Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
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A Most Unlikely Refuge in Pittsburg

At the western edge of the Delta, east of Honker Bay and southwest of the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers, lies a most unexpected gathering of wildlife. Here peregrines hunt from tall towers, beavers lodge unmolested in protected waters, and hummingbirds nest in the least likely of spots. What was once among the busiest, noisiest, smelliest, most crowded, most unsafe places to earn the name “habitat” has become a haven for dozens of species.

In the 1960s the Pittsburg Power Plant was built by Pacific Gas & Electric. On 1,300 acres, it housed a 750-megawatt plant that burned fuel oil to produce electricity. It was bought in 1999 by Mirant, Inc, and today only uses three of its original seven units, and these only during peak demand–summer, when local residences turn on their air-conditioners.

Juvenile Anna's hummingbirds
Juvenile hummingbirds almost ready to leave the nest. Photo by Jon Ridler.

Jon Ridler, the plant’s Senior Control Operator, says this relative calm, along with stiff environmental regulation of emissions, has allowed wildlife to return to the area.

Anna’s hummingbirds are among the staff’s favorites. “They build nests all over the plant, and have for years,” says Ridler. He finds them in the links of chains, in the tops of closed pipes, in any niche available. When a nest was found in the middle of an area workers were overhauling, coordinator Mike McDonald cordoned it off. Workers respect the nest. “Nobody bothers them,” he says. The hummers tolerate great noise and activity around them. Workers built a scaffold right next to them, and the birds were unfazed. Workers watched the 3″ nest, first with the setting mother, then the poking tail feathers of the chicks, then their tiny beaks pointing skyward, waiting for Mom. Soon, they know, the nest will be empty. Oh, well, back to work. (to learn how tell local hummers apart, check out this page from artist Jack Laws.)

The hummingbirds are the favorites, but many other birds nest in the plant. Peregrines nest 160 feet up in the towers on the unused 7 Unit, surveying the river below, and hunting the smaller birds that gather to feast on the insect life. They tolerate human presence also. “Once I was within five feet of a nest,” says Jon, “I didn’t seem to bother them at all.” Workers just reported seeing four eggs in a peregrine nest on the tower. Great horned owls have nested up there, too.

Also in 7 Unit, ravens are building a nest under a grate, open to the river. They sail by as we look on, beaks full of nesting materials. The nest is so far an eclectic mix of sticks, pipe insulation, gasket material, heavy wire, and animal fur.

Down by the river in the tules, three beavers nest a mile apart. No one bothers them. The riverbank is slotted with otter runs and playgrounds. Sea lions are frequently seen eating salmon, “when there are salmon,” says Ridler ruefully. “They haven’t been seen this year.” Coyotes visit frequently, and pond turtles enjoy these balmy waters. (Check out our feature on these turtles, the West Coast’s only native turtle!)

The powerplant has a mile-and-a-quarter cooling canal that loops next to the river. Hot water from the plant cools tumbling over baffles in two open air buildings. That water, when it re-enters the canal, is still warm, creating a spot with lots of invertebrate life, bringing fish, including huge stripers and black bass. The fish, in turn, lure predators. Herons, bittern, and osprey regularly feast here. Other birds are also plentiful: Plenty of ducks come through, and some scoters over-winter. A pair of swans are presently nesting. Ridler says a Canada goose with a broken wing and leg is recuperating somewhere out in the canal. Halfway down a long wooden pier is an impressive chain link fence and locked gate topped with razor-wire. A U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service sign reads “Least Tern Nesting Area.”

During its 2009 Christmas Bird Count, the local Audubon Society chapter identified 67 species on the plant’s grounds.

As I talked with Ridler, I found myself wondering what can be learned from this serendipitous collection of wildlife in a side-lined power plant: Perhaps our environmental laws are working, allowing a once-polluting industry to make a home for wildlife; just maybe if we step aside a bit here and there, we can give animals and plants a chance to repopulate; and last but certainly not least, Anna’s hummingbirds will doggedly rear their young anywhere they like, and maybe they even have a special thing for men in hardhats.

