Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
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Amongst marshes, a salty past

The Hayward regional shoreline consists of over a thousand acres of marshes and seasonal wetlands. At low tide sandpipers and black stilts wander about the mud flats searching for food, while cyclists and runners exercise along a 5-mile trail.

It’s hard to imagine that more than a hundred years ago, mounds of salt covered these same Hayward marshes like a fresh blanket of snow. The salt attracted harvesters, going way back to the original inhabitants.

“Ohlone tribes were the first to gather salt crystals from the grass along the marshes, but it wasn’t until the 1850s that settlers began harvesting salt from the ponds,” said Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center naturalist Patti Workover during a historical tour of the Oliver Salt trail in April.

salt ponds

Miners at work harvesting salt. Photo by the Hayward Shoreline Interpretive Center. 

While he didn’t strike gold in 1852, Scandinavian sailor Josh Johnson was the first pioneer to commercially harvest salt from the Bay. To create the ponds, Johnson had Chinese laborers construct channels to drain the marshes and corner off areas where salt could be evaporated. The laborers built levees from wood, stone, and mud to hold off the tides. In fact, one of the wooden levee rollers used by the salt farmers can be spotted on the Oliver Salt trail today.

“Johnson used his boats to bring salty bay water back to the shoreline,” said Workover.

Brine or seawater was fed into large ponds, then moved to shallower ponds and drawn out through natural evaporation allowing the salt to be harvested. Once the pond had evaporated, workers would shovel the crystallized salt by hand and put them into wheelbarrows.

In 1852, Johnson sold his first salt harvest for $35 a ton.Johnson later sold his land to Swedish sailor August Ohleson in 1872. Ohleson would later change his name to Andrew Oliver, whose descendants provided salt to tanneries, food processing, and packaging companies until 1982.During the 1900s, the Oliver family introduced several innovations to the salt harvesting industry, remnants of which still exist on the trail.

One such installation, the 4-inch perforated pipe, worked as a generator said Workover. Similar to native tribes scraping salt off plants, the Oliver’s built a modernized version raising perforated pipes around pine boughs that were placed in the mud.

“Water would pump into the pipes and spray onto the wood. Workers would then scrap the salt off the stumps of the wood — advanced for its time but it was very labor intensive.”

Archimedes screw pumps originally designed and built by Andrew Oliver in the 1870s were the longest surviving wind-powered pumps until electric pumps were built in the 20th century. The 4-bladed wooden windmill was used to funnel water from one pond to another, aiding the evaporation process. On the Oliver Salt trail, you’ll notice two archimedes screw pumps. The remains of the original wooden windmill from the 1870s, and a mechanical windmill.

levee

The remnants of a wooden levee, observed from the Oliver Salt Trail. Photo by Eric Galan. 

Another byproduct of the salt trade has been the shoreline’s contribution to aquaculture and the pet fish industry. Unlike many organisms, brine shrimp flourish in salty waters, proving to be a valuable food source to stilts, snowy plovers and other wildlife. Their shell-encased case eggs are sold as fish food and even as a novelty gift: you may know them as Sea Monkeys!

Brine shrimp and algae are also responsible for the ponds’ chameleon-like appearance. There are five ponds along the salt trail, each pond can reflect several vivid colors depending on the salt concentration level. In low-to-mid salinity the ponds reflect a greenish algae color, during high salinity levels you could mistake the ponds for a pool of red wine.

Decades of pillaging the shoreline for salt did come at a cost. Much of the tidal habitat was destroyed due to salt production and its estimated that the San Francisco Bay lost 85% of its wetlands due to development, hunting and landfill.Restoration projects in the late 80s helped bring the wildlife and forage back to the Hayward shoreline.

The seasonal wetlands have become a favorite spot for migratory birds, who feed off the habitat’s many invertebrates. In many ways, the wetlands contribute greatly to the health and biodiversity of the bay.

Spotted owls lose turf war at Muir Woods

If you’re fortunate to be hiking Muir Woods at sunset, be sure to keep your ears open and eyes peeled. You may just encounter one of the parks more stealthy inhabitants.

