collaboration. We work together to preserve land, parks, trails, farms, ranches, forests, watersheds, and other open spaces. We have been around since 1990. This is our blog.
The big news this week is the revelation of a $54 million surplus for the CA State Parks. We rounded up the news stories from the weekend which you can read here. Here are two additional stories:
East Palo Alto celebrates a new park along the bay. A decades-long effort involving numerous federal, state and local government agencies, and countless activists culminated with the official opening of the Cooley Landing Park. (Mercury News)
Ducks Unlimited to help restore wetland.California's Wildlife Conservation Board awarded the nonprofit group $8 million to improve public access and help restore portions of Eden Landing's 5,000-acre reserve. (SF Chronicle)
Co-founder of Save Mount Diablo dies.What started out as an effort to draw attention to the 4,000-foot peak and preserve the then 6,788-acre Mount Diablo State Park, evolved in to a movement that has helped save 110,000 acres as open space and more than 40 parks in the East Bay. (Contra Costa Times)
$200,000 donation to save Mount Umunhum radar tower. Saying that the former Air Force radar tower atop Mount Umunhum south of San Jose is a historic building that should not be torn down, former Oakland A's owner and Santa Clara developer Steve Schott announced Friday that he will donate $200,000 to help save the structure. (Mercury News)
California Coastal Trail connects Midcoast community. Within two years, the old stretch of Highway One at Devil's Slide will be converted for the use of fair-footed travelers as part of the Devil’s Slide California Coastal Trail that winds from Montara to Pacifica. A management plan for the trail was finalized Friday. (Half Moon Bay Review)
Land conservation benefits from economic downturn. Tough economic times have been a bonanza for land trusts and nonprofit conservation groups, which have recently been buying rights to California redwood groves, beaches, oak savannahs and timberland at a feverish pace. (SF Chronicle)
Richardson Bay atoll renovated as nature preserve. An all-but-forgotten island in the northwest corner of Richardson Bay has become a testing ground for the notion that a functioning ecosystem can be built out of human excavation refuse. (SF Chronicle)
Local butterfly could land on endangered list. The bay checkerspot butterfly's numbers have declined so drastically in recent years that federal officials last week recommended upgrading its status from threatened to endangered under the Endangered Species Act. (Gilroy Dispatch) This is for you, Stu.
A Little Help from Our Friends. Local organizations are scrambling to rescue their favorite state parks. Is this the dawn of a new era of cooperation or yet another sign of the decline of California's once-proud state park system? Or both? (Bay Nature)
Bay Area artists to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the Golden Gate Bridge. Celebrated by poets and painters, known as the “gateway to the Pacific,” the Golden Gate Bridge has been considered the the iconic symbol of San Francisco since it was finished in 1937. This year marks the 75th anniversary of this remarkable landmark. (Examiner)
Bay Area tries to rein in greenhouse gases with growth/transportation plans. Regional planners are holding public workshops this month with five alternatives for the plan being called One Bay Area. The plan will cover transportation and development planning for the nine Bay Area counties through 2035. (Mercury News)
Every Wednesday we post a round-up of news - with some art, videos and fun thrown in - related to the members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Open Space Council. Scroll through all of these posts here. And let us know if we should include anything in next week's Happenings.
Our next Gathering will be January 19, 2012 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley. We'll be talking about cultural relevancy, how to be inclusive, and the connection of land and people. Speakers include folks from Trust for Public Land, Peninsula Open Space Trust, and Pie Ranch. More speakers to be announced. Registration is now open.
Today, the shortest day of the year, we invite you to join us on a tour. A tour, you say? But how? This is a virtual tour of the Open Space Council in 2011. The past year has been full of big visions, announcements, partnerships, and cool stuff like iPhone apps. Will you and your mouse join us as we click through 2011? Come along...
First stop on the tour is January. We started 2011 with over 100 people to talk about climate change. Our Rainy Season Gathering was held at the Brower Center and featured speakers from Marin Agricultural Land Trust, Save the Redwoods and others. We didn't debate the science of climate change but rather talked about what is actually being done to adapt to it. Read about it here and here.
Also in January we launched the Explorer tool for the Conservation Lands Network. Are you using Explorer? We held a workshop on Explorer in January which you can read about here.
