2. LEJ's Canoes in Sloughs/Finding Urban Nature
3. Help your local trout on Codornices Creek Saturday the 23rd
4. Build trails in McLaren Park July 22 - July 24
5. Eye-watering hypocrisy from the Murdochs
6. Two sardonic views of the U.S. debt limit tragicomedy
7. San Francisco hosts the first International Green Schoolyard Conference in September
8. Sunnyvale Garden Share - Neighbors Sharing from their Garden July 24
9. Applications being accepted for Gardening & Composting Educator Training Program
10. Native plants - they're the bees knees - beaucoup information
11. Govt to require insurance companies cover birth control for women?
12. Notes & Queries - when does the middle of nowhere become somewhere?
1. Lake Merced MOU meeting
From Jerry Cadagan:
Lake Merced colleagues – Thanks to those who made it to the "Lake Merced MOU" meeting July 19. I think we made a good case that the MOU is a big disappointment (after being 4 years in the making) as it essentially simply retains the status quo at the lake -- dual, confusing responsibilities and duties resulting in little accountability. We also pointed out some troublesome drafting errors in the document.
Unfortunately, there is the real possibility that PUC staff will try to take to MOU to the Commission for approval next Tuesday, July 26.
It could be very helpful if a number of people sent emails to the Commissioners and senior staff asking that there be little more time before that step is taken. Here are the points that might be made in such an email –
• the Board of Supervisors asked that the MOU be done over 4 years ago; yet the public didn't get a copy until July 16, 2011 for a public meeting on July 19; and now PUC staff wants the Commission to approve the document on July 26.
- the MOU is deficient primarily because it simply calls for a perpetuation of a convoluted relationship between SFPUC and Rec & Park that has proven over the last 60 years to not work.
- at the July 19 public meeting it was announced that SFPUC was planning on spending over $1 million to do some minimal "fix ups" at the Boathouse building. That would represent a commitment to retaining the existing Boathouse and eventually doing a real fix up. That is just one of 3 scenarios suggested in the Lake Merced Watershed Report. The other two need to be explored before any significant financial commitments are made to the existing Boathouse.
- Then simply ask that the matte be delayed for a couple of months and that there be another public meeting with more advance notice .
You emails could be simply addressed to "SFPUC Commisioners and senior staff". Commission Secretary Michael Housh handles incoming email for the 5 Commissioners so you could use the following email addresses ----
mhoush@sfwater.org eharrington@sfwater.org mcarlin@sfwater.org sritchie@sfwater.org sgautier@sfwater.org
PS. I trust all have seen the excellent front page story by Kelly Zito in July 20 Chronicle.
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2. Literacy for Environmental Justice - LEJ
LEJ Paddles with Full Force in the Summer
Did you know you can launch kayaks or canoes off of public access points at Islais Creek or India Basin Open Space? This month we launched, for the first time, the Canoes In Sloughs program in partnership with The Marine Science Institute! Youth are learning the landscape of the southeast SF, understanding the aquatic life around us, and touching & testing the water, all from this on-the-water experience. The Canoes In Sloughs program was so popular that this summer's trips are all booked! Stay tuned for next summer when we bring the program back! For more info, contact the HHP Ecologist, Raynelle Rino
UPCOMING WORKSHOP
Nature in Your Neighborhood
Joing LEJ, SF Rec and Parks Department, and Crissy Field Center as we utilize "Finding Urban Nature: An Educator's Guide to Exploring San Francisco's Natural History" for a 2-day, hands-on workshop exploring Heron's Head, McLaren and Candlestick parks as living classrooms!
Designed especially for middle and high school SFUSD teachers and informal educators, participants will:
- Learn site specific natural and cultural history content as well as activities to use with middle and high school age students
- Create powerful outdoor experiences that meet science and history standards
- Earn a stipend! $150 for participation plus $100 after completing follow up project
When: August 4-5 for SFUSD teachers AND August 25-26 for informal educators
Where: Heron's Head Park, McLaren and Candlestick parks
Cost: Free! Lunch and stipend included
REGISTRATION REQUIRED! For more info, visit the Crissy Field Center website.