Pinole Academy Connects Creeks, Students, and Teachers

Since 1999, students at Pinole Valley High School’s Environmental Studies Academy have been taking their college prep program through an environmental lens and getting a crash course in community action along the way. They’re partnering with other groups to provide environmental services that affect their whole human and biotic community.

“We love to come to work because of the academy,” says English teacher Leslie Ganick-Wilson, speaking to me at the academy’s recent annual meeting. “We collaborate across disciplines and grades, and through their projects students develop a real sense of independence.”

All the academy’s students (60 sophomores, 33 juniors, and 33 seniors) have been considered “at risk” because of attendance, economic background, standardized test scores, or poor progress toward graduation. But things change once they are in the program. “Their attendance is above the norm, their graduation rate is higher than average, grades improve over time, and acceptance rates to 4-year colleges are higher than the rest of the school,” says Dr. William Wilson, who teaches biology, ecology, and environmental studies. “And our drop-out rate is very low.”

Graduate Leah J. Clark went on to graduate from San Francisco State University and is now a budget analyst for the City of Richmond. She credits the academy for her success. “The integrated classes, the constant learning process, the opportunity to see things outside of school, are all great preparation for college,” she says.

One of the students’ target projects is the restoration of Pinole Creek, which runs right near the school. Mentored by staff from the nonprofit Earth Team, students pick up waste, remove invasive plants, and replace them with natives. The goal is to make the creek a healthier waterway. “Steelhead were seen just two years ago on this creek,” says Wilson. “Even ten to fifteen years ago they could easily be seen off Alhambra Valley Road. Historically, we had two- to three-hundred adults per creek.” Student Tianna Katsui and her group plan to help place storm drain filters to keep the creek cleaner, and, she says, “We’re going to Point Reyes and Muir Beach to see what healthy streams look like.” At the mouth of Pinole Creek, students monitor tunicates, also known as sea squirts, as part of a Smithsonian Institute program to track the health of the stream.

The students also collect and recycle batteries, cell phones, ink cartridges, and Capri Sun containers, in association with the RecycleMore program run by the West Contra Costa Integrated Waste Management Authority.

Along the way, students begin to learn job skills like digital mapping and how to do waste and energy audits. They also make presentations to other students, the parent-teacher association, and the Pinole City Council.

But perhaps the biggest payoff is the connections students and teachers develop as the academy tackles such a diverse range of issues. “The teachers got me to like science and taught me to write,” says Clark. “And they were available even after graduation. I could always come back to visit and ask for help.”

Development Threatens San Bruno Mountain Butterflies

It’s an old story. Another species that once flourished is being pushed to extinction by modern human encroachment. The callippe silverspot (Speyeria callippe callippe), federally listed as endangered in 1997, endemic to the San Francisco peninsula and East Bay Hills, has been gradually pushed into tiny remaining islands of habitat, including San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco. Like many species, its needs are specific. It needs open hilltops for mating, and feeds only on the beautiful yellow Johnny jump-up (Viola pedunculata), where eggs are laid, caterpillars develop, and pupae form.

The federally endangered mission blue butterfly (Icaricia icarioides missionensis), although its extant range is larger than the callippe’s, also inhabits San Bruno Mountain. And the mountain is home to the San Francisco garter snake, federally listed as endangered in 1967, and at least a dozen plants listed by the California Native Plant Society as rare and endangered.

Luckily they have defenders. San Bruno Mountain Watch was established 30 years ago with a mission to “protect and preserve San Bruno Mountain as the largest and richest remaining example of the native Franciscan bioregion.” Today that mission takes them into a struggle with developer Brookfield Homes and the Brisbane City Council.

In 1983 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service prepared a Habitat Conservation Plan that protected 2,800 acres on the mountain from development forever. At the same time, they approved development of 300 acres around the edges of the mountain, most of which has been completed by now.

In 2009 Fish and Wildlife added another 20 acres to the protected area, and required developer Brookfield Homes to provide $4,000,000 for a permanent endowment to maintain the native habitat on the mountain. That money would fund ongoing efforts to maintain the kind of grassland habitats the butterflies prefer. That’s been a struggle, as exotic annual grasses and native scrub both take over more and more of the mountain.

