute to the replenishment of the groundwater basin. The bill also requires local groundwater agencies to submit recharge maps to local planning agencies and expand public notification when preparing and approving groundwater plans.
AB 703 (Gordon) – This bill would continue a 40-year legislative legacy of providing property tax incentives for non-profit ownership and stewardship of open-space and park lands. Lands benefiting from the current exemption complement existing local, state, and federal park lands, and they do so without drawing upon scarce public funds. They are managed solely by non-profit organizations to achieve lasting and cost-effective benefits to the public.
SB 244 (Wolk) - This bill, seeks to provide underserved communities with basic needs such as clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal by requiring that cities and counties indentify and include unincorporated island, fringe, or legacy communities in their plans, data and analysis, goals, and implementation measures. This bill, along with AB 685 (Eng), AB 938 (V. Manuel Pérez), AB 983 (Perea), and AB 1221 (Alejo) are the Human Right to Water bills still active this session.
SB 517 (Lowenthal) – Bill would reorder the High-Speed Rail Authority in order to establish a well-informed body that is more accountable to the state of California. In addition to other revisions, this bill would place the Authority within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and require the members of the authority appointed by the Governor to be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. (PCL Lead Sponsor)
SB 535 (De León) – This bill establishes the CA Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust. The Trust ensures we meet the promise of AB 32 to protect and strengthen CA’s most disadvantaged communities by providing these communities with AB 32-related green economic investments. Does NOT authorize a new tax or fee, rather it directs 10 cents of each AB 32 revenue dollar in the neighborhoods which will suffer first and worst from the climate crisis.
SB 568 (Lowenthal) - Bill would eliminate polystyrene foam food take-out containers state-wide, thereby reducing public and worker exposure to Styrene, a carcinogen in lab animals that migrates from foam containers into food and beverages.
SB 580 (Wolk) – Bill establishes strong protections for state parks and advances a principle of “no net loss” of state park lands. If a situation arises that pits state parks against another competing public interest, this bill would ensure there is no net loss of park resources for the California public.
###################################################
18. SF Natural History Series JUNE LECTURE
Getting to the Bottom of the Bay – Subtleties of the Subtidal
Guest Speaker: Marilyn Latta
7:30pm, Thursday, June 16th, 2011
FREE at the Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco
Marilyn Latta, restoration ecologist, will show us a long term vision of how we can restore and manage the still thriving habitats of sand waves, eelgrass and shellfish beds, rocky outcrops, shoals and channel banks that make up the bottom of the bay.
You can read more about Marilyn Latta's work and her project at Bay Nature magazine’s website:
http://baynature.org/articles/oct-dec-2010/subtleties-of-the-subtidal
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
FUTURE TALKS
7/21 – Vanished Waters and the History of Mission Bay – Chris Carlsson
8/18 – The Farallon Egg War – Eva Chrysanthe
9/15 – San Francisco’s Changing Landscape – Greg Gaar
10/20 – Nature in the City – Peter Brastow (TBD)
11/17 – Reclaiming the Art of Natural History – John (Jack) Muir Laws
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
LAST MONTH's LECTURE NOTES:
online at: http://sfnhs.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/the-mysterious-native-oysters-of-san-francisco-bay/
It’s a long held belief around here that the oysters native in San Francisco Bay were once abundant, and that their loss may have had a great negative impact on the bay. Our speaker Andrew Cohen believed it, but became curious about one particular question. Why did they disappear?
The native oyster was rediscovered in 1999, and since then people have set about reestablishing their abundance. The only problem Andrewfound with this was that it seemed that they had never quite left. Since 1912, the native oyster seems present in oyster census data through the whole century. They’d never disappeared to being with.
But still, the oysters in these counts were still not abundant. The story goes that until the mid 19th century the oyster was there in abundance, that it was the “dominant commercial fishery” (from an NOAA report). There have been various explanations for the lack of oysters: pollution caused the decline, or mining sediments covering up the oyster beds, or perhaps over-harvesting. Cohen set about investigating these explanations.
He looked at the times before and after 1850 (1769-1850 and 1850-1912), to look at what might have caused the decline. His first thought, as an expert in invasive species, was that perhaps the Spanish or other colonists brought something with them. But as much as he would have liked to have found an explanation there he did not. Pollution as an explanation also fell by the wayside. There were no studies, no specific causes ever listed.
Hydraulic mining sediment also did not seem to be a likely explanation. The sediment peaked in 1890, the sediment was not evenly distributed, and in some places the sediment even decreased.