On any of the park’s many trails, you may hear the low-pitched “ho-ho-hooo,” of a horned owl, or the distinctive “who-cooks-for-you, who-cooks-for-you-all” hooting of the barred owl. But one owl species remains conspicuously quiet — the northern spotted owl.

“You’ll never hear its call here,” said Steffan Bartschat, a ranger for the National Park Service. “A spotted owl call usually results in a barred owl attack.”

As it’s migrated West over the last four decades, the aggressive barred owl has emerged as a serious threat to the spotted owl’s habitat. Loggers were once the bogeymen of the spotted owl, but these days its close cousin has emerged as a major nemesis. Rather than

Barred owl2

The barred owl are East Coast transplants the were first spotted in Muir Woods in 2002. Photo by Wiki Commons.

engage in aerial fights over territory, the more demure spotted owl flees to the hillsides, ceding its Muir Woods perches to its barred owl cousins.

“They’re kinda finicky, they don’t necessarily feel threatened by the barred owl – just annoyed,” said Bartschat on a recent night tour about owl species in Muir Woods.

The barred owls — East Coast transplants — were first spotted in Muir Woods in 2002 and began nesting there three years ago. At that time there were as many as 40 spotted owls in the area. This year there are no known spotted owls in the main area of the park, and of course no nests or offspring either. The spotted owls have picked up and moved to West Marin and the Marin Headlands.

The plight has brought out an outpouring of national and local support for the imperiled spotteds, a bird whose numbers have declined by 40 percent in the last 25 years. Spotted owls were declared a threatened species in 1990 under the Endangered Species Act.

muir

Barred owls have taken over spotted owl territory in Muir Woods. Photo by Stephen Kennedy.

Marin County has allocated $13,100 to the Point Reyes Bird Observatory Program to monitor the health and stability of owls in the West Marin region. And recently the U.S. Department of the Interior announced it would designate critical habitat for spotted owls in California, Oregon and Washington, while allowing some logging to prevent forest fires.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has also come up with a plan to remove or kill barred owls from certain habitat areas. The barred owls would be captured and released elsewhere or taken into captivity. The plan has been decried by environmentalists who believe the barred owl is being scape-goated for what is still primarily a loss of habitat due to logging.

Is the removal of the barred owl enough to bring the spotted owl back?

“There’s no guarantee it will work, at least in Muir Woods,” said Bartschat.

Experts, amateurs pair up to build real-time field guide

Scientists and citizen scientists may share a love of nature, but they have few tools to exchange information. A new online tool called the Bay Area Bio-Atlas seeks to deepen those links in an effort to provide a real-time field guide to the region’s flora and fauna.

The new initiative is a project of iNaturalist, an online map that allows citizen scientists to share information and photos about their latest wildlife sitings. The Bio-Atlas adds scientists to the mix to provide the expert data as a foundation for the citizen contributions.

iNaturalist co-director Dr. Scott Loarie said that combining the two — citizens and scientists — will help the conservation community track changes in biodiversity over time in response to climate change and other stressors. Confirmed citizen-science observations will be archived in Calflora, an online database of California wild plants.

“There was no system in place to monitor new populations,” Loarie said. “This will help set the stage and act as a baseline for a standardized checklist.”

The Bio-Atlas will gather species lists from participating wildlife reserves, with the goal of creating a map of all animal and plant species across the Bay Area’s 10 counties. It’s currently in pilot mode at the Pepperwood Preserve in Santa Rosa, where local scientists are being trained in how to use iNaturalist to record and upload their data.

Created in 2008, iNaturalist receives over a thousand contributions a week from users globally.

“Like bird lists, we want to make biodiversity accessible for all plants and animals,” said Loarie. “For instance if someone records a plant observation using iNaturalist, they might find out that this particular plant is one of three plants listed in this location. It empowers the user to learn about the natural world and their surroundings.”

He said the application, available as a mobile phone application, has helped a younger generation of conservationists become more involved and connects them to the older generation.