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3. Help your local trout on Codornices Creek Saturday, July 23
Hope to see lots of you at this weekend’s work party on Codornices Creek, our area’s only trout stream! Meet at 10 AM Saturday, July 23, at 8th Street and the creek (Berkeley-Albany border, two blocks north of Gilman, three blocks west of San Pablo, 1100 8th on Internet maps, (Map)).
We’ll work until 12:30 PM, pruning and removing morning glory and ivy between 9th and 10th Streets. As always, snacks, water, gloves, and tools provided. Wear closed-toed shoes with good traction and clothes that can get dirty. If you want to actually get into the creek, this is your chance -- wear water shoes or bring boots (we have a few pairs).
For more information on the project, see our YouTube slide show. Hope to see you there!
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4. Build Trails in McLaren Park
Friday, July 22, 2011 5:00 PM to Sunday, July 24, 2011 3:00 PM
Once again volunteers will join with the stewardship organization V-O-CAL (Volunteers for Outdoor California) to help SF Recreation & Parks Department build and repair several different sections of the park's trails, and we need your help!
Watch this video to see what SFRPD, V-O-CAL, and over 100 volunteers accomplished a couple of years ago in McLaren. The two major trails completed then (the new switchback up University Hill, and a nicely meandering upgrade to the south slope grasslands trail) now are among the more popular paths in the park. By general acclaim, these new trails are fantastic upgrades to McLaren’s network -- they have less than 10 percent grade, provide multiple options for short or long loop hikes, and reroute foot traffic away from high-erosion areas.
In other words, we want to help them have a great event this year, and entice them back again next year, too! Sign up for all-day trail duty, or join us in camp for an hour or a day to help keep the whole operation running smoothly. On Saturday and Sunday breakfast and lunch are provided, and Saturday evening we will enjoy entertainment around the campfire and a scrumptious outdoor dinner. You can even camp overnight in McLaren Park!
Here is the Project Fact Sheet, including daily schedules, maps and photos of the proposed work, as well as many and varied ways for you to particiate. There’s plenty to do for one and all, so find your calling and pitch in! See ya around the campfire...
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5. Excerpted from 'The stain is gone from British life', by Henry Porter in Observer:
"...It doesn't get much worse than this, but think of the eye-watering hypocrisy that occurred in September 2009. Just as James Murdoch was signing huge cheques to silence people whose phones had been hacked, he attacked the BBC at the Edinburgh TV festival with a speech entitled The Absence of Trust in which he claimed: "The only reliable, durable and perpetual guarantor of independence is profit."
Who governs? It should be the elected representatives and not unelected newspaper proprietors and editors who now enjoy what Stanley Baldwin once famously described them as seeking - "power without responsibility, the prerogative of the harlot throughout the ages". Excerpted from Guardian Weekly
“At high tide fish eat ants; at low tide ants eat fish.” Thai proverb
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6. Tragicomedy - two wry views from The Economist
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7. Green Schoolyard Alliance
The green schoolyard movement is growing rapidly and flourishing around the world. Schools near and far are reimagining their grounds, replacing their extensive paved surfaces with a vibrant mosaic of outdoor learning and play opportunities. Schools in many different countries are leaders in this field, finding innovative ways to weave curricula into their landscapes, diversify their recreational offerings, enhance their local ecology, and reflect their unique location and cultural context.
We invite you to come to the beautiful San Francisco Bay Area to join us for the first International Green Schoolyard Conference held in the United States, September 16-18, 2011. Participate in this exciting conference to hear about cutting edge schoolyards and school gardens, meet like-minded colleagues from the United States and abroad, share ideas, tour fantastic local school grounds, and get inspired to bring these ideas back to your own community.
Sign up now to take advantage of early enrollment pricing! Please support this event by helping us to spread the word far and wide. We hope to see you there!
For more information, please visit our conference website at: www.greenschoolyards.org
“Teach children to love nature; people take care of what they love.” Elizabeth Terwilliger
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8. Sunnyvale Local Garden Share - Neighbors Sharing Food/Flowers/Herbs from their Garden
Sunday, July 24, 11:00 am - Noon
Full Circle Farm, 1055 Dunford Way (East Gate), Sunnyvale [map]
Join us to share in the bounty of our gardens - homegrown fruit, vegetables, eggs, herbs, honey, and flowers! Bring what you have to share; take home something you don't have. Think of it as a "free" backyard farmers' market.