And in nowhere in the literature of eating after 1850 did anyone ever make much mention of the native oyster. Imports from Japan and the east coast got the lion share of the press. Furthermore, any over-harvesting impacts should have radiated outward from populated areas of the time. But there is no evidence of that.
So in Cohen’s mind, suddenly a different question arose. Were in fact the native oysters ever abundant?
He now dug deeper, looking at contemporary records, harvest records, laws & lawsuits, shell middens, and natural shell deposits. The earliest statement for abundance it turns out came in 1962 with no sources. The original source for “significant harvest” of native oysters seems to have come in 1979. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of contemporary records at all.
And nowhere else did he find any evidence of abundance. Unlike other oyster areas like Washington, there were not laws on the books about native oyster beds and harvesting. There were no lawsuits over ownership.
Finally though, looking at shell middens and shell deposits, he did find evidence for abundance. But it was not what he expected. Oysters were there in abundance, but more than 2000 years ago. The shell middens of the current era are full of clams and mussels. The large abundant oyster deposits were deep with in the bay’s sediments. The data matched each other pretty well. It seems the 1759-1850 abundance of the native oysters was something that was made up.
Andrew Cohen still left us with a mystery (and there are those who dispute Cohen’s evidence) why did they become less abundant 2000 years ago. There is no evidence that they were over-harvested by the Native Americans. Something seems to have changed about the bay, perhaps related to climatic events of the times. But that is perhaps a later talk.
The question for us now, is what about efforts to reintroduce the oyster to San Francisco Bay? Something else is at work to keep the oyster less than abundant, and it is not likely humans, do these little mollusks need our help?
For more information about the San Francisco Bay Estuary, check out “An Introduction to the San Francisco Bay Estuary” (download the PDF).
http://www.sfei.org/node/1846
Andrew Cohen is the Director of the Center for Research on Aquatic Bioinvasions (CRAB) in Richmond. His research includes the science and policy of invasions, and he helped write California’s ballast water laws. He’s received a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, the San Francisco BayKeeper’s Environmental Achievement Award, and in 1994 was named by the Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club as the Best Public Official for the Environment.
##################################################
19. The Presidio Coastal Trail/Lincoln Blvd Bike Lane Improvements project begins in July 2011!
To learn more about the project, please join us for a public walk on:
Saturday, June 11 from 10am – Noon
Project staff from the National Park Service, Presidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy will provide a description of specific project elements related to trails, and natural and cultural resources. You’ll also hear about the temporary closures and detours required during the duration of the project.
To RSVP and learn the meeting location, or if you have any questions, please write trailsforever@parksconservancy.org or call 415-561-3054.
##############################################################
20. High Country News 30.05.11
Mapping culture, history and change in Laramie
What is Laramie? This winter, creative writing graduate students at the
University of Wyoming teamed with author Rebecca Solnit and cartographers Ben Pease and Shizue Seigel to answer that question. The series of maps and essays that resulted provide a nuanced portrait of
place -- one that pairs missile silos with beetle kill, ghosts with cottonwoods, the wild West with its longstanding Asian influences.
The students explain the stories behind the maps in an interactive slideshow accompanying the story, which you can view at HCN.org. Click on the audio icons to hear each map's story.
Also in this issue, we feature a review of Solnit's other foray into mapmaking: Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. Reviewer Jeremy Miller calls it a topographical ode...interweaving vivid maps with short historical travelogues, Solnit and her fellow contributors offer unique perspectives on a city that is continually rising up and ebbing away." View images and learn more about these two mapping projects at HCN.org.
Walking in the body of being
Not everybody understands why pinacate beetles are such good company, but philosopher Baruch Spinoza is likely one of them.
Doctor's Orders: Undam the Klamath
Both Indians and whites battle diabetes on the Klamath watershed, where dam building ended the salmon runs that once kept the First People alive.
Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas
Rebecca Solnit assembles historical, legendary, and artistic tidbits and tales along with glorious maps in her new book.
##################################################
21.
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
Whenever you're right, shut up.