“Young people are really engaged and totally adept at using iphones, but they may not have the same experience identifying a frog or plant species while out on a trail,” Loarie said. “It’s a neat complimentary way of learning.”

Where the wild birds live

For more than a decade, a small group of passionate birders spent hundreds of hours counting bird species in Alameda County. Through backyards and parks, wetlands and woods, they traversed every habitat imaginable.

The result of their hard work is the Alameda County Breeding Bird Atlas, a comprehensive guide to understanding 175 bird species that nest in the East Bay. It was released this week in time for the county’s annual Christmas Bird Count.

In some ways, this census was like any other door-to-door effort, except counting birds puts you in some unusual situations. At times it required getting permission onto private ranches and parks, waiting until nightfall to scope out burrowing owls, and kayaking across waterways at Lake Chabot Regional Park, said atlas editor Helen Green.

“I’m glad we soldiered on,” said Green.

The birders are from the Golden Gate and Ohlone chapters of the National Audubon Society. The atlas represents Alameda county’s contribution to a nationwide effort to monitor the health of bird populations.

“It’s citizen science at its best,” says GGAS executive director, Mark Welther.

The atlas pinpoints where birds are making their homes in the county’s diverse urban and rural landscapes. It contains detailed maps for each species, accounts of where they’ve been spotted, and historical information about each bird.

For example, Berkeley backyards are common nesting places for Cooper’s hawks. Knowing these habitat details can help in the effort to protect breeding sites. 

“The community can use the data when dealing with a proposed land development and see that a threatened species exists here,” said Welther.

The atlas findings found that three federally listed endangered and threatened species live in Alameda County:  the clapper rail, snowy plover, and Least tern. Seventeen other species are listed by the State of California as bird species of special concern: the northern harrier, burrowing owl, loggerhead shrike, yellow warbler, three song sparrow subspecies that live in salt marshes, and the tricolored blackbird.

Green said she hopes that biologists and conservationists will use the atlas to better understand the historical range of bird populations.

No atlas would be complete without visuals and the Alameda County bird atlas does not disappoint. Thirty wash-drawn illustrations from wildlife enthusiast and artist, Hans Peeters are included in the book. A Bay Area native since 1956, Peeters has painted everything from herons to warblers. He said that the Alameda County landscape is a “major draw for naturalist and bird painters.”
 
What can readers expect to find when they pickup this atlas?

“People will be surprised to find nuggets of beauty could be found in their own backyard. It’s a wonderful contribution to our area,” said Peeters.

To purchase the Alameda County Breeding Bird Atlas contact the Golden Gate Audubon Society at ggas@goldengateaudubon.org or call 510.843.2222

Twilight hiking reveals nature’s night owls

To some, daylight saving time means losing an hour of sunshine. But to Crissy Field Park Ranger Fatima Colindres, it means more opportunities to explore the night. 

Twilight walks are among the park’s most popular activities, and Colindres treks with groups under the dark sky twice a month. 

“There’s something about the dark that makes it popular,” she said. “It’s a different experience, a different world, using different senses, and being outside at night make it even more special.”

Colindres leads the group in what becomes a night full of learning, exploration, and “stories that go with the nighttime experience.” She likes to talk about what’s in bloom and points out traces of wildlife. Raccoons, foxes, owls – and on rare occasions even coyotes – sometime make an appearance.  

“It’s safer for wildlife to come out, hunt, look for prey without being disturbed,” said Colindres.  

Colindres often tells Native American stories relating to medicinal uses of native plants in the Crissy Field area. People leave the hike saying, “I didn’t know plants had a story. I see them differently now,” Colindres says. 

Tonight’s full moon hike is already full. But check out these other opportunities to stroll beneath the stars:

Twilight marsh walk on Nov. 12.

Astronomy in the Park on Nov. 17.

Candlelight tours on Nov. 19.

 Winter Solstice on Dec. 17. 

 Also visit Golden Gate Park’s December calendar for upcoming events.

Insecta-Palooza Takes the Creepy out of Lots of Crawlies

With Halloween right around the corner, it’s only natural to think of cobwebs and hairy creatures lurking in dark places. Just the thought of these creepy, crawling, eight-legged, web tangling, multi-eyed arachnids can frighten even the toughest individuals. Even yours truly.

