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THE CALIFORNIA BROWN PELICAN


OVERVIEW AND HISTORY

The Brown Pelican is the hero in its own real conservation success story! They
were listed as a federally endangered species in 1970, endangered in California
in 1971. They reached a low of just 466 nests in 19787. Amazingly they recovered
and were delisted again in 20095. Today there are estimated to be over 70,680
nesting pairs in California1. Fortunately for them, they remain protected under
the Migratory Bird Treaty Act.5

The reason for this dramatic decline in this magnificent bird can be attributed
primarily to the pesticide DDT (dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane) flowing from
mainland sewers into the ocean5,3. This dangerous chemical disrupts the
reproductive system of birds, altering their calcium metabolism and resulting in
egg shells so thin that they break under the weight of the adult bird when they
sit on them5.

DDT was developed in the 1940s as the first of modern synthetic insecticides
designed to combat insect-borne human diseases such as Malaria and Typhus6. Due
in part to the public outcry from Rachel Carson’s successful early science
communication “The Silent Spring” in 1962, DDT was banned by the EPA in 19726. A
move now supported by the UN and the WHO6. Worldwide DDT is still used in indoor
settings to control the spread of malaria mosquitos, even though DDT has been
classified as a human carcinogen.6

Pelicans can live up to forty years old!5 This means that there are probably
pelicans alive today that remember when their nests failed and there were a lot
less pelicans!


IDENTIFICATION AND APPEARANCE

Pelicans are easily identified by their large resplendent beak and stretchy beak
pouch that they use as a basket to scoop up prey from the water. They have cute
dumpy angular bodies and four webbed toes on their gray-brown legs.4

The earliest fossil record is 30million years old and was found in France. The
beak structure and overall morphology of this early Pelican was almost identical
to todays bird!3

Brown pelicans have a glossy gray to hazelnut brown plumage on their bodies and
adults (over 3 years old)3 have white feathers on their necks and bellies. The
beak pouch is a pinkish orange. Males and Females look very similar with males
being a little larger5 and the male head feathers being stiffer.3

During their breeding season, while they are attempting to woo another pelican;
their beak turns pink3. Later in the breeding season the beak resorts back to
gray,3 plumage on their heads turns yellow and their beak pouch a deep red. Even
the iris of their eyes turns from Yellow-white to a light blue!5

There are 5 subspecies3 of Brown Pelican, these look very similar with slight
differences in breeding plumage5. Even though they look alike, the subspecies
are genetically distinct.3

Brown Pelicans weigh about 8lb (similar to a heavy human baby at birth). They
are a little over 4ft in length (just over the height of my grandmother) their
wingspan can be up to 6.5ft! (The size of a tall human)5


RANGE

Brown Pelicans have a wide range throughout coastal north and Central America,
with the occasional juvenile wandering inland a little lost.

However, the range of the California subspecies of the brown pelican is
permanently in the coastal marine waters of the pacific, from British Columbia
to Nayarit in Mexico5 and sometimes even Guatemala.3


HABITAT

California brown pelicans are big fans of the ocean, they can often be seen
flying over it or sitting on it. They also enjoy hanging out on rocks.1,2

You usually won’t find Brown Pelicans more than 5 miles from the coast (either
inland or on the ocean)3; but incredibly, they can travel a distance of 30-40
miles if they feel like it!5,1 There is however, a large group of Brown Pelicans
who have decided the Salton Sea inland lake in California is actually a pretty
nice place to hang.4

A great place to see them locally in El Granada is kayaking out of the Half Moon
Bay Kayak company past the rocky harbor walls where (depending on time of day or
tides or just sheer luck) they will be gathering in the dozens.


FEEDING

A pelican’s beak can hold over 3 gallons of water.5 Though obviously they would
prefer it was 3 gallons of fish! They have the largest beak pouch of any bird
worldwide.5

Brown Pelicans were the only pelican to do dive/plunge feeding5 until the
Peruvian subspecies was declared a separate species3.

Around our area you’ll find White Pelicans inland and Brown Pelicans on the
coast. I’ve personally not seen many areas with both brown and White Pelicans
except estuaries like Moss Landing.