Ogden Nash
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.” Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest
9. Grass identification workshops June 11 and June 25-26
10. What we need is here - Wendell Berry
11. Comment on Presidio Habitat exhibit's actually attracting wildlife
12. North Beach Library: Meritorious National Register Nomination
13. Author-photographer Sharon Beals on Friday June 10
14. Comment on quail and ravens in GGP
15. EBRPD Botanic Garden: Pollinator Paradise June 11/identifying dragonflies June 18
16. Obama Stealth Amnesty Challenged in FOIA Complaint
17. PCL reports huge victories for the environment at legislative session's mid-mark
18. SF Natural History Series June 16: Getting to Bottom of the Bay - Subtleties of the Subtidal/report on last month's program
19. Presidio Coastal Trail/Lincoln Blvd Bike Lane improvements - walk on June 11
20. High Country News - two big items by San Franciscans about San Francisco
21. Marital advice from Ogden Nash
"Be cheerful, even after considering all the facts." Wendell Berry
_____________________________________________
1. Children’s Summer Solstice Bird Count in the Presidio!
This free event is sponsored by the Presidio Trust and Golden Gate Audubon
Saturday, June 11th, 10 am to 2 pm. Meet at Rob Hill Campground, 900 Washington Blvd., San Francisco, CA
Did you know that the Presidio is a birding hotspot in the Bay Area? After a short “binocular bootcamp and birding basics” youth ages 8 to 15 and their families will join experienced birders in teams on different routes throughout the Presidio. After an easy 2 hour walk counting observed bird life, groups will return to Rob Hill Campground to tally their numbers during lunch. The day will be topped off with presentations of the day’s numbers by…kids!
Lunch will not be provided, so we recommend bringing a paper-bag lunch and snacks as needed. Please remember to dress in layers and bring water. Binoculars are not required, but recommended if you have them (a supply of binoculars will be available to borrow for the day).
Because space is limited for this event, please RSVP to Pete Bidigare at: pbidigare@presidiotrust.gov or 415-561-4449
###################################################
2. Go To place for San Francisco butterflies:
Jake -- Would love for you to let folks know now that there is somewhere for novice lepidopterists to go to figure out the name of that thing landing in their San Francisco gardens: www.sfbutterfly.com
###################################################
3. If people would like to participate in the re-scheduled 17th Annual San Francisco Butterfly Count (canceled due to heavy marine layer on the 6th), they can send their e-mails to liammail56@yahoo.com Although no date has been selected, the window to hold the count runs through the end of July. Contingent on the sunshine, Liam will try to give folks some days notice before the count."
###########################################################
4. Low-key Group Champions Butterfly
Xerces Society aids conservation of invertebrate species
Audubon Society speaks for the birds. Defenders of Wildlife protects the wolves. World Wildlife Fund champions the polar bears.
So who's left to fight for the butterflies, the bees, and the mussels?
It turns out, it's a little-known national group headquartered in Portland, the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Operating from an unmarked office building on bustling Southeast Hawthorne Boulevard, the Xerces Society is collaborating on projects in 36 states to protect the "neglected majority"--animals without backbones that constitute more than 95% of the world's critters.
"They're the basis of every food chain," says Scott Black, Xerces Society executive director. "Without them, we wouldn't have most flowering plants."
Other wildlife conservation groups catch the public eye championing what Black calls "charismatic megafauna"--species like polar bears, pandas or salmon.
"The closest we get is the Monarch butterfly," he says. "We've worked on springs where 20 mini-snails may fit on your pinkie finger. Those just aren't charismatic".....
Published in the SustainableLife section of The Portland Tribune on 21 January 2011. The complete article can be viewed at: http://www.portlandtribune.com/sustainable/story.php?story_id=1295052740577356200
(JS: Think hard about that sentence "They're the basis of every food chain; without them, we wouldn't have most flowering plants." Or, he might have continued, polar bears, pandas, salmon, and all the creatures higher up the food chain, including us. World Wildlife Fund has a relatively easy job raising money for the cute and cuddly, but the un-cute and un-cuddly are ultimately much more important. Yet they need help even more than the endearing fuzzy ones. One thing he didn't mention is the fascinating journal Wings, containing very interesting articles by good scientific writers, complemented by beautiful photographs.)
##################################################
5. From Josiah Clark:
Hi there naturalists and media folks.
Wanted to send out this draft report of a noteworthy Green Big Day by bicycle, a birding competition we participated in earlier this month. At 145 species our team won the Green Big Day Competition with some 20+ teams competing in the US and even more abroad. As some of you may know this is a growing sport and the next big chapter in birding. Bay Area birders are leading the pack with the three highest scores of the competition.
(JS: Josiah's report on this formidable and inspiring marathon is posted as a discrete item on my http://naturenewssf.blogspot.com/)
###########################################################
6. Potpourri from Nature in the City
Children in Nature Collaborative
Richard Louv's movement finally has a Bay Area Chapter! Check out what's going on with the Children in Nature Collaborative, reconnecting with the natural world.
Nature in the City Needs Web Help
We need someone to manage Nature in the City'swebsite, the online resource for natural San Francisco - we need someone to manage our current website, and someone to build our new one.
Email peter@natureinthecity.org.