Luckily, the third installment of Sonoma State University’s Insecta-Palooza is here to remind us that these crawlers aren’t so creepy after all.

This Saturday, October 29, Insecta-Palooza will take place at SSU’s Darwin Hall. The theme for this year’s event is metamorphosis. Program Coordinator Frederique Lavoipierre says the theme of transformation is “appropriate because it coincides with the school’s 50th anniversary.”

The event itself has undergone a transformation of sorts. In past events, says Lavoipierre, adults “didn’t come because they thought it was just for kids. This year’s Insecta-Palooza has something for everyone, from children to master gardeners to professional entomologists.”

Adults and teens can drop in on several seminars throughout the day–perhaps a photography presentation by Vic Smith, assistant curator at the California Academy of Sciences, or a panel discussion about issues facing honey bees and native bees, with entomologists from San Francisco State, UC Davis, and UC Berkeley. The seminars add a very important bigger picture, says Lavoipierre. “It’s important for us to see the context in which bugs fit into the web of life. Without bugs there wouldn’t be food.”

But don’t worry, adults don’t get to have all the fun at Insecta-Palooza. There are plenty of activities for children. In fact, children are encouraged to come dressed in their Halloween costumes and take part in the Insect parade. “It adds a party atmosphere to the event. Even the volunteers are dressed up as worker bees,” says Lavoipierre.

“Kids get really excited about our Bug Building and Insect Origami workshops,” she says. In “Bug Building,” kids design bugs out of scrap materials, then test their creations’ aerodynamic capabilities in a wind tunnel. “Its really about fun and inadvertently learning as you go.”

What do kids love most about Insecta-Palooza?

“All kids love the live bugs! They’re really small and incredibly alien.”

“All kids love the live bugs! They’re really small and incredibly alien,” Lavoipierre explains. In the popular “Insect Zoo” exhibit, kids can touch and feel California native insects, praying mantises, stick insects, and tarantulas. “They’re fun things to look at. Kids love them and love to talk about their experiences with them.”

Inside the interactive labs, “Basic Bugs” and “A World of Water,” kids get to use microscopes to examine bugs and aquatic invertebrates. “Kids are fascinated with magnification,” she says. “They’re shocked to discover that some bugs have hairy eyeballs.”

Aren’t kids supposed to be afraid of bugs?

While many kids may be apprehensive at first, interactions tend to happen naturally. “When one of the scared children witnesses a peer holding something and not getting hurt, they draw closer. Next thing you know, they’re holding it!”

For ticket and event information, visit sonoma.edu.

Got Kids? Take ’em outside!

In an alarming poll conducted by the Nature Conservancy, only ten percent of kids said they’re spending time outside everyday. That’s no typo folks, a whopping ten percent!

The study also found that 88 percent of America’s youth spend time online every day, while 69 percent of kids watch television or played video games every day.

While it may seem that today’s youth are more concerned with their technological gizmos and gaming consoles, there is hope that they can still find a connection with the great outdoors. According to the poll, 66 percent of youth who have had personal experiences with nature walked away with a greater appreciation.

So what’s preventing America’s youth from enjoying nature?

There were a variety of answers: lack of interest in general, not being comfortable outdoors, costs, parental restraints, health issues, to lack of access to rural areas and transportation. Fifty-four percent of kids cited accessibility of rural areas and transportation as a major reason for their lack of participation.

Lucky for us in the Bay Area right now, the month of October provides plenty of opportunities for families around region to get kids off the couch and into a more active habitat.

So this is one online resource that says, “Get outside!, Step away form the keyboard!” After you find some great stuff to do, of course.