“In the long term, whether the 20 acres are developed (or 40 acres as already permitted by our agency) is not likely to determine the fate of the butterflies,” Fish and Wildlife spokesman Al Donner wrote in an email to Bay Nature. “The fate of the magnificent butterflies on San Bruno Mountain will be determined by how well we as a society maintain the native habitat on the 2,800 acres of San Bruno Mountain that are protected.”

Nevertheless, San Bruno Mountain Watch Executive Director Ken McIntire says Fish and Wildlife has not lived up to the bargain. “Since 1983, 127 acres of grassland butterfly habitat has been lost to scrub,” he says. “If rare and endangered habitat is taken, then a reasonable plan would call for that habitat to be replaced. Now 26 years after the flawed plan, promises of habitat enhancement and revegetation haven’t panned out.”

The construction would split the callippe population into two separate groups. Says San Francisco State University Professor of Biology John Hafernik, “If the population is split, that puts them at great risk. Historically, population fragments go extinct.”

On January 19, the Brisbane City Council heard public comment on the issue. Twenty-three people spoke. Twenty were against the proposed development; three spoke in favor. On February 1, the council will hear public comment and vote to decide the future of the project. In 2007 they accepted an EIR addendum that found “no significant impacts” to the endangered callippe. Now they must vote accept or reject another addendum to the 1982 EIR.

SBMW says an entirely new EIR is needed. “The California Environmental Quality Act actually requires that environmental review consider present day problems of climate change, traffic, affordable housing, and water conservation,” says McIntire.

Further, the group has sued the County of San Mateo for its “negative declaration” that there found no substantial evidence the project may have a significant effect on the environment.

The best result, says McIntire, would be a “really viable corridor at least three hundred feet wide connecting with the northeast ridge habitat, containing ungraded grasslands, including ridges and some viola habitat, without any 4-lane roads or stands of eucalyptus.”

Further, McIntire contends, “We should broaden the discussion to include the fundamental flaws in the HCP. No more rare habitat should be paved over on the promises of a plan and some funds. A new scientific study of the callippe should be done to test the claims that all the barriers that have been put in the historic flight corridor won’t interfere with the butterfly. We cannot protect the mountain by speculating with endangered species habitat, as [Fish and Wildlife] is doing by allowing the destruction and isolation of that habitat as a means of funding the preservation of it.”

California Coho Salmon In Dire Straits

The collapse of Central California Coast coho salmon population is imminent, according to a report by the National Marine Fisheries in late December 2009. Numbers of returning coho may be too low to support a viable population.

For the last three years very few nests, or “redds,” have been found in Marin County’s Lagunitas watershed, where 80 percent of Central California’s coho salmon live. The salmon live three years, half in the coastal streams and half in the Pacific, then return at the end of their lives to spawn. The salmon reproduce in three groups, each returning every third year, so that in three years, all three groups have returned and spawned. When, for three years in a row, numbers are drastically low, the entire population is at risk.

Rain was good in early December, and some coho made their way up Lagunitas Creek from Tomales Bay. But since then, few have been sighted.

Paola Bouley, of the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network, says more rain may bring fish up the streams. “We have a one-month window to get some good storms. But basically, we need to increase productivity by improving the habitat in the watershed. We need to install woody debris to slow the streams and provide shelter for the fish. We need to reduce human impact at the streamside and prevent runoff of toxic chemicals. If we can produce more fish, they have a chance at survival. It’s a numbers game. So far this year 44 redds have been counted. Since 2000 the annual average has been 247.”

SPAWN recently received a California Fish and Game grant to increase the amount of woody debris in the streams. The group is also pushing hard at the county level to reduce the pressures of human development in the watershed. There is a county supervisors’ meeting on January 21 to discuss a salmon enhancement plan for the San Geronimo Valley. SPAWN is hoping people will attend and speak out. “The county has the primary jurisdiction over land use,” says Bouley. “They have the power to make things happen in the watershed.”

A concerned human population is the coho’s greatest hope, says National Marine Fisheries Biologist Charlotte Ambrose. “In Marin County you have a community of people who care. We need that across the range. The time is now to find hope, and find out what actions need to be taken.”

