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Dan joined Bay Nature in 2004. A onetime professional cabinetmaker, he considers himself a lifelong maker of things and teller of stories. Dan has been working at the intersection of journalism and technology since, at age 16, he began learning reporting, page layout, and database design. His enduring interest in environmental issues crystallized into a career path in 1998 when he assisted former U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Hass in a cross-disciplinary nature writing and ecology course at UC Berkeley, from which Dan received a Masters in English literature. In 1999, he became Associate Editor of Terrain, the erstwhile quarterly magazine of Berkeley's Ecology Center. In addition to editing and art-directing Bay Nature magazine, he is also Bay Nature’s chief technology strategist, fixer of broken things, and designer of databases and fancy spreadsheets. And he has even been known to leave the office and actually hike outdoors.
Park: 37.835858 -122.477369 park Fort Baker (GGNRA)
Good for:- Beaches/Shore
- Birding
- Kids
- Views
- Bay and Estuary
- Accessible Trail
- Beach
- Bike Friendly
- Bike Parking
- Car (Drive up)
- Dirt
- Dogs Allowed On-leash
- Hiking
- Mountain Biking
- Out and Back
- Parking
- Primary Park Entrance
- Restrooms
- Sand
- Scenic Overlook
- Trail Hiking
- Trail Running
- Transit Accessible
- Walking
Overview
This short hike was a joy in spring: wildflowers everywhere, great views, no fog. We chose the hiker-only trails where we could, but bike routes cover similar ground. The views offshore on a clear day are amazing, and the highlight was seeing a pond full of California newts in a former gun emplacement at Battery Townsley. The concrete "pond" has been filled with vegetation, and there were newts everywhere!
We also saw lots of blue-eyed grass, checkerbloom, lupine, and other wildflowers. In summer, there won't be many flowers, but the view are still amazing, especially after the morning fog burns off.
Curious about the newts, I called Darren Fong, aquatic biologist for the GGNRA, to see what he knew about them. Turns out the nearest resident newts are down at Rodeo Lagoon, but he's not sure how they manage to find these random gun emplacements full of water. A couple of years ago, a California red-legged frog found its way into another emplacement farther south in the Headlands.
The newts will likely leave the pond in summer, retunring the following spring, but this is an unusual habitat, so they might be visible yearround. Look out for them whenever you go, and let us know in the comments if you see them! They are coated with a potent neurotoxin, so they don't have many predators, other than garter snakes, which have evolved some resistance.
Newt paradise won't go on forever here, though, according to Fong. The gun emplacements are considered part of the park's cultural heritage, and five feet of standing water in our cultural heritage is generally not considered a good thing. Eventually, park staff will have to capture the newts, move them down to Rodeo Lagoon, and then fix the drainage issues. But there's no schedule for that at the moment. Meanwhile, nature takes its course in the oddest places.
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