Here are a few highlights:

Saturday, October 1

Meet the Animals! At the Randall Museum

Sunday, October 2

Free First Sundays! At the Oakland Museum of California

Saturday October 8

Nat’l Children’s Day at the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve

North Richmond Shoreline Festival

Shark Day! at the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Bayer Farm Tour and Corn Festival

Sunday, October 9

Nicasio Valley Farms Pumpkin Patch

Monday, October 10: Teens on Trails

Sunday, October 16: Family Bird Walk

Saturday, October 22

Outdoor Family Adventure Day at Lands End in San Francisco

Shorebirds return to San Francisco!

Coastal Cleanup, This Saturday!

This Saturday morning from 9 a.m. to noon, more than 80,000 people will hit the California coast for a not-so-typical day at the beach. Coastal Cleanup Day is right around the corner and the state’s largest volunteering event continues to build awareness about the danger of marine debris.

Of the 1.2 million pounds of trash removed from our lakes and beaches last year 335,320 cigarette butts, 124,637 food wrappers, 64,517 caps and lids, and 32,124 straws were gathered. Staggering numbers indeed, which raises the question – How does all this debris end up on the shore?

“Eighty percent of trash comes initially from land,” says Linda Hunter, Executive Director of the Richmond-based Watershed Project. Last year over 600 people participated in the Watershed’s efforts to clean the coast and even more people are anticipated to help this weekend. “Every single year, more and more people want to do something to help.” Hunter says the dialogue has shifted from picking things up at the beach to “the root cause of the debris and where it all comes from.”

Events like those held by Richmond’s Watershed Project are happening across the region on Saturday. In Cerrito Creek, volunteers with the Friends of Five Creeks are working uphill of the shoreline, aiming to “get trash out of the creek, so it doesn’t get into the Bay,” says President Susan Schwartz. “There’s always a sprinkling of food wrappers, coffee cups, things thrown into gutters–little snacks and little junk food.”

And it’s that little stuff that gets mistaken for food by wildlife.

“Stuff that’s killing the birds, that’s the little plastic stuff,” says Hunter. Small plastic, Styrofoam, and fishing lines are just a few examples. “Some fish are eating more plastic than real food.”

That means education about keeping trash out of our waterways is just as important as beach clean-up.

Coastal cleanup volunteers at the Richardson Bay Audubon Center get a heavy dose of marine schooling before they head into the beach. Though the Tiburon beaches may look clean from a distance, first-time volunteers are often shocked to find droves of debris sitting in one spot. “Cups, packaging, little pieces usually come up from the water floating in the bay,” says educational director Wendy Dalia. “Anything out there can eat it – birds, small critters, fish, even sea turtles. Often times they starve to death because the hazardous material can’t be digested.”

Getting out of the Bay this weekend is a great start for anyone looking to lend a hand while learning what’s at stake for the Bay and the ocean beyond.

Get Involved

With hundreds of sites along most stretches of Bay and ocean shoreline, there’s sure to be a cleanup site near you. Find cleanups them on the California Coastal Commission website, or call 1-800-COAST-4U for more info.

Watershed Project’s coastal cleanup in Richmond.

Friends of Five Creeks at Cerrito Creek

Richardson Bay Audubon Center & Sanctuary in Tiburon

Catching Up to Texas, California Now Has Certified Naturalists

If someone asked you to name the 26 states that offer certified “master naturalist” programs, there’s a good chance you’d class California among those. Until recently, you’d have been wrong.

But now the Golden State finally has such a program. “We saw how successful the program was in other states,” says Adina Merenlender of the University of California Cooperative Extension. “We studied the naturalist program in Texas and thought; how about California?” That’s right, Texas.

If nothing else, the two states do have large size in common. “California presented challenges because of its size — it’s the size of a country,” says Merenlender, who helped develop the program and says it’s still in its “launch phase.”

The California naturalist program provides training, in collaboration with local sponsoring institutions, for adult environmental stewards through an outdoor and in-class curriculum.

For six months, aspiring naturalists get hands-on instruction and exposure to real world environmental projects. Naturalist certification is provided once the course is completed, and many graduates volunteer with federal, state, and local agencies and nonprofits.