NMF is releasing a much-awaited Salmon Recovery Plan at the end of January, with the priority to “increase the probability of survival for every individual,” says Ambrose. “For instance, we’re asking, ‘What can we do for the fish at each life stage? What can we do for adults? What can we do to decrease the likelihood of incidental catch by steelhead fishermen? What are the needs of the fish at each stage of life? What does increasing water release do for each age group?'”

The real story, she says, “is as the population decreases, you have a decreased ability of the individual to survive the pressures of the environment, both natural and human. Fewer survive to spawn, and the decline feeds on itself. The coho are in an extinction vortex.”

Protesting Burrowing Owl Eviction

An ongoing controversy over the displacement of burrowing owls in Antioch brought out 40 local residents and others from across the Bay Area on Sunday for a march to raise awareness about the eviction of burrowing owls at the Blue Ridge development site in Antioch. (See our previous story on this.)

Activists fighting the eviction seek to change the California Department of Fish and Game’s policy of moving owls by passive relocation (installing one-way doors on burrows to prevent owls from entering them). “There must be mitigation for these owls when you displace them from their homes. Now they’re just locking the owls out. The mitigation is zero,” Says Scott Artis, who lives near the owls and reports on them in his blog, journOwl.com.

Behind the Blue Ridge development are hills covered with tall grasses, a habitat not suitable for the owls or the ground squirrels whose burrows the owls inhabit. Both species prefer areas with shorter grasses, where good visibility makes it easy for the owls and squirrels to see predators.

Unfortunately, there is no such habitat nearby. “Essentially, this is an island habitat,” says Artis. “The owls have nowhere to go. They aren’t just being pushed back. They are being pushed out – out into the grips of predators.”

According to Prof. Lynne Trulio of San Jose State University, the owls should be moved no more than 100 yards to artificial or natural burrows over a three-week period so that their natural habits are not disrupted. A long-distance move would thus mean a series of short moves over a long period.

This particular project is also under fire because the environmental review was done 15 years ago. Artis and his group are urging the City of Antioch to require a supplement to the 1995 Environmental Impact Study. “That’s too long ago to be useful. You have to see what has happened here and look at the surrounding area to know what needs to be done.”

Katherine Portman, of the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society, says the owls are facing major problems across their range despite being lists as a Species of Special concern by the state. “California Fish and Game’s policy of allowing contract biologists to evict burrowing owls from their burrows is contributing to the decline of the species,” she says. “The owls, excluded from their burrows, are likely to die from predation or automobile traffic. And since each pair should raise four chicks, this is a significant take.”

In 2003, says Portman, Fish and Game committed to publishing a Burrowing Owl Conservation Plan. “We’re still waiting. [Fish and Game] should at least install artificial burrows in the surrounding hills. They could even move these birds to the burrowing owl habitat in Antioch’s conservation park. They are not even banding them, so we can see where they go. As it is, [Fish and Game] is in violation of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, the California Environmental Quality Act, and their own code.”

As of publication, officials from the Department of Fish and Game have not responded to our phone calls.

Antioch Developer Evicts Burrowing Owls

Naturalists Scott and Heather Artis of Antioch have adopted a local community of burrowing owls as their own stewardship project and were looking forward to this year’s nesting season, but in November 2009 the California Department of Fish & Game handed the owls an eviction notice. Before nesting season begins in February 2010, the owls will be “passively relocated” or excluded from their nests and forced to move elsewhere. (Check out this short video Scott made to protest the eviction.)

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Scott Artis and his wife Heather have been watching, and watching out for, a group of burrowing owls that started nesting in the bare ground of an unfinished housing development in Antioch. Photo courtesy Scott Artis.

The owls currently live in a 25-acre, partially-completed housing development called Blue Ridge, where Scott and Heather frequently walk in the evenings. In 2008 they noticed the owls moving in, along with California ground squirrels, jackrabbits, and quail. Scott and Heather have also seen kestrels, coyotes, great horned owls, red-tailed hawks, white-tailed kites, and turkey vultures in or over the abandoned subdivision.

The Artis’ enjoyed and observed the owls’ behavior and recorded their numbers and nesting habits. What began as an interest became a passion. “We’ve taken them under our wings, so to speak,” says Scott. “In 2009 there were 15 owls in the neighborhood; 11 of those in the development. Several nestlings were successfully reared. Four pairs have wintered over.”