Job Opportunities
Staff Scientist at http://www.tamariskcoalition.org/
Environmental Project Manager/Volunteer Coordinator (Channel Islands)
http://www.cirweb.org/jobs.htm
Outreach Coordinator at http://www.planetdrum.org
Meetings re new Community Garden in Golden Gate Park
Check out these new meetings, and make sure that the native plant nursery, run by Greg Gaar, with solid and professional ecological support, plays a central role in the vision for the site.
"Everyone is invited to participate as a member of theAdvisory Council. The mission of the Advisory Council is to provide the Recreation and Park Department with input on the design, implementation and programming of the future community garden. The Advisory Council meets on the 2nd Tuesday of each month in the Commission Room, McLaren Lodge, located at Fell/Stanyan Streets (unless noted otherwise). Meetings are held at 5:30-7:00 PM."
Save the Date: June 21 at the Capitol
Save Our State Parks Rally & Expo in Sacramento
"Please join us at the Capitol on Tuesday, June 21 for a Save Our State Parks Rally! Help us urge state policymakers to not make our state parks just a memory. While you are in Sacramento you can also stop by our state park expo, where we will be showcasing the 70 state parks planned for closure. At the expo you will be able to speak with representatives from organizations throughout the state that have joined the Save Our State Parks campaign and learn more about work being done to stop park closures, increase volunteer efforts and raise awareness. For more information, please contact us at advocacy@calparks.org."
###########################################################
Sunday, June 5, 2011 (SF Chronicle)
7. Filmmaker trying to save state parks $1 at a time
Filmmaker Alden Olmsted's effort to prevent California state parks from closing fits every known definition of a grassroots campaign.
The son of a renowned naturalist, Olmsted is visiting every one of the 70 state parks slated for closure and dropping off plastic donation buckets that were once used by a friend for storing marijuana. His goal is to collect a dollar from every Californian.
Story at: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2011/06/05/BAIM1JOH45.DTL
###########################################################
8. Bay Area Open Space Council
Join us for the Triple Threat on June 18
Is it possible to live in the Bay Area without a car? YES it is! It is also possible to ride to the tops of 3 Bay Area peaks in one day without a car. Really!
On the longest Saturday in 2011 a group of riders will take their bikes to the tops of Mount Hamilton, Mount Tamalpais, and Mount Diablo and use trains and ferries to get between the three mountains. It’s the 2nd annual Triple Threat bike challenge.
Fog Gathering on July 21
Join us for our third Gathering of the year! The Fog Gathering will be held on July 21 at the Log Cabin in the Presidio.
Getting From Here to There: Transportation, Open Space, and Climate Change
http://openspacecouncil.org/community/events.php
###########################################################
9. Grass identification workshops from the California Native Grasslands Assn
1. June 11, 9 am - 3 pm: Introduction to California Grasslands and Grass ID. Location: Pepperwood Preserve, Santa Rosa.
Fees: $30 CNGA & Pepperwood members, $35 Non-members, $25 Students w ID
Instructor: Wade Belew, Restorationist & CNGA Board President
This new CNGA workshop features lecture, lab, and field components in a 6-hour format. It is designed for landowners, students, ranchers, professional resource managers, and anyone who wants an entry-level opportunity to learn more about grasses. Prior botanical experience not needed.
2. June 25-26: 2-day, Identifying and Appreciating the Native and Naturalized Grasses of California. Location: Point Reyes Dance Palace and Field Sites, Point Reyes Station
Fees: $220/CNGA members, $240 Non-members, $135 Students w ID
Instructor: David Amme, Wildland Vegetation Program Manager, East Bay Regional Park District, CNGA Founder and Past-President
Grasses are fun and easy to identify! Our goal is to learn the basic skills of identifying grasses.
Day 1: Learn about California’s grassland ecology, the qualities of specific native grasses for restoration, and become skilled at recognizing the basic groups and common species through working with plant samples in the classroom.
Day 2: Explore a local grassland, rich with a diverse assemblage of both native and naturalized grasses
###########################################################
10.
Geese appear high over us,
pass, and the sky closes. Abandon,
as in love or sleep, holds
them to their way, clear
in the ancient faith: what we need
is here. And we pray, not
for new earth or heaven, but to be
quiet in heart, and in eye,
clear. What we need is here.