February was full of love. The mobile app kind of love. In February we launched the iPhone app for Transit and Trails. Imagine you're going for a hike. Is there a change of plans? Did the weather shift from clouds to rain on your hike? Now you can view your route and how to get home in a flash on your iPhone.
Isn't that cool?
Are you ready for this stop on the tour?! It's a big one. It's March!
Our most popular Gathering yet was held at the Log Cabin in San Francisco's Presidio in March. The topic was Grazing & Conservation : Ranchers & Environmentalists and maybe you can guess why so many people attended. It sold out 2 weeks beforehand. Did you know that there are over 30 land-managing agencies in the Bay Area who have grazing on their lands? Click here and here to learn more about this complex subject.
Also in March we launched the Conservation Lands Network! Over 5 years, dozens of organizations, scientists of all kinds, and a healthy serving of creativity led to the map, Explorer, GIS datasets, brochure and full report. There's a great article about it in Bay Nature magazine which sums the whole thing up much better than we can in this blog post.
Not to jump head too much, but the Conservation Lands Network was all over the Bay Area this year. City and County planning departments, transportation agencies, Boards of Directors, nonprofit land trusts, and more heard a presentation about the Conservation Lands Network. It showed up in press releases and was included in funding requests. Here are some of the highlights.
March also brought the launch of the Living Landscape Initiative. Five members of the Open Space Council are working closely together to have significant impact on the counties of San Mateo-Santa Clara-Santa Cruz. We don't want to get ahead of ourselves but this group had a very big and very exciting announcement in December.
It's April! Spring was in the air! Even if it was a rainy spring it still felt like spring. We partnered with the Bay Area Ridge Trail for a hike from Richmond to Orinda on April 2. Did you know that you can actually hike from Richmond to Orinda? And use BART and AC Transit to get there and home? You can. We did. Click here to read all about it.
Spring goes by fast and here we are at May. The 12th annual Open Space Conference was held at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio. The theme was 'health' and we talked about all kinds of health: healthy people, healthy parks, and healthy communities. The room was packed with more than 300 people and some fun was had in our photo booth.
Also in May and the first part of June we held two workshops in Marin County called Community Bridges. With support from the Marin Community Foundation, we brought together park agencies, outdoor education providers and others who are interested in partnerships, funding collaborations and how we can better connect young people to the outdoors. Here's a quick synopsis.
We're half way done with this tour. How's everyone doing?
Welcome to June. On the longest Saturday of the year a group of people rode their bikes to the tops of Mount Hamilton, Mount Tamalpais and Mount Diablo in one day using public transit to get between the three mountains. It's the Triple Threat! And it's a demonstration of how incredible the Bay Area is with our parks, trails, and open spaces and the buses, ferries, and trains that connect them all. Read the play-by-play of the ride here.
In the words of one of the riders: ""The Triple Threat was an awesome experience: one that should be on the 'bucket list' of any cycling enthusiast and that I will be promoting amongst friends and at other cycling events!"
July is that beautiful time of year when energy is high and the Bay Area's microclimates are at their extremes. We held our Fog Gathering - respectfully named after the weather pattern many Bay Area residents associate with July - at the Brower Center and discussed transportation and sustainable communities. All of our work on parks, trails, farms, forests, and other open spaces fit into this very metropolitan region. Sometimes the fit is comfortable, and sometimes it's hard to see how these two worlds can coexist. The panel talked about what partnerships are happening, what's happening on a policy level, and how we all can get involved. Read more about it here.
Ah, August. Let's all take a deep breath right about now. That's what the Open Space Council did in August. Ommm....
Now that you're all relaxed, let's go to September! What does $263,000,000 have to do with land conservation in the Bay Area? A lot! It's the amount of bond funding that the Coastal Conservancy has brought to the region through the Bay Program. Our September Gathering at the Log Cabin in San Francisco featured Sam Schuchat and Amy Hutzel to talk about the many accomplishments of the Bay Program and the future of the Restoration Authority. Read all about it, including the presentations, here.