Across the state, burrowing owls are quickly diminishing in numbers. According to the Institute for Bird Populations at Point Reyes, there has been a 50 percent decline in burrowing owl population in the Bay Area in the last 10 to 15 years. They are a Species of Special Concern in California, a pre-listing category under the California Endangered Species Act. Their status protects them from disturbance during nesting season or killing at any time, but does not guarantee them a home. “This is standard,” says Professor Lynne Trulio of San Jose State University. “Outside of breeding season, owls can be removed.”

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The Artises have recorded 11 different owls living on the property. Burrowing owls, a species of special concern in California, have been especially hard hit by suburban sprawl into grasslands all over the state.

The Artis’ stewardship has taken many forms. Scott personally repairs and makes modification to gates to prevent people from off-roading in the area, he writes about owls on his website journowl.com, and he has repeatedly complained to city officials when human activity including graffiti, illegal dumping, an abandoned golden retriever, , drug dealing, fireworks, and off-roading seriously threatened the owls during nesting season. Scott says Antioch Police Chief Jim Hyde has been very responsive. A fence was replaced, and the property cleaned up. So, thanks to Scott’s efforts, all was well with the owls for awhile.

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The owls nest in abandoned ground squirrel burrows. Photo courtesy Scott Artis.

But now developer Kiper Homes wants to begin building again in the spring, and company officials plan to remove the owls first. The state Department of Fish and Game has given Kiper written notice to proceed. Before February, one-way doors will be installed in occupied burrows, allowing the owls to leave, but not return, to their nests. Once the owls are gone, the nests will be destroyed. Ground squirrels, who built the nests the owls occupied, will then be fumigated to prevent future burrowing, which would invite the owls back in. Scott guesses the owls will move to property behind the Blue Ridge tract, but that land is itself slated for future development.

“Burrowing owls like to live in the same places humans like to live,” says Trulio. This makes them especially vulnerable to human expansion into their neighborhoods. This owl community will be homeless just as nesting season is beginning. What will their future hold? Stay tuned.

State Park Heroes: The Volunteers

Local volunteer groups are working hard to keep our state parks functioning in spite of a $14.2 million funding cut that has reduced parks services and open hours. This comes at a time when use of state parks is up, with a 38 percent increase in number of visitors annually over the past decade.

We all know that California’s state parks were recently threatened with closure due to the state’s fiscal crisis, and we know that they barely escaped that fate, and remain open with limited services. It might seem the crisis is over. Not so.

Jerry Emory, spokesman for the California State Parks Foundation told the San Francisco Chronicle that, though parks aren’t closed entirely, reduction in services is severe, and takes unexpected forms. Days of operation are largely limited to weekends, many park offices and visitor centers have been closed or had hours reduced, restrooms are closed, trash cans have been removed, and many fewer school tours and interpretive programs are offered.

Volunteers build a trail
Volunteers work on a trail in Sonoma Coast State Park. Photo courtesy Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods.

Enter the California state parks associations. Volunteer groups across the state are stepping up to carry new loads essential to fulfilling the parks’ mission. Eighty-one citizen groups, whose activities in normal times are impressive enough (education, restoration, fundraising, staffing of visitor centers), today have amped up to fill needs once met by state funding and are having a great time doing it.

You might think these groups would be discouraged, daunted by the great task before them. Not a bit of it. Lisa Bacon, longtime volunteer and board member of Stewards of the Coast and Redwoods is “absolutely confident that we can keep the parks supported for as long as necessary. We will maintain the funding to keep essential programs going.”

The Stewards, which help with several state parks in western Sonoma County, have taken substantial responsibility for keeping local parks functioning. In addition to advocacy, education, and park stewardship activities, they are raising funds to keep essential services going in their parks. They pay the utility bills to keep the Sonoma Coast State Park Visitor’s Center open. Because half of the park’s restrooms have been closed, the Stewards provide portable restrooms for their outdoor Watershed Education and Environmental Living programs and are raising funds to provide them for the Sonoma Coast State Park. Armstrong Redwoods State Nature Reserve has no funding for park aids, so Stewards are staffing the information center with volunteers.