They are champion divers and catch the majority of their prey by diving from a
great height. Although on average these dives are usually between 10 and 30 ft,
they can in-fact, dive from a height of 100ft5 which is over seven building
stories high!

The deeper the prey, the higher they dive. A dive from these astonishing heights
can reach and stun fish 6ft deep.5 They even have their own padding, air sacs5
in their bodies to protect them from this sudden impact with the ocean. These
portable cushions are also great for helping them float!3

Another way they catch food is to sit on the water watching for the tell-tale
shimmer of their favorite snacks and doing almost a little hoppy dive to catch
them.5

Once a tasty mouthful of fishy water has been obtained, the pelican leans
forward to filter out the water from its pouch. It then flicks it’s head
backwards to swallow the fish.5,1 Pelicans can eat 4lb of fish a day!5 They can
also process any extra salt water they swallow using specialized glands.3

Favorite foods of the California Brown Pelican are the Northern Anchovy, the
Pacific Sardine and the Pacific Mackerel5. They also often eat Crustaceans, and
Smelt.1,3 They even occasionally eat Amphibians, eggs and nestlings of rival
species and other pelicans.3 Scientists estimate that in Southern California
Pelicans eat 1% of the total anchovy biomass!5,1

One major threat to the Brown Pelican is the effect of overfishing, particularly
of sardines, and the disturbances in the food chain due to climate change.3 So
next time someone offers you a sardine, say no and save a pelican!


BEHAVIOR

The Brown Pelican is an outgoing sociable creature and is happiest when chilling
in mixed flocks.3 A common sight off the coast is a squadron of Brown Pelicans
flying and gliding in single file or in a perfect V shape, often really close to
the water’s surface or using updrafts, but they can also fly up to 70ft high to
keep a beady lookout for a tasty moursal.5,2,3,4

You can also find pelicans sitting in often very large groups on the surface of
the ocean near to shore. They seem to be flapping their wings on the water,
local speculation on this behavior includes “shaking off parasites”. The effect
however, of a number of pelicans flip flapping on the water may be a similar
technique to that of dolphins and bubble feeding, to corral fish together to
make scooping them up for dinner easier.3

Pelicans are pretty smart though, and will sometimes approach fisherfolk for
handouts to save the effort of catching their dinner themselves.1,2

Monogamous for the breeding season, the Brown Pelican likes to keep its options
open and doesn’t mate for life.3 The male finds a nice spot for a nest and
waggles it’s head elaborately to attract a female. Ladies choose their mates
based on this display and their choice of real estate.3 To indicate her
approval, she will engage in a dance with the male, of head bowing and swaying
and whispering sweet nothings in the form of low “raaa” noises.3

When the California Brown Pelican isn’t breeding, they can migrate north as far
up as British Columbia. Some of the more inexperienced juveniles will get lost
and wander inland. Particularly in south California and Mexico.1


NESTING AND REPRODUCTION

The only breeding colonies of California Brown Pelicans in the western United
States are in Channel Islands National Park, on West Anacapa island and now also
the Santa Barbara Island (since 1975).5 However, 90% of California Brown
Pelicans breed off the coast of Mexico.5

Brown Pelicans currently breed between January & October with most eggs being
laid in March. They have one brood1,3. Historically their breeding season was
much shorter, March to early fall5. I’m wondering if this change has to do with
the increase in pelican population. I would imagine that if there are a lot less
pelicans it would make sense to time your nesting season to be shorter to make
sure everyone was in the right place at the right time.