Wendell Berry
###########################################################
11. Ben Pease (responding to "Help the Park and Presidio identify ways in which visitors can make a deeper connection to the amazing diversity of natural resources in the Presidio", posted on May 10):
I do wonder if the Presidio Habitat exhibit actually attracted any wildlife. The "Fox house" is useless (just a narrow tunnel through the center, no place for a den); the geodesic owl nest at Immigrant Point may stand a chance of attracting some sort of bird, but I wonder about the thermal mass (plywood vs. tree) and visibility to passing ravens. All the birds I've seen gathering nesting material are after fine string, grass strands, etc.; nothing as thick as sterile straw. We humans are not quite as smart as birds.
(I apologize for the long delay in responding to this feedback. It was posted on my blog site, and I didn't know how to handle it on that strange medium, so I just let it sit there.)
###########################################################
12. NORTH BEACH LIBRARY: MERITORIOUS NATIONAL REGISTER NOMINATION
Applying national standards used by every state, independent commissions can help inform the public dialogue and public processes. On May 19, 2011, the State Historical Resources Commission (SHRC) recommended that the State Historic Preservation Officer (SHPO) forward the North Beach Library to the Keeper of the National Register for listing on the National Register of Historic Places. The recommendation and potential listing adds formal recognition of the Library’s historical and architectural significance, highlighting preservation designs that the environmental review process already gives preferential status.
The Library Department’s technical reports, Planning Department's reports and historical studies were the academic basis for the evaluation of the North Beach Library---under Federal Government Criteria and State of California Criteria. The Historic Resources Technical Report, Continuation Sheets, Case Reports, independent historians, Library, Historic Preservation Commission and Planning Department concur that the North Beach Library has high cultural, historical and architectural significance. The North Beach Library is also eligible for a thematically-related Multiple Property Listing, as a remarkable set of libraries completed by the City of San Francisco in the 1950s and 1960s, all designed by a single firm (Appleton & Wolfard).
The North Beach Library illustrates the social democratization of the American library movement. Representative of 1959’s national culture, its modernist aesthetics incorporated the popular fascination with technology and democratic education in the face of the Cold War and the “space race”. Serving as a neighborhood center that mixed a burgeoning diverse population, the residential-scaled building mimicked the domesticity of suburban homes with public “living rooms” and fireplaces, in which the idealized postwar family could gather and socialize. Red brick textures, exposed wood beams, outdoor terraces, diffused natural lighting, acoustical balance and an open spatial quality reinforced the suburban theme---reflective of the aspirations of the post-WWII middle-class family.
The North Beach Library has the highest architectural integrity of the remaining Appleton-Wolfard Libraries. Its rehabilitation and expansion would be San Francisco’s showcase mid-century modernist library. The Marina Library has already been designated a City Landmark, and the Library Department has scheduled others for landmark status. These mid-century modernist structures are San Francisco’s first recognized historic resources of their genre and generation, honoring the variety, maturation and historicism of San Francisco’s legacy from every period of time---whether it be in art, culture, music, literature, philosophy, design or architecture.
Mid-century modernism embodies its own unique meaning and cultural significance. Unless protected, this living history will be destroyed or unrecognized. The National Register Listing would keep history alive by recognizing the values and encouraging preservation of irreplaceable historic resources.
Rehabilitation and expansion of the North Beach Library would be the most cost effective and sustainable design, adding several thousand square feet more than new construction, creating more space for the next generation of technology and maximizing the square footage of Joe DiMaggio Playground.
For additional information:
Howard Wong, AIA
Friends of Appleton-Wolfard Libraries
Ph: (415)-982-5055
###########################################################
13. Sharon Beals, photographer and author of Nests: Fifty Nests and the Birds that Built Them, is being hosted for one night pop-up show and talk at Zannah Noe's Dogpatch Studio.
Friday, June 10th - 5 to 9 p.m.
900 Tennessee Street
Weekend viewings available by appointment.
Arstist prints available as well as a collector edition of the book.
https://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=170233979703035
sbeals@sharonbeals
415-377-4214
sharonbeals.blogspot.com
###########################################################
14. Feedback
Ron Wellman:
jake, I saw one (1) quail in ggp on saturday, up in the old rhododendron area, and two (2) ravens hopping around in the dahlia garden, being harassed by 5 or 6 blackbirds. not a crow in sight.
##################################################
15. East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden Newsletter June 2011
Last Chance!
Just two classes left this session.
Pollinator Paradise with K. Ruby Blume will be held from 12 Noon to 3 pm, Saturday, June 11.
Understanding and Identifying the Bay Area's Dazzling Dragonflies with Kathy and Dave Biggs will be held from 10 am to 2 pm, Saturday, June 18.
Both classes have space available but you must register right NOW. Click here for the registration form.
Watch for the Summer/Fall Schedule. It'll be coming to your inbox sometime during the month of June.
