Conservation:

PG&E to Entower CCRS

Sunol Water Temple Imperiled by Quarry

EBRPD Grazing Review Task Force

Saving Wetlands: Audubon's Baylands Campaign [updated 21 Aug. 2001]

Lake Elizabeth Tree Swallow Nest Boxes [updated 16 Oct. 2001]

Fremont Development Around Coyote Hills Regional Park[updated 22 Feb. 2002]
 

Education:

Introduce Children to Audubon Adventures

Audubon Camp of The West

The Birds 'n' Bees

What:  Full week of instruction by Natural History experts.  Birds, Plants, Invertebrates, Geology, Ecology will be taught in the field.  Information will be most useful for teaching others and for passing on the many gems of natural history and conservation ethics. A Snake River Raft trip is now part of program. See browsing Moose or grazing Bighorn Sheep around Camp; nesting nighthawks, Ospreys, peregrines, grouse, magpies, much more!
Where:  Torrey Creek Canyon in the Wind River Mountains of Wyoming at the Whiskey Mountain Wildlife Conservation Camp owned by Wyoming Game and Fish Dept. and operated by National Audubon Society.
Accommodations are rustic and comfortable. Food is hearty. Camp elevation: 7,000 ft. (to nearly 10,000 ft. on trips). The camp is only 70 miles from Jackson Hole.
When: Sat., 24 - Fri., 30 June,
Sat., 1 - Fri., 7 July,
Sat., 8 - Fri., 14 July,
Sat., 15 - Fri., 21 July,
Sat., 22 - Fri., 28 Jul, or
Sat., 29 July - Fri., 4 Aug.
How:  Registration and payment of the $850.00 Sandi Gamble Scholarship will be completed about 60 days prior to the program.  Transportation to and from the event is the responsibility of the participant.
Application:  Written by applicant to Ohlone Audubon Society. Why do you want to do this?  How do you see this experience as enabling you to impart the expected information of the natural history and ethics of conservation to others?  How do you expect to give feedback to OAS (whether by an article to the Kite Call Newsletter,  a program to the General Membership or some other means)?  What other elements or important aspects are there?
Mail to:  Patrick Hayes, OAS Scholarship Coordinator
1040 Poda Court
Fremont, Calif.  94539
Include your address, telephone, and e-mail if available. Also include first and second choice of camp sessions.
Deadline(s):  Preferably by April 1 (absolute cutoff at 15 May with jeopardy to selection of camp week).  All applicants will be notified when results are determined.--Phil Gordon

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1. Audubon’s SF Bay Restoration Program Moves To San Francisco 

Thanks to a non-profit rate from the Jewish Community Federation, Audubon’s Bay Restoration Program is moving into downtown San Francisco. Our new space at 131 Steuart Street provides easy access to public transit and will help Audubon coordinate our work with other partners, businesses and agencies in the Bay Area. You can reach us at: 

131 Steuart Street, Suite 200 

San Francisco, CA 94105 

Phone: 415-947-0331 

Fax: 415-947-0332 

The web site www.AudubonSFbay.org and email addresses will remain the same.

[Editor’s Note: A volunteer is needed to represent Ohlone Audubon on the Bay Restoration Program committee. If you would like to be an active participant in this important effort, please contact Viola Saima-Barklow at (510) 886-4730 or email to Rnvbar@cs.com].

2. Audubon To Release Study On SF Bay Mitigation Issues This Fall

Last month, the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) released a report detailing how federal agencies are failing to stem the tide of wetland loss around the country. According to the NAS, project proponents routinely receive permits to destroy wetlands on the promise that they will offset those impacts by restoring or “creating” similar habitats elsewhere. Throughout the nation, the current system of wetland mitigation is not working.

Similarly in the Bay Area, the piecemeal approach to mitigation is unlikely to create net benefits for Bay restoration. To help remedy this situation, Audubon is researching existing mitigation practices and policies and developing a set of guiding principles for mitigation on public works projects that affect the Bay. The principles will serve as an internal policy framework to guide Audubon’s comments on proposed mitigation for public works projects (including expansion of San Francisco Airport) and will help jump-start our effort to promote a regional framework for mitigation projects around San Francisco Bay. Given its highly urbanized nature, current and potential impacts to San Francisco Bay include freshwater discharge, port related activities, airport expansion, and increased ferry service. A primary objective for our program is to protect the Bay from the impact of future development. Audubon believes it is possible to implement a long-term vision for restoring the San Francisco Bay Estuary while also balancing the needs of our growing population. To do so, will require an entirely new approach to wetland mitigation practices in the Bay. 