The nests are in breeding colonies on islands unpopulated by sneaky mammal
predators and in places where humans don’t live permanently5,4. Pelicans build
large nests (because they themselves are large birds) on the ground or in
vegetation or trees.5,3 Nests are built by the lady pelican with material
gathered by their partner.1

The nests themselves can be quite varied, depending on where they build them and
how much effort they can be bothered to put in. They range from a simple scrape
in the soil, to a heap of debris with a depression on the top or a large
elaborate stick nest in a tree.1

Adults share incubation eggs of the 2-3 oval eggs that they lay.5,3,1 Incubation
takes about 28-30 days3, over which time the bright chalky white eggs become
stained the color of the nest.1

Not many animals can stomach eating an adult pelican, Bald Eagles, Sea Lions and
Sharks being the exception.3 Eggs and babies however are a common snack food of
many creatures, including gulls, dogs, raccoons and even bobcats.3

The success of the brood depends on the availability of their primary food
source during the breeding season: northern anchovies (Engraulis mordax) and
Pacific sardines (Sagax sarinops)5. Coastal upwelling of cool nutrient rich
water near the Channel Islands is essential for these prey animals to thrive. I
speculate that another reason their breeding duration could have changed could
be related to climate change / human fishing impact on Anchovies and Sardines.

Pelicans are very sensitive to being bothered by people when they are nesting,
including lights and noise. In 1999, a large increase in nighttime squid fishing
boats seemed to affect a higher rate of nest abandonment and chick mortality
than average; these numbers couldn’t be explained by any other environmental
factor.5

Baby pelicans are pink3 naked, helpless and completely dependent on their
parents for feeding and care for the first 3-4 weeks of their lives.5

At around 5 weeks old, now gray-black in color;3 the baby birds in ground
colonies grow into rowdy teenagers, sneaking out of their nests to gather in
groups (known as pods3) while their parents are out looking for food1. When the
parents return they can recognise their own young.1 Tree nests being a little
more hazardous, the babies tend to stay in the nests for up to 9 weeks before
exploring the outside world and discovering branches.1

They fledge at around 9-13 weeks5,1, although just like humans taking laundry
home to their parents from university, the parents continue to feed the babies
for some time once they fledge (8-10 months).1,3

Fledglings are more likely to survive if they are the oldest child, the average
rate of success based on who hatched first drops from 100% to 6% by the third
chick3. It is a mammoth mission to figure out feeding themselves so they rely a
lot on their reserves initially.5 The chicks that do make it, grow up to be the
glorious bird we all know and love.


FUN FACTS!

 * They have the largest beak of any bird in the world! It can hold 3 gallons.
 * 90% of California Brown Pelicans breed in Mexico.
 * The only breeding colonies in the United States of California Brown Pelicans
   are in the Channel Islands.
 * They can live up to 40 years old.
 * They can dive from up to 100ft (7stories high) and stun fish 6ft deep.


SOURCES

 1. Audubon https://www.audubon.org/field-guide/bird/brown-pelican
 2. EBird https://ebird.org/species/brnpel
 3. Wikipedia https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brown_pelican and
    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pelican
 4. All about birds https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown_Pelican/id
 5. National park service
    https://www.nps.gov/chis/learn/nature/brown-pelican.htm
 6. EPA history of DDT
    https://www.epa.gov/ingredients-used-pesticide-products/ddt-brief-history-and-status
 7. Moss Landing Marine Labs
    https://twitter.com/mlmlmarinesci/status/1493651506473869313?s=21
 8. Esasuccess.org https://www.esasuccess.org/birds.shtml


IMAGE SOURCES

 * Pelicans in Pillar Point harbour source: Natalie Downe
 * Pelican ID images source: Simon Willison
 * Range map source iNaturalist
 * Channel islands map

Essay written by Natalie Downe as an assignment for the Fitzgerald Marine
Reserve Docent/Guide class.

 * Tags
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 * pelicans
 * brownpelican
 * bird
 * california
 * california brown pelican

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Murder She Wrote credits supercut from natbat on Vimeo.