##################################################
16. Obama Stealth Amnesty Challenged in FOIA Complaint
For decades, one of the most challenging problems facing activists who favor lower immigration levels is “stealth amnesty.” Broadly defined, that means presidential administrations dating back as far as George H.W. Bush and continuing through though Barack Obama's , have willfully ignored illegal immigration and allowed aliens to live openly, take jobs, start families and enroll their children in public school with little fear of deportation.
Because of the Executive Branch’s indifference to enforcing immigration laws millions of aliens have illegally planted roots in the United States over a 25 year period.
Disregard has reached its peak under the current administration. In 2010, an internal memo drafted by four U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services staffers for agency director Alejandro N. Mayorkas outlined a plan that would allow the USCIS, under certain provisions of the Immigration and Nationality Act, to "develop and implement a registration program for individuals who are unlawfully present in the U.S." and to enact “meaningful immigration reform absent legislative action.”
Any of the memo’s recommendations, broadly referred to as “remedies,” have the potential to grant amnesty to large numbers of illegal immigrants without Congressional approval. Among the most blatant circumventions of Congress are: 1) granting “parole-in-place” on a case-by-case basis for “urgent humanitarian reasons” or “significant public benefit” to any illegal alien applicant, 2) lowering the standards for demonstrating “extreme hardship, 3) increasing the use of “deferred action” (allowing visa overstayers to remain), and 4) allowing temporarily protected applicants to change status.
Last August, the Houston Chronicle revealed that parts of Obama’s plan had been set into motion. According to Houston immigration lawyers, aliens arrived in court expecting an order of deportation only to find their cases dismissed. Raed Gonzalez, an attorney who acts as the liaison between the Executive Office for Immigration Review, which administers the immigration court system, and the American Immigration Lawyers Association, called the dismissals a necessary step in unclogging a massive backlog in the immigration court system. A year ago, researchers at Syracuse University discovered that more than 248,000 immigration cases were pending across the country including about 23,000 in Texas.
To block this backdoor amnesty scheme Judicial Watch, a non-partisan Washington, D.C.-based public interest group that investigates and prosecutes public corruption filed two complaints against the Obama administration. In its March 29, 2011 press release, Judicial Watch confirmed that it had filed Freedom of Information Act lawsuits (on July 2 and August 30) against the Department of Homeland Security demanding to see “any and all records” pertaining to “deferred action,” “parole in place” or other documents that outline a plan that would effectively amnesty millions.
Other than acknowledging receipt of the FOIA requests, DHS has neither responded nor indicated when a response might be forthcoming. And despite evidence to the contrary, Obama has insisted that he has no plans to suspend deportations. On March 28, 2011, Obama claimed that : “There are enough laws on the books by Congress that are very clear in terms of how we have to enforce our immigration system that for me to simply, through executive order, ignore those congressional mandates would not conform with my appropriate role as president.”
The memo offered an in depth look into Obama’s mindset. While he was unable in 2010 to get amnesty through the traditional Congressional procedures, he appears emotionally committed to the concept and may not, in fact, hesitate to implement his executive powers to grant amnesty.
Whether Obama wins reelection or not, the risk of executive order action is worrisome since last minute action for pet presidential causes are common.
Californians for Population Stabilization
Fast Fact: 61% of likely U.S. voters believe that a child born in the United States to a woman who is here illegally should not automatically become a U.S. citizen. -- Rasmussen Reports
##################################################
17. Planning & Conservation League
HUGE VICTORIES FOR THE ENVIRONMENT AS THE LEGISLATIVE SESSION HITS THE MIDWAY MARK
Today marks the legislative deadline for all bills introduced this year to move out of their first house. That means all bills introduced in the Assembly had to pass out of the Assembly and those introduced in the Senate had to pass out of the Senate.
This week Legislators passed bills that reduce waste in our landfills, protect and improve drinking water quality, ensure there is no net loss of state park lands and legislation that would eliminate carcinogenic polystyrene in take-out containers. Bills passed to allow public access to information regarding the chemicals used in oil fracking, water well logs, and the prime groundwater recharge areas in the state. Below are a few of the highlights of the bills still alive half-way through the legislative session. To read the full list of environmental victories click here.
AB 341 (Chesbro) – Bill presents a package of policies that will move California forward from land filling to waste reduction, recycling, and composting, by setting a statewide diversion goal of 75% and finally expanding recycling opportunities to the state’s largest underserved sectors: businesses and apartment buildings.