Here we are in October. Can you feel it? The light is changing and pumpkins are showing up on front porches. There was good news from Sacramento, a series on our blog about climate change (Part One, Part Two, Part Three, and Part Four), and the full report of the Conservation Lands Network was available for download. The Open Space Council went to Milwaukee, Wisconsin to attend the Land Trust Alliance's Rally and present to full rooms about the Conservation Lands Network and Transit and Trails. We know you and your mouse love pictures so here are some from Milwaukee.
Next up is November of course. First, we launched the 2011 version of the Bay Area Protected Areas Database. We've been doing this with GreenInfo Network for years and it tell us where the protected lands are in the Bay Area (bet you could have figured that one out). You can download the database here.
Next, we collaborated with Bay Nature magazine and SAGE on an event entitled Urban Gardens to Open Range: The Present and Future of Bay Area Food Landscapes. A great panel discussed the hard work involved in producing local, organic and sustainable food. Pictures can be seen here and an article about the event can be read here.
Finally in November, over 100 people filled the room at the Brower Center for a conversation about the State Parks closures (some call them 'abandonments'). It was our 5th Gathering of the year and yet another example of the power of partnership. The panel talked about ways in which they're working together with new and long-time partners to deal with something we've never faced before. Read all about it here and click on the picture below for a slideshow.
At the Gathering we watched this short film. Have you seen it?
Whew, the first 11 months of 2011 were full. We have just one more month to go. Ready?
In December there was this big announcement from the Living Landscape Initiative. Our members - our amazing members! - started renewing their memberships and we're thanking them online with pictures.
Also this month the Open Space Council has been looking forward to 2012. We'll host another 5 Gatherings, starting on January 19 on cultural relevancy. Our Open Space Conference will be on May 10. The Triple Threat will be bigger and viral on June 16. We will launch an Adroid app for Transit and Trails. And more that we can't reveal yet. We have lots of ideas and even more passion. 2012 is going to be fun.
We are very grateful to all of who have contributed financially to the Open Space Council in the past year. You can see who these amazing individuals, member organizations, foundations, companies, and agencies are here. Would you like to join them? We'd love to have you. Click here to be a part of it all.
Finally, from the Open Space Council to you... we wish you a very Happy Winter Solstice and a winter filled with light.
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This is our last blog post of 2011. All this talk about parks and trails, local food and open space, makes us feel a little restless. We need to go outside. Have happy holidays and we'll see you again in January.
What creates a connected area of 26,000 acres of protected land, with potential trail connections to Big Basin Redwoods and Henry Cowell Redwoods State Parks? Provides drinking water to Davenport and Santa Cruz? Supports Coho salmon and steelhead trout habitat? Promises excellent future public recreation opportunities, with miles of unpaved roads suitable for trails? And offers a buffer against impacts of climate change as a result of proximity to coast, high elevations, north-facing slopes and extensive ecological niches?
Five Bay Area conservation organizations - all members of the Open Space Council - including the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County, The Nature Conservancy, Peninsula Open Space Trust, Save the Redwoods League and Sempervirens Fund have joined forces to preserve the largest expanse of unprotected redwoods and wildlife habitat in the Santa Cruz Mountains. The property, which is 8 miles long and the largest piece of privately owned land in Santa Cruz County, stretches from the remote ridges of Bonny Doon almost to the Pacific Ocean. The broad expanse of redwood and oak forests is home to mountain lions, peregrine falcons and endangered coho salmon.
Over 100 people filled the Tamalpais Room at the Brower Center to hear from a panel about, and discuss themselves, the state parks crisis and the partnerships that are forming because of it. Much thanks to:
Our distinguished and fantastic panelists for their time and work!
Our next Gathering will be January 19, topic and location TBD. Stay tuned here for more information. If you are so in love with the Open Space Council that you'll attend no matter what, click here to register.
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12:36pm: We're wrapping up and going to lunch. I'll post Traci's and Danita's presentations here and on our website later today. Look for pictures on Flickr later, too.
12:33pm: An excellent question about young people. How do we involve them in this issue and their future of parks? Craig Anderson says that every site is different and in any way possible involve teenagers in that place.
12:29pm: Craig wrapped up. We are going to do a few minutes of Q&A and then lunch.
12:17pm: Craig: "We need to think big. We need to reenvision parks so that it can be everything it can be."