> All the clips from all the opening credits of twelve seasons of murder she
> wrote

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WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO RECENTLY


COURSES I’VE TAKEN

In 2019/2020 I took these Stanford classes as a JSK fellowship affiliate:

 * Ornithology (BIO221)
 * Conservation photography (BIO53)
 * Evolution (BIO85)
 * Ecology and Evolution of Animal Behaviour (BIO245)
 * Applied Ecology at Jasper Ridge preserve (BIO205)
 * Geology, Landscapes and Tectonics of the SF Bay Area (GEOLSCI42)
 * Concepts in Environmental communications (EARTHSYS 291)
 * Ecology (BIO81)
 * Introduction to Earth Systems (EARTHSYS10)

Other classes and trainings I have taken during this time:

 * Weekly Spanish classes since March 2019
 * Pat Brown’s 3 day residential desert bat class in July 2019 in the Mojave
   Desert
 * Drones in Conservation workshop, week long class by The Wildlife Society in
   April 2019.
 * Defensive driving class March 2019
 * Advanced animal care training with the Marine Mammal Center 2016, 2017, 2018,
   2019, 2020
 * Marine Mammal Center advanced education and tour guide training Feb 2019
   (also many other in-the job advanced education training courses)
 * Elephant seal progression trading with the Marine Mammal Center, January 2019
 * Giving psychological first aid in a disaster, with SF fire department and
   NERT, Jan 2019
 * Two day Marine Mammal Center docent and education training, October 2018
 * 3 day residential class on nudibranchs with Alison Young and Dr Rebecca
   Johnson, the California Acadamy of Sciences and the Jepson Herbarium in Half
   Moon Bay, California, July 2018
 * Week long naturalist kayaking trip in Baja, Mexico to learn about whales, Feb
   2018
 * Two day ham radio class with the San Francisco Radio Club, June 2017
 * Week-long residential bat acoustics workshop (using Sonobat) by Dr. Joe
   Szewczak, Leila S. Harris and Jill Carpenter and the Wildlife Society. June
   2017 in the San Jacinto Mountains, California.
 * California naturalist residential course in 2017
 * The Wildlife Society day/long bats and white nose syndrome workshop
 * Bat banding radio tagging class with Dave Johnston in September 2017
 * NERT graduate class in Pet disaster response and first aid, Feb 2017
 * NERT graduate class in Emergancy communications, Feb 2017
 * Neighborhood Emergency Response Training with the San Francisco Fire
   Department (NERT) January 2017
 * Marine Mammal Center animal care and advanced animal care, and elephant seal
   progression training.

Conferences I went to during this time:

 * Science Hackday October 2019, 2018 and 2017
 * The Wildlife Society and American Fisheries Society annual conference in
   Cleveland Ohio September 2019
 * California Bat Working Group summit Feb 2019 and Feb 2018
 * Wildlife Conservation Network Spring and Fall Expo 2018
 * California Naturalist Regional Rendezvous where I have a talk on white nose
   syndrome in bats
 * The Wildlife Society Annual Conference in New Mexico September 2017
 * Wildlife Conservation Network Spring Expo 2017
 * Pybay Python regional conference August 2016


NATURALIST TRAINING AND BAT EXPERIENCE

I qualified as a California Naturalist in 2017 through through the University of
a California Agricultural College and Camp Ocean Pines. My final project was a
bat walk and a presentation about bats. This was such a huge success that I was
invited back to the 2018 class to give a paid talk on bats and guided bat
detecting walk.

I put this training to good use encouraging friends and organising many trips to
help spark that passion for nature (bats and otherwise!). I believe in getting
people on that first rung of the stewardship ladder where to care and protect
for the environment you first have to be exposed and get interested in nature.

I volunteer with the California Acadamy of Sciences on occasion to help perform
biodiversity analysis on the tidepool reef at Pillar point in Half moon bay
under the direction of Alison Young and Rebecca Johnson. I have also taken their
3 day residential class on Nudibranchs with the Jepson Herbarium.

I collaborated with leaders in the California Bat Working Group to specify,
design and build a website for the group and the logo/branding:

https://www.calbatwg.org

Simon and I also built this Bat website with iNaturalist data to help people
realise that awesome bats are around them everywhere!

https://www.batsnearme.com

I attended the residential workshop put on by The Wildlife Society and run by
Dr. Joe Szewczak, Leila S. Harris and Jill Carpenter in the San Jacinto
mountains, June 2017. We did a deep dive into the biomechanical process of
echolocation, diffeeent species of bats, the physics of sound and in teams of 4
we designed, ran and analysed the results of a survey with a Sonobat detector.
Paying special attention to where we placed the sensor, what types of bats we
thought we might get then learning to analyse the sonogram waveforms for
heuristic patterns to identify individual species of bat. We did some mist
netting, I helped get a tangled June bug successfully out of the net.