AB 359 (Huffman) – Bill promotes the management and protection of the state’s groundwater supplies by requiring, as a condition of receiving a state grants or loans, local water agencies to map the recharge areas that substantially contribute to the replenishment of the groundwater basin. The bill also requires local groundwater agencies to submit recharge maps to local planning agencies and expand public notification when preparing and approving groundwater plans.
AB 703 (Gordon) – This bill would continue a 40-year legislative legacy of providing property tax incentives for non-profit ownership and stewardship of open-space and park lands. Lands benefiting from the current exemption complement existing local, state, and federal park lands, and they do so without drawing upon scarce public funds. They are managed solely by non-profit organizations to achieve lasting and cost-effective benefits to the public.
SB 244 (Wolk) - This bill, seeks to provide underserved communities with basic needs such as clean drinking water and adequate sewage disposal by requiring that cities and counties indentify and include unincorporated island, fringe, or legacy communities in their plans, data and analysis, goals, and implementation measures. This bill, along with AB 685 (Eng), AB 938 (V. Manuel Pérez), AB 983 (Perea), and AB 1221 (Alejo) are the Human Right to Water bills still active this session.
SB 517 (Lowenthal) – Bill would reorder the High-Speed Rail Authority in order to establish a well-informed body that is more accountable to the state of California. In addition to other revisions, this bill would place the Authority within the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency and require the members of the authority appointed by the Governor to be appointed with the advice and consent of the Senate. (PCL Lead Sponsor)
SB 535 (De León) – This bill establishes the CA Communities Healthy Air Revitalization Trust. The Trust ensures we meet the promise of AB 32 to protect and strengthen CA’s most disadvantaged communities by providing these communities with AB 32-related green economic investments. Does NOT authorize a new tax or fee, rather it directs 10 cents of each AB 32 revenue dollar in the neighborhoods which will suffer first and worst from the climate crisis.
SB 568 (Lowenthal) - Bill would eliminate polystyrene foam food take-out containers state-wide, thereby reducing public and worker exposure to Styrene, a carcinogen in lab animals that migrates from foam containers into food and beverages.
SB 580 (Wolk) – Bill establishes strong protections for state parks and advances a principle of “no net loss” of state park lands. If a situation arises that pits state parks against another competing public interest, this bill would ensure there is no net loss of park resources for the California public.
###################################################
18. SF Natural History Series JUNE LECTURE
Getting to the Bottom of the Bay – Subtleties of the Subtidal
Guest Speaker: Marilyn Latta
7:30pm, Thursday, June 16th, 2011
FREE at the Randall Museum, 199 Museum Way, San Francisco
Marilyn Latta, restoration ecologist, will show us a long term vision of how we can restore and manage the still thriving habitats of sand waves, eelgrass and shellfish beds, rocky outcrops, shoals and channel banks that make up the bottom of the bay.
You can read more about Marilyn Latta's work and her project at Bay Nature magazine’s website:
http://baynature.org/articles/oct-dec-2010/subtleties-of-the-subtidal
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
FUTURE TALKS
7/21 – Vanished Waters and the History of Mission Bay – Chris Carlsson
8/18 – The Farallon Egg War – Eva Chrysanthe
9/15 – San Francisco’s Changing Landscape – Greg Gaar
10/20 – Nature in the City – Peter Brastow (TBD)
11/17 – Reclaiming the Art of Natural History – John (Jack) Muir Laws
~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~-~
LAST MONTH's LECTURE NOTES:
online at: http://sfnhs.wordpress.com/2011/05/24/the-mysterious-native-oysters-of-san-francisco-bay/
It’s a long held belief around here that the oysters native in San Francisco Bay were once abundant, and that their loss may have had a great negative impact on the bay. Our speaker Andrew Cohen believed it, but became curious about one particular question. Why did they disappear?
The native oyster was rediscovered in 1999, and since then people have set about reestablishing their abundance. The only problem Andrewfound with this was that it seemed that they had never quite left. Since 1912, the native oyster seems present in oyster census data through the whole century. They’d never disappeared to being with.
But still, the oysters in these counts were still not abundant. The story goes that until the mid 19th century the oyster was there in abundance, that it was the “dominant commercial fishery” (from an NOAA report). There have been various explanations for the lack of oysters: pollution caused the decline, or mining sediments covering up the oyster beds, or perhaps over-harvesting. Cohen set about investigating these explanations.
He looked at the times before and after 1850 (1769-1850 and 1850-1912), to look at what might have caused the decline. His first thought, as an expert in invasive species, was that perhaps the Spanish or other colonists brought something with them. But as much as he would have liked to have found an explanation there he did not. Pollution as an explanation also fell by the wayside. There were no studies, no specific causes ever listed.