12:15pm: Craig is going to talk about the lessons that he and LandPaths have learned about the state parks crisis.
12:13pm: Ruskin has wrapped up. Dave Gould said that it's not surprising that Save the Redwoods is involved in the state parks situation. They were involved at the very beginning of the state parks system. Dave then introduced the Executive Director of LandPaths.
12:10pm: Ruskin "We need to think collectively think about long term sustainable solutions. What does the state park system need to look like in the future?"
12:07pm: Ruskin: "We need innovation. We need to try new things."
12:06pm: Bob has wrapped up. Dave Gould has introduced Ruskin Hartley.
11:54am: Lunch is supposed to start at 12pm, but we still have Ruskin Hartley of Save the Redwoods League and Craig Anderson from LandPaths. We'll probably go till 12:30pm.
11:50am: Bob Berman: "It's been mentioned already today, but it deserves repeating that even if a park isn't being closed, the service reductions and budget cuts are affecting all state parks."
11:46am: Lauren has wrapped up. Dave Gould thanked her and has introduced Bob Berman. Bob is on the Executive Committee of the Bay Area Open Space Council, partner in Nichols-Berman consulting firm, and a founder of the Solano Land Trust. He's talking today as part of his involvement in the Benicia State Parks Association.
11:45am: Lauren: "We have 17 great groups around the table really caring about these parks. The Sonoma Land Trust provided start up funding for the Parks Alliance. The County Parks has provided office space. The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District provides meeting space. These three in particular have really stepped up to support this cause."
11:42am: Lauren: "We feel really encouraged about what is happening in Sonoma County. If we it can be done, it can be done in Sonoma County."
11:30am: Danita has wrapped up her presentation. Loud applause for this local leader!
11:28am: Danita has moved on to China Camp now. She wants to confirm that the State Parks is not kicking out Frank Quan, the lone resident of China Camp State Park. Click here to read an article about it on Huffington Post. And here's a video about him and the park:
11:25am: Danita is describing the partnership that State Parks and National Park Service have created using the parking lot at Muir Woods. Muir Woods is in the same watershed as Samuel P Taylor and has a very high visitor rate. Every tourist who comes to the Bay Area goes to Muir Woods. There will be an additional $2 parking fee that will go to State Parks.
11:22am: Danita, who is also on the Executive Committee of the Bay Area Open Space Council:
11:19am: Danita: "There are 4 parks in Marin on the closure list, but all state parks are affected. There are service reductions across the board."
11:13am: Danita Rodriguez: "How do you actually close a park? We have to keep them open but we have to close them."
11:10am: Dave Gould is introducing Danita Rodriguez from Marin District of State Parks. He said, if he could put together a A list of people he'd like to work with, Danita is on that list.
11:09am: Traci is closing by saying: "Endorse the campaign! SaveStateParks.org"
11:05am: Traci: "We have a lot of work to do to raise awareness of state parks. And not just those 70 parks slated to close, but all of our 270 state parks."
10:58am: Traci: "We at the State Parks Foundation are not in the business of running parks. But we want to do what we can to support those groups who can support these parks. My back of the envelope math is that there are 20 parks that have a good chance of staying open. Another 20 have a fighting chance. We have another 30-40 parks that don't have a good safety net right now and who will probably close."
10:55am: Traci Verardo: "What is the incentive for groups to really stretch to keep a park open? One answer is that all revenue raised in a park stays in the park."
10:47am: Traci Verardo from State Parks Foundation:
10:43am: Sorry! For those of you watching live, we were having internet issues. We're here!
10:40am: "The Governor is giving the state the government they are willing to pay for, even if it's not the government they want," said Traci Verardo. "Nothing is sacred."
10:38am: "This legislature and Governor have not felt the public outcry that Goveror Schwarzenegger did in 2008 and 2009 when parks weren't supported," said Traci Verardo.
10:34am: Traci Verardo from State Parks Foundation is speaking now. I will get her presentation up here on the blog later this morning. "Over 90% of state parks budget came from the General Fund in the 1970s. Now it's more like 38% comes from the General Fund."
10:31am: Before we started the panel, we watched this video just released yesterday:
10:29am: Andrea Mackenzie welcomed everyone and introduced Dave Gould, our moderater of today's panel. Dave said that he has always loved working with the Bay Area Open Space Council and is thrilled to be here.