For questions about this event, please contact Michelle Philips at michelle_philips@yahoo.com
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9. NOW ACCEPTING APPLICATIONS FOR
THE GARDENING & COMPOSTING EDUCATOR TRAINING PROGRAM
Date: Sept. 2011 to Dec. 2011
Location: Garden for the Environment,7th Ave at Lawton Street, San Francisco
Applications Due: August 9th, 2011 (GCETP is open to residents of San Francisco)
The Gardening and Composting Educator Training Program ('GCETP') provides an excellent introduction to organic gardening practices and urban composting, while providing an introductory examination of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security.
The class specifically focuses on establishing Organic Gardening, Urban Agriculture and Composting skills, however advocacy and community outreach are emphasized.
* LEARN MORE ABOUT GCETP and DOWNLOAD AN APPLICATION HERE *
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10. NATIVE PLANTS - They're the Bees Knees!
Summer is a season when we spend a lot of time outdoors, often in a neighborhood greenspace or our own backyard. Gardens play many roles in our lives -- a place to entertain friends, somewhere for children to play, or a serene getaway from a busy work routine. They are also excellent places for wildlife, especially for smaller animals like bees, butterflies, and beetles. Given the right combination of food and shelter, dozens of species of insects can be found in even a small plot. For example, Xerces' senior conservation associate Matthew Shepherd has found more than a hundred different insects in his own suburban garden in Beaverton, Oregon.
This diversity is not unusual. Across the country surveys have discovered that wildlife exists in surprising places. More than one hundred species of bees were recorded in suburban gardens of New York City, over seventy species in gardens of Berkeley, California, and sixty-plus species in Tucson, Arizona. Even inner city community gardens in the Bronx and Harlem, hardly our image of wildlife habitat, are home to fifty-four species of bees and twenty-four species of butterflies.
There is a growing body of research into the connection between native plants and native insects. Over several years, Gordon Frankie and the Urban Bee Project of the University of California at Berkeley have conducted bee surveys in California. Gordon's team identifies plants growing in gardens and the bees that are attracted to them. This work has produced some eye-opening findings: native plants were at least four times as likely to attract native bees as exotic plants, and that a diversity of plants (eight or more species) significantly increases both the abundance and diversity of native bees.
On the other side of the country, Douglas Tallamy, author of Bringing Nature Home, and his coworkers at the University of Delaware have been researching the relationship between native plants and herbivorous insects such as caterpillars. In an exhaustive review of plants that moth and butterfly caterpillars eat, Douglas' team found a remarkable difference in the numbers of species that will eat native versus nonnative plants. On average, nonnative plants supported less than five species of caterpillar, while native plants supported seventy-four species -- more than fifteen times as many! You can read more about these findings in the article "Aliens" in the latest issue of Wings.
Clearly, native plants are better than nonnative plants for native insects. Sunflowers, coneflowers, aster, goldenrod, prairie clover, and phacelia will be alive with flower-visitors. This is not to say that there is never a place in your garden for nonnative plants. Species from other regions can be successful garden plants, and if chosen carefully, they can offer good sources of nectar or pollen for bees and other flower visitors. Lavender, cosmos, oregano, rosemary, and sage are all garden favorites and will help bees and butterflies. However, a garden full of nonnative plants will not benefit local insects as much as one with native plants. Here are some helpful hints and resources to help you build habitat for native insects in your own backyard.
What to do in your garden
• Grow a diverse range of flowering plants
• Use native species wherever possible
• Provide blooms from late winter to late fall
• Include host plants for caterpillars in your flower borders
• Provide nesting sites for bees such as bee blocks and bare ground
• Avoid using pesticides
Resources to help you succeed
• Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies - Xerces' latest book on how to provide flowering habitat and nesting sites for pollinators, 370 pages, color photos, plant lists, and a bee identification guide.
• Xerces' online Pollinator Conservation Resource Center - broken down by region, this online site hosts a wealth of information ranging from plant lists, conservation guidelines, and links to local native plant nurseries.
• Tunnel Nests for Native Bees - a fact sheet with detailed instructions on how to build nests for native bees.