Merenlender and her colleagues at UC Extension spent the past five years developing different aspects of the program, what she describes as “laying the ground work.” Getting people on board, discussing the resources and availability of the courses. Eventually, UC formed a partnership with Santa Rosa Junior College and Pepperwood Preserve. Santa Rosa JC became the first institution to “pilot” the naturalist program and the early returns have been encouraging: “There has been no problems filling the classes, they are very popular,” says Merelender.

Dr. Shawn Brumbaugh, instructor for the naturalist program at Santa Rosa JC can attest to the programs popularity. “The program has been well received. The demand seems to be there – we could probably fill two courses,” he says. “Students are hungry for this material. The program’s getting good word of mouth, and we’ve been getting an interesting mix of young students and everything in-between.”

Brumbaugh says the class is especially fun to teach: “Students are there because they want to be there.” Each week students hear from different instructors, docents, and stewards who bring in their own “expertise and energy.”

As for helping the naturalist program expand, Brumbaugh says, “I’d love to help other institutions get started. I get as much teaching this course as the students.”

For now, the biggest challenge is finding other groups with facilities, like the junior college and Pepperwood, where students can enroll and do fieldwork.

“There are many groups and local institutions that don’t know about the program,” says Merenlender. “Botanical and nature groups, formal science and watershed groups could benefit from the training and take advantage of the materials.”

To become a sponsor, an organization must meet certain requirements, but once a sponsor is approved, UC Extension provides course training, program support, course tools, and an interactive web database to help track the program’s effectiveness.

In effort to gain more sponsors the UC is holding a special workshop on September 27, 2011 at the UC Botanical Gardens in Berkeley. The workshop will include training and discussion for those interested in the CA naturalist program.

While it’s too soon to measure the impact of the California naturalist program, Merenlender says she sees great potential: “I’m confident because it has worked in other states.”

Read more about the California naturalist program at ucanr.org/sites/UCCNP, or register for the September 27 workshop.

Crissy Field Youth Program Wins National Award

As the Crissy Field Center celebrates its 10th anniversary, the center continues to bridge the gap between urban youth and environmental education. In July 2011, the center’s Inspiring Young Emerging Leaders (I-YEL) program won the “Take Pride in America” national award given by the Department of Interior for outstanding youth program. Jie Chen, a former student intern and current manager of the I-YEL program described the award as “amazing to see and be a part of.”

Like many students prior to the their involvement in the I-YEL program, Chen had little interest in the environment. That changed when he participated in the 2003 project “Not In My Backyard,” a production that focused on environmental justice in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood. Chen, who grew up in San Francisco, says the experience “opened his eyes to social and environmental issues in different neighborhoods. Before, I wouldn’t have thought environmental justice was an issue.” Chen says the project sparked his interest in “open space and what it could do for people and animals.”

The award-winning program started in 2001 as a way to empower middle and high school students. One of the program’s goals was to “build long-term relationships” and “keep students engaged,” says Ernesto Pepito, youth program manager for the Crissy Field Center. Every summer, over half of the student interns work in national parks, schools, and camps. And some end up pursuing careers in the environmental sector. In Chen’s case, I-YEL became “sort of a second home” and coming back after he graduated college was a “no-brainer.”

Every year, I-YEL interns work toward creating, developing, and planning the yearly Young Emerging Leaders (YEL) project. The project focuses on a timely social or environmental issue relevant to education and public change.

The YEL 10th anniversary project, called “Backyard Bound,” started in October 2010, and 22 high school volunteers representing 13 different San Francisco neighborhoods spent 1,500 hours organizing, promoting, and implementing the event, which took place from March 19 to March 20, 2011 at the Rob Hill Campground in the Presidio. More than 100 high school students from the Bay Area attended the summit, which included a series of workshops designed to get students to actively discuss ways to form a personal connection with the park. Scavenger hunts, nature hikes, and campfires with park rangers were some of the activities held at the summit.

Looking back at his journey from student to mentor at I-YEL, Jie Chen recalls a young lady who had a “big transformation” similar to his. “It’s a positive feeling, to mentor a young person on a long-term scale. We designed the program to be a long-term investment in the community, and it’s inspiring to see how young people develop.”

Learn more about the I-YEL program.