Hydraulic mining sediment also did not seem to be a likely explanation. The sediment peaked in 1890, the sediment was not evenly distributed, and in some places the sediment even decreased.
And in nowhere in the literature of eating after 1850 did anyone ever make much mention of the native oyster. Imports from Japan and the east coast got the lion share of the press. Furthermore, any over-harvesting impacts should have radiated outward from populated areas of the time. But there is no evidence of that.
So in Cohen’s mind, suddenly a different question arose. Were in fact the native oysters ever abundant?
He now dug deeper, looking at contemporary records, harvest records, laws & lawsuits, shell middens, and natural shell deposits. The earliest statement for abundance it turns out came in 1962 with no sources. The original source for “significant harvest” of native oysters seems to have come in 1979. There didn’t seem to be much in the way of contemporary records at all.
And nowhere else did he find any evidence of abundance. Unlike other oyster areas like Washington, there were not laws on the books about native oyster beds and harvesting. There were no lawsuits over ownership.
Finally though, looking at shell middens and shell deposits, he did find evidence for abundance. But it was not what he expected. Oysters were there in abundance, but more than 2000 years ago. The shell middens of the current era are full of clams and mussels. The large abundant oyster deposits were deep with in the bay’s sediments. The data matched each other pretty well. It seems the 1759-1850 abundance of the native oysters was something that was made up.
Andrew Cohen still left us with a mystery (and there are those who dispute Cohen’s evidence) why did they become less abundant 2000 years ago. There is no evidence that they were over-harvested by the Native Americans. Something seems to have changed about the bay, perhaps related to climatic events of the times. But that is perhaps a later talk.
The question for us now, is what about efforts to reintroduce the oyster to San Francisco Bay? Something else is at work to keep the oyster less than abundant, and it is not likely humans, do these little mollusks need our help?
For more information about the San Francisco Bay Estuary, check out “An Introduction to the San Francisco Bay Estuary” (download the PDF).
http://www.sfei.org/node/1846
Andrew Cohen is the Director of the Center for Research on Aquatic Bioinvasions (CRAB) in Richmond. His research includes the science and policy of invasions, and he helped write California’s ballast water laws. He’s received a Pew Fellowship in Marine Conservation, the San Francisco BayKeeper’s Environmental Achievement Award, and in 1994 was named by the Bay Chapter of the Sierra Club as the Best Public Official for the Environment.
##################################################
19. The Presidio Coastal Trail/Lincoln Blvd Bike Lane Improvements project begins in July 2011!
To learn more about the project, please join us for a public walk on:
Saturday, June 11 from 10am – Noon
Project staff from the National Park Service, Presidio Trust and Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy will provide a description of specific project elements related to trails, and natural and cultural resources. You’ll also hear about the temporary closures and detours required during the duration of the project.
To RSVP and learn the meeting location, or if you have any questions, please write trailsforever@parksconservancy.org or call 415-561-3054.
##############################################################
20. High Country News 30.05.11
Mapping culture, history and change in Laramie
What is Laramie? This winter, creative writing graduate students at the
University of Wyoming teamed with author Rebecca Solnit and cartographers Ben Pease and Shizue Seigel to answer that question. The series of maps and essays that resulted provide a nuanced portrait of
place -- one that pairs missile silos with beetle kill, ghosts with cottonwoods, the wild West with its longstanding Asian influences.
The students explain the stories behind the maps in an interactive slideshow accompanying the story, which you can view at HCN.org. Click on the audio icons to hear each map's story.
Also in this issue, we feature a review of Solnit's other foray into mapmaking: Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas. Reviewer Jeremy Miller calls it a topographical ode...interweaving vivid maps with short historical travelogues, Solnit and her fellow contributors offer unique perspectives on a city that is continually rising up and ebbing away." View images and learn more about these two mapping projects at HCN.org.
Walking in the body of being
Not everybody understands why pinacate beetles are such good company, but philosopher Baruch Spinoza is likely one of them.
Doctor's Orders: Undam the Klamath
Both Indians and whites battle diabetes on the Klamath watershed, where dam building ended the salmon runs that once kept the First People alive.
Infinite City: A San Francisco Atlas
Rebecca Solnit assembles historical, legendary, and artistic tidbits and tales along with glorious maps in her new book.
##################################################
21.
To keep your marriage brimming
With love in the loving cup,
Whenever you're wrong, admit it,
Whenever you're right, shut up.
Ogden Nash
“I never travel without my diary. One should always have something sensational to read on the train.” Gwendolen in The Importance of Being Earnest
No comments:
Post a Comment