At Pat Brown’s 3 day residential Desert bat class in the Mojave Desert, 2019, I
got my first bat handling experience under supervision of Jill Carpenter. I
assisted with the construction and breakdown of the netting sites. Record
keeping and I held and helped measure several California Myotis and helped get a
Canyon bat and two Palid bats out of the net. (I have a recent Rabies Titer)

In February 2020 I had the opportunity to volunteer for Gabe Reyes with the USGS
mist netting bats in Marin. I managed the survey record keeping, helped with
construction and breakdown of 6 mist nets. I handled some California Myotis and
helped measure weights and wingspan, assisted with the removal of one bat from a
net and helped release a few after we had surveyed and radio tagged them. More
winter survey dates were planned but the global Coronavirus pandemic stepped in
the way.

I took a week long drones in conservation workshop with the Wildlife Society
where learned to plan routes, fly drones, environmental and wildlife
considerations and regulations and how to analyse and collate imagery and geo
reference to a map using ArcGIS. We also used ArcGIS for our project in which
find a number of hidden plastic turkeys with drone imagery from a route that we
planned and executed in teams of 3.


SCIENCE COMMUNICATION AND DOCENTING/GUIDE EXPERIENCE

I have been working with the Scientific community on twitter to support and
boost the engagement in science communication games (eg #cougarOrNot / #CrowOrNo
#barkingUpATree etc).

I used Python to automate a Twitter bot that retweets science communication
games:

https://natbat.github.io/scicomm-calendar/

I have also worked extensively with the iNaturalist API. Simon and I just
launched MVP of the site we’ve been working on for the last few days. It’s a
site to get people interested in Tidepooling and help figure out the best low
tides to visit in the next month that are in daylight hours.

https://www.rockybeaches.com/us/pillar-point

Another site we launched was for the Super Bowl / Superb Owl

https://www.owlsnearme.com

I am working to publish and create a library of nature videos for the Bay Area.

https://m.youtube.com/channel/UCu_N3UP2o8JdnNmGAhYRijQ

Here is the educational video of me talking about how 50% of all Californian
Sealions are born on June 15th and the rest are born that week:

https://youtu.be/Z2B_cbp34D8




My educational video on redwood trees:

https://youtu.be/3DzN2De9ANc

I have been a volunteer Docent/Guide at the Marine Mammal Center for a year, I
have done nearly 100 hours of Docenting. This involved customer engagement
through storytelling to help spark people’s passion about marine mammals and
lead them into behavioural change to save the oceans and the planet. (See below
for more details and recommendations I have received on this role). I have also
taken the tour guide training and was in the process of graduating as a tour
guide when the pandemic temporarily closed the Center.

I took part in Science Hackday 2017, 2018 and 2019.





MARINE MAMMAL EXPERIENCE

I have been volunteering at The Marine Mammal Center in Marin, California on the
animal care crew (Tuesday daytime topside) more details on this can be found in
the volunteering section of my LinkedIn profile.

In summary this consisted of in-pen experience with marine mammals such as
Elephant Seals, Northern & Guadalupe Fur Seals, California & Stellar Sea lions.
Working as part of a team to follow protocols (such as tube feeding), do detail
oriented work and care for the animals in a high stress, high risk environment.

I trained in ‘Elephant Seal progression’ which involved direct interaction with
young & yearling Elephant seals ‘fish school’ monitoring their behaviour and
teaching them to activate their instincts to recognise fish as food & overcome
gag reflex to swallow and eat fish on the pen floor & in the pool. I spent
several seasons as part of the Fish school team. Part of this work required
detailed charting of observations and behaviours for continuity between teams
and vet-staff to be informed.

The Fish kitchen experience (both participating in and running fish kitchen)
involved, organising orders, labels and buckets, measuring quantities,
performing quality assurance & adding medication to fish, making measuring and
drawing up fish mash and electrolytes.