Many groups are doing extra fundraising. In Marin County, the Angel Island Association is hosting its “Angel Lights” benefit on Dec. 3 to support conservation and enhancement of the park by installing new solar-powered LEDs atop the island to replace conventional lights destroyed in last year’s fire.

Some groups, like the Mount Diablo Interpretive Association, supply anything the park needs. Recently, they put four tires on a park truck, bought a projector for the interpretive center, and put up trail signs. They also pay an interpretive aid at the Summit Museum two days a week, staff the center with volunteers on two other days, and are considering funding a fulltime aid.

A longer-term solution is also in the works. On November 3, 2009, California State Parks Foundation filed a proposed statewide ballot measure, “California State Parks and Wildlife Conservation Trust Fund Act of 2010,” to support the state park system through an $18 annual surcharge on vehicle license fees. To get the measure on the ballot for November 2010, volunteers will need to gather 435,000 valid signatures by mid-April, 2010. Click here to find out how you can help. Hope is high that this measure to ensure dedicated funding for state parks will solve financial problems.

Meanwhile at the grassroots, Californians are responding to the call to support their parks with resolve and optimism. Says Lisa Bacon of Stewards, “It’s thrilling to be part of an organization that can do so much for people.”

The Coho Are Back!

Yes, the silver and pink flashers are in Tomales Bay and are working their way up Marin County creeks to spawn in their native waterways. Paola Bouley, conservation director for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network (SPAWN), reported seeing coho spawners on October 21, 2009.

Chris Pincetich, SPAWN’s watershed biologist, and his colleagues estimate a return of 200 to 300 coho salmon this year in the Lagunitas Creek watershed, a big improvement overlast year’s run but a drop in the bucket when compared to historical runs. The group is beginning its tenth year of naturalist-led creek walks on what’s now our state’s largest remaining coho run, so now’s the time to see the salmon migrating upstream.

This summer, after last year’s disastrously low rainfall, SPAWN members rescued dozens of baby coho stranded in pools by low stream flow and moved them downstream to continue their out-migration to the open ocean, where they will spend a year and a half of their three-year lifecycle. Now, after two good rains, the streams are running again, and the annual upstream migration has begun.

Numbers, though, are extremely low. Salmon have been declining in California since the Gold Rush, when mines sent massive loads of sludge and debris into steams and began destroying fish habitat. The process continues with urbanization, pollution from agricultural chemicals, damming and diversion of waterways, suburban migration barriers, and rising temperatures. According to the California Department of Fish and Game, in the 1940s 200,000 to 500,000 coho filled coastal streams. In 1991 DFG found them at risk of extinction.

Today, coho are federally listed as “endangered” in Central California and state listed as “threatened” to north of Mendocino County. Numbers are so low that the Pacific Fishery Management Council has banned commercial salmon fishing off California for coho since the 1990s and now has banned all salmon fishing for the second year in a row, with a 10-day window for sport fishing.

But up and down the coast grassroots groups like SPAWN are cleaning up streams, taking out invasive plants that choke waterways, and planting native species, improving or recreating the riparian habitat coho have evolved to thrive in and will return to with their unerring sense of smell.

When the coho move up into the estuary, they stop eating, and will not eat again during their migration and spawning, which may take up to a month and a half. When they receive the right chemical signals, they will return to their native streams, swimming against the current, leaping over boulders, crashing through rapids, relentlessly making their way upstream.

When a female finds a suitable spot in shallow water rushing over cobbles (“Head of a riffle, tail of a pool,” says Pincetich), she will lay on her side, flapping her tail to build a nest called a redd, flinging four-to-six inch cobbles with her tail, allowing the current to wash away the silt. When she is ready, the males will cross over her, back and forth, quivering. She will squeeze out her eggs, and instantly one or more males will rush along her flanks and release milt as close to the female’s vent as possible. She will now bury the eggs, and for a few days she will guard the nest. Then she will weaken, drift downstream and die. The males also die within a few days.

Completing their cycle, salmon form a critical connection between ocean and inland watersheds. After spawning, when salmon die and decompose or are eaten by one of the dozens of wildlife species that depend on salmon, they recycle ocean nutrients to the inland watersheds.

You can sign up for a SPAWN naturalist-led walk on Lagunitas Creek in Marin County and view coho spawning through January by clicking here.