We are currently interviewing key stakeholders to help shape our principles and identify case studies illustrating the potential benefits and pitfalls of mitigation. Stakeholder interviews include permit holders and applicants, regulators and policy advocates. Joining Audubon’s research team for this project is Ali Ger, a graduate student at UC Santa Barbara’s Bren School of Environmental Science and Management. Ali comes to Audubon through the Sustainable Communities Leadership Program, an initiative of the Environmental Careers Organization supported by the James Irvine Foundation and the David and Lucille Packard Foundation. For more information about Audubon’s mitigation research project contact Mike Sellors at msellors@audubon.org.

6. Congressional Update

On Friday, July 13 the Bay Area salt pond acquisition finally caught a lucky break in Congress when Senator Dianne Feinstein secured a $500,000 earmark in the Fiscal Year 2002 Interior Appropriations Bill passed by the Senate. This earmark was the last chance to obtain a funding commitment in this year’s federal budget for the public acquisition of nearly 19,000 acres of diked historic wetlands owned by Cargill Salt. 

Previous attempts to secure FY 02 acquisition appropriations in both the House and the Senate had failed, despite Congresswoman Eshoo, the Bay Area House delegation and Senator Feinstein’s active leadership on behalf of the salt ponds purchase. With the $500,000 earmark as a “placeholder”, House and Senate Interior Appropriations conference committee members can negotiate a significant funding increase when the conference committee meets later this summer. 

Many thanks are due to Senator Feinstein and Congresswoman Eshoo for their support of federal participation in the saltponds acquisition. Please take a moment to contact their offices and express your appreciation for their leadership efforts, and urge them to work with their colleagues on the conference committee to increase federal FY 02 appropriations for the Bay Area salt ponds acquisition: 

The Honorable Dianne Feinstein 

(202) 224-3841 

(415) 393-0707

The Honorable Anna Eshoo 

(202) 225-8104 

(650) 323-2984

—Vi Barklow

The History of Audubon’s Baylands Campaign—aimed at protecting and restoring over 100,000 acres of San Francisco Bay—was unveiled to the public on April 5, and the press response was overwhelming and positive. Every daily newspaper and television station in the Bay Area covered the story. Our NAS president John Flicker did a tremendous job in presenting the campaign and promoting it as an issue of NATIONAL importance. His comparison of the Bay to the Everglades was persuasive and powerful. As Dan Taylor of our California state office says, "It was a great day for the Bay, and for Audubon. Never have we received such a powerful media boost to an Audubon conservation vision. This campaign will have a profound and transforming effect on our presence in the Bay Area and in California. It is big, and it will challenge us in many positive ways." Nearly 80 percent of the bay’s original wetlands have been filled for agriculture, salt extraction, and commercial and residential development over the past century. The estimated cost of purchasing 100,000 acres is about $1 billion and another $1 billion to restore it. Funds could come from federal funding sources such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund and from park and water quality bonds (propositions 12 and 13) approved by voters in November 1999. Support could also come from private foundations. Baylands restoration could save $465 million in flood control costs, realize $1 billion in water quality cost savings, help reverse decline in commercial fishing resources, and provide critical habitat for endangered and threatened wildlife. All eight Bay Area chapters, including Ohlone Audubon, have important roles to play to ensure the success of Audubon’s Baylands Campaign. To learn how you can help, please contact me at (510) 886-4730, or email Rnvbar@cs.com. —Vi Saima Barklow.
 
 

The blueprint for Audubon-California’s Baylands Campaign is the Baylands Ecosystem Habitat Goals, A Report of Habitat Recommendations, which has been prepared by the San Francisco Area Wetlands Ecosystem Goals Project. For more information please visit www.sfei.org

Some Baylands Facts: The baylands exist around the Bay between the lines of high and low tide. They are lands touched by the tides, plus those the tides would touch in the absence of levees or other unnatural structures. There are 73,000 acres of tidal bayland and 139,000 acres of diked baylands There used to be 23 miles of sandy beaches. Now there are about seven miles of beaches. Most of the present beaches occur in different locations than the historical beaches. There used to be 190,000 acres of tidal marsh with 6,000 miles of channels and 8,000 acres of shallow pans. Now there are 40,000 acres of tidal marsh with about 1,000 miles of channels and 250 acres of pans. Only 16,000 acres of the historical tidal marsh are left intact. The remainder of the present tidal marsh has naturally evolved from tidal flat, been restored from diked baylands or muted by water control structures.