10:28am: Good morning! Today we are holding our last Gathering of the year at the Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. Currently there aren't any helicopters buzzing overhead, but that's always subject to change this close to the Cal campus. This is Annie Burke and I'll be blogging this morning with quotes, photos, and links.
Today we're talking about the State Parks crisis. In case you didn't know, right now California State Parks, the largest state park system in the country, face unprecedented budget cuts and closures. Governor Jerry Brown signed budget cuts in May 2011 that included a reduction of General Fund support for state parks by $11 million for Fiscal Year 2011-12 and a total reduction of $22 million by the beginning of Fiscal Year 2012-2013. Seventy parks are slated to close by July 2012, some of which have already done so. China Camp, Olompali, Jack London, Samuel P. Taylor, Sugarloaf Ridge, Annadel, Austin Creek, Petaluma Adobe, Bale Grist Mill, Bothe-Napa Valley, Castle Rock, and Henry Coe are all here in the Bay Area.
This hasn’t happened before. New partnerships are being formed. New ways of working together have been created and are being implemented. And new strategies are needed to deal with the new realities of publicly funded conservation.
What does it all mean? What is being done? And how do we need to think in new ways? Our panel is going to answer these questions. Our panel includes:
This is the weekly Happenings, a weekly round-up of news - with some art and fun thrown in - related to the members and friends of the Open Space Council.
Do you wonder if any progress has been made? Do you need some inspiration? Our Fall Gathering entitled One Look Back, Two Steps Forward on September 15 from 10am-1pm is for you. We'll be at the Log Cabin in the Presidio, a free lunch will be provided, and you are invited to come. Click here to register.
We'll be blogging live tomorrow from the Log Cabin. Visit this blog and refresh often for pictures, presentations, and the overall low down.
One of our visions for the Bay Area is to bring nature within reach of all Bay Area residents. And we mean all residents. The work that Rue Mapp and Ernesto Pepito do embodies that vision.
Rue and Ernesto were recently on Forum with Michael Krasny talking about connecting young people to the outdoors. Ernesto Pepito works at one of our member organizations - The Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy - in the Crissy Field Center. Rue Mapp, founder of Outdoor Afro and program officer at the Stewardship Council, has blogged about the Open Space Council as well as been a strong supporter of our work.
Mount Diablo wouldn't be what it is today - 90,000+ acres of preserved lands, vistas that stretch across the Central Valley, waterfalls, tarantulas, and more - without Save Mount Diablo. Of course there are strong partnerships and important collaborations that have contributed to the Mount Diablo we see today, including East Bay Regional Park District, California State Parks and others. But Save Mount Diablo has played a central role in keeping this centerpiece unpaved and open to everyone. The video above (click here if you're reading this by email) gives us a glimpse of what it takes to preserve this land and why Save Mount Diablo has been so successful.
In the evening of Saturday, June 18 a group of riders will climb to the top of Mount Diablo. It will be their third peak in one day and it's safe to say they'll be tired. The air will most likely be warm and the sun will be low in the sky. And if it weren't for Save Mount Diablo the photos they take up there at the summit wouldn't be nearly as beautiful.
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This Saturday, the Saturday with the most sunlight of the year, a group of bicyclists will criss cross the Bay Area using their legs, two kinds of trains and a ferry to climb three of the tallest peaks in the region. It's the second annual Triple Threat and you can learn more about it here. The ride is sponsored by REI and Transit & Trails. A fabulous group of partners are also involved.
The Triple Threat has been written about in the Bay Citizen and Bay Nature, as well as several times here in this blog (including here and here).
We'll be blogging, Facebooking and Tweeting starting Friday evening when the riders head to Mount Hamilton. Come back often to see where they are and what they're doing.
We received an email one day from Laura Lukitsch. She makes documentaries and is currently working on one called Mind the Gap: A Documentary Project about Sustainable Urban Transportation. She wanted to learn more about Transit and Trails and wondered if she could do a short webisode on it. We said yes! It is in the works and will available for your viewing this summer.
Laura is looking for help to get the full-length documentary going and so we share the following:
RSS
Twitter
Flickr
Transit & Trails