• Xerces' Conservation Seed Store - purchase locally native wildflower seed at wholesale pricing for habitat restoration and enhancement projects.
1971 - 2011: Forty Years of Conservation
The Xerces Society is a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat. The Society has been at the forefront of invertebrate protection worldwide for forty years, harnessing the knowledge of scientists and the enthusiasm of citizens to implement conservation programs.
To learn more about our work, please visit www.xerces.org.
DONATE NOW
Your contribution goes directly to support
• innovative conservation programs
• effective education and advocacy
• scientific and popular publications
JOIN OR RENEW
If you are not already a member, please consider joining the Xerces Society. As a member, you will receive two issues of our member magazine Wings each year. For more information on membership, or to renew your membership, please visit the membership page of our website. Please email suzanne@xerces.org if you have any questions.
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11. From Planned Parenthood
Today, an Institute of Medicine (IOM) panel recommended that the U.S. government require health insurance companies to cover birth control for women as a preventive service -- without deductibles or copayments.
Today’s IOM recommendation is an enormous victory for women and their health, If enacted, affordable and accessible birth control will allow millions of women the flexibility they need to choose the best method for them.
As part of the Affordable Care Act (aka Health Care Reform), an independent panel (the IOM) was charged with recommending which women’s health services were to be considered preventive care – thus free or at low cost. The final decision now lies with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services which is expected in August of this year.
The new health care reform law represents the single biggest opportunity to advance women’s health in 45 years, and this recommendation could have one of the most far-reaching impacts we have seen in generations. Medical data, public opinion, now the IOM are now all on the same page-- for the first time in our national history, Birth Control without access-blocking cost barriers is within reach.
Thanks to all who have already signed the Birth Control Matters petition. It is not too late to do your part by signing now if you have not already.
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As the Center for Biological Diversity has been advocating since we launched our Overpopulation Campaign and Endangered Species Condoms project, fewer people on the planet equals more room and resources for endangered species, as well as better quality of life for humanity.
Get more from The New York Times and watch the Center's timely public-service announcement linking extinction and unsustainable human population growth -- playing now in New York's Times Square.
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12. Notes & Queries, Guardian Weekly
Why does the answer "Yes" sound agreeable, but "Yes, yes" doesn't?
"Yes, yes", when spoken rapidly, implies impatience. However, with a pause between the yeses, it suggests deep consideration. I have a legally and theologically trained cousin who is notorious for his "triple-yes". This, with a thoughtful pause between each "yes", is certainly not disagreeable. While slightly comical, it implies that very detailed analysis is being applied to the idea just expressed.
Alaisdair Raynham, Truro, Cornwall, UK
"Yes" is as simple as "no". It's an affirmation. It means "I do", "I will". "Yes, yes" is the dismissive response of pedants and politicians, who are generally far too fond of the sound of their own voices to listen to others, when dealing with any interruption to their limitless verbal micturition.
Peter Hoare, Quorn, UK
• As the philosopher Sidney Morgenbesser pointed out "yeah, yeah" is a case of a double positive making a negative.
Aaron Fine, Swarthmore, Pennsylvania, US
Because "Yes, Yes" is a "No! No!"
Philip Stigger, Burnaby, BC, Canada
I can't smoke here? Really?
If airlines forbid smoking, why do they bother to explain that smoking is not allowed in the toilets?
• It's a sign of the times.
Roger Morrell, Perth, Western Australia
• For the same reason they announce on a flight across the Sahara that flotation jackets should not be inflated until after leaving the aircraft, and there is a whistle to attract attention.
Philip Crawford, Estepona, Malaga, Spain
The tour bus goes there
When does the middle of nowhere become somewhere?
When your teenage son gives up spray paint, pulls up his pants and gets a job.
Richard Orlando, Montreal, Canada
• When tourists start arriving.
Reiner Jaakson, Oakville, Ontario, Canada
Prison complex sentences
How is a layperson supposed to know what is and isn't legal?
From a long list of sentences.
Paolo Bachmann, Auckland, New Zealand
Any answers?
Do any animals use artificial means to make themselves look more attractive?
Phil Morton, Berkeley, California, US
When and where did ironing originate?
E Slack, L'Isle Jourdain, France
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