In studies underway at Pinnacles National Monument, located in San Benito County, more than 400 species of bees representing 53 different genera have already been identified, making it the one place in North America, perhaps in the world, with the most bee species. An article in the July 10th San Francisco Chronicle by Glen Martin, “Native Bees Buzz the Pinnacles,” reports that 410 species have been identified under the direction of Terry Griswold, Utah State and U.S. Department of Agriculture entomologist and Larry Whalon, Resource Manager for Pinnacles. Bees, wasps, and ants are in the order Hymenoptera (“membrane-winged”). All of these insects have two pairs of thin, clear, membranous wings. California native bees are basically solitary; they live alone, not in societies or colonies like bumblebees or the honey bees imported from Europe. Many of the bee species at Pinnacles have been found to be extremely specific in their choice of forage plants, making them the sole pollinators of certain plants. The bees feed from late winter through midsummer when wildflowers are blooming. The adults then die and it is the pupae that live on to start a new cycle with the next rains.

Interestingly enough, fire has been demonstrated as the best way to encourage native plants such as native buckwheat, chamise and other blooming perennials, because it reduces invasion of exotic annuals like star thistle, wild oats and cheat grass which don’t attract bees as effectively. Some bird species are able to eat wasps and bees because they have evolved ways to avoid being stung or because they recognize and attack only the stingless males, according to author Gilbert Waldbauer in his book, The Birder’s Bug Book. These include such species as flycatchers and a few other air salliers. For example, the Brown-crested Flycatcher is often seen hawking bees from a perch near an apiary. Other species found to eat honey bees are the Eastern Kingbird, Western Kingbird, Summer Tanager, and swifts. One bee keeper observed that the birds skillfully avoided the stinger by catching bees across the middle of the body, alighting on a nearby branch or other perch, and breaking off the protruding end of the abdomen by giving it a sharp sweep across the perch. The Birder’s Handbook (Paul R. Ehrlich, David S. Dobkin, and Darryl Wheye) states that a few bird species have been known to associate with other animal species, usually involving nesting near organisms that may discourage predators or parasites from approaching. Mississippi Kites, Aplomado Falcons, and other raptors have been known to associate with bees and wasps, which may ward off botflies that feed on their chicks. The next time you visit Pinnacles to enjoy wildflowers, look also for the native bees, You may see bees ranging from quite large to very small, and in many colors - smooth and ebony, fuzzy black and yellow, metallic green, burnished copper. For more information on the newspaper article, e-mail Glen Martin at martingl@sfgate.com. —VSB

The district's stated purpose for the Grazing Program is twofold: to minimize the potential for uncontrollable wildfire on EBRPD's annual grasslands by reducing the fuel load (dry grass) to manageable levels, and to preserve native plants and wildflowers by controlling the dominance of nonnative weed species in grasslands. About 50,000 acres of parklands are currently grazed.

Local TV stations have covered the story and newspapers published articles on the controversial aspects of the grazing program. Anti-grazing advocates have stated that grazing damages trails, causes erosion, pollutes creeks and other wetlands, and destroys habitat for wildlife including endangered species. Ranching and agricultural advocates have stated that grazing on EBRPD parklands is vital to keeping agriculture viable, preserves land from development (choosing between cows and subdivisions), and is a potential tool for favoring native vegetation versus nonnative vegetation. Some have pointed out that many of the District's land purchases have been tied to agreements with prior owners to allow cattle grazing as a condition of sale. Others have pointed out that grazing was eliminated in State Parks many years ago for habitat restoration.

The task force is currently holding monthly background information sessions. Environmental organizations were invited to provide input relative to environmental issues at the May 23rd session. The next session is scheduled for June 27 for grazing tenants and the ranching community. Additional sessions are scheduled for other interest groups, such as water districts, open space and park agencies, fire departments, annual grassland vegetation specialists, wildlife specialists, recreational users, and regulatory agencies. The meetings are open to the public.

This fall semester, sponsor your favorite 4th, 5th, or 6th-grade class to Audubon Adventures, the nature program of the National Audubon Society. Topics for 2000-2001 include endangered species, fruits and seeds, oceans, and owls. In past years this program included a video on the American Bald Eagle, a poster on the desert, and a National Audubon Society First Field Guide. A classroom kit contains enough material for 32 students and the cost is $40.95 ($35 plus $5.95 shipping and handling). This program has connected seven million children across the nation to nature with these in-school educational materials. Our school budgets are perennially tight; so please help a teacher at your local elementary school.

This is a gift subscription that will really make a difference to the earth's future!

Need more information on this program? Please email Phil & Pat Gordon.

Make out your check to Ohlone Audubon Society and mail to Howard Cogswell, OAS treasurer, 1548 East Avenue, Hayward, 94541.
 
 

Sunol Water Temple Imperiled by Quarry