I ran the fish kitchen operation on several occasions, organising, prioritising
and managing teams to take the fish to the pens, taking reports of the
feeds/observations and charting this for vet staff.

I helped release Elephant Seals to the wild which is an incredibly magical
experience knowing you have helped these animals recover. I have participated as
part of the release team on two releases at Chimney rock which is a different
sort of high-stress/risk environment because you are out in the wild and there
are adult elephant seals around on the beach.

I’ve taken the Animal care class & the Advanced animal care class yearly and the
Elephant Seal Progression class.


NEIGHBORHOOD CAMPAIGNS AND LOCAL POLITICS

I have been campaigning with some friends and neighbors to save trees in Hayes
Valley, this included putting out petitions, posters, social media campaigns,
surveys, writing speeches, and speaking out at public meeting city hearings and
appeals (both for hayes valley and other neighborhoods) and negotiating for
terms of replacement trees directly with the Bureau of Urban Forestry.

For more information on our campaign’s achievements:
https://blog.natbat.net/post/623649015818485760/hayes-valley-trees


HAM RADIO AND DISASTER RESPONSE EXPERIENCE

I trained with the SF fire department Neighborhood Emergancy Response Team (NERT
predecessor to the CERT programs elsewhere in California) in 2017. This was a 3
day program with a license for 2 years and I have renewed again in 2019. I have
attended a NERT Drill and have done three graduate NERT classes, psychological
first aid, pet preparedness and first aid and Emergency Communications.

I took a Ham Radio class with the SF Ham Radio Club in June 2017. I arranged
study groups with some friends. I took the exam for the Technical License and
passed first time with a score of 34/35. In September 2017 I passed my General
License (Intermediate) exam. My callsign is KM6LCB.

I volunteered at the San Francisco Marathon on the communications team on the
part of the route that blocked in the SF blood bank. I’ve taken part in two
treasure hunt style simplex competitions with friends, run by a friend who used
to write the MIT treasure hunt.


EXPEDITIONS

Simon and I went on a week long kyacking and camping expedition in Baja Mexico
in with Naturalists and Guides from Seatrek to find Blue and Grey whales in n
Feb 2019

I planned and organized a 4 week expedition to Madagascar in September 2019. I
wanted to see as many Lemurs in the wild as possible so my plan took me to a
distribution of biodiversity hotspots all over the country (some of which were
very hard to get to and involved chartering boat or hiking for miles).

I worked with an independant local guide and together we booked accomodations
and arranged logistics around constraints of time, budget route and amount of
lemurs. We saw 28 (of the hundred or so extant) different species of Lemur in
the wild. Hiked twice a day including a lot of night hikes to see bats and
nocturnal lemurs and fosa fusana. I learned enough Malagasy to communicate basic
needs and facts about animals!

 * Tags
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 * tech
 * conference
 * naturalist
 * docent
 * marine mammals
 * bats
 * tidepooling
 * ham radio
 * expeditions

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HAYES VALLEY TREES

Department of public works have a proposed replacement plan you might like to
see:

http://bit.ly/tree-plan-hayes-valley

In short, lots of lovely flowering trees that support local ecology like birds,
bees and butterflies and evergreen trees to continuously scrub toxins out of the
air and improve our air quality all year round.

Any questions or comments please email Susan Cieutat susan AT sfdonors.com


SOME BACKGROUND

Hi all! You will likely by now have heard about or seen some trees coming down
in the neighbourhood. These were Ficus trees that the city wanted to remove
because of concerns about branch failures on some of the larger trees.

Info as to why they plan to do this here:

https://sfpublicworks.org/ficustrees

Tons of people either emailed or showed up at the initial protest hearing and
voiced their opinions, so thanks to everyone who did that! Susan Cieutat and
Josh Klipp filed official appeals after that and more people turned up in
support, overall nearly a hundred people have taken part in this process! It’s
been a really great turn out.


WHY DID WE PROTEST

The main things being protested were:

 * SF has one of the worst urban canopies of any city in the United States, a
   blanket rule to remove all ficus trees all in a short space of time would
   exacerbate matters.
 * Lots of little trees planted as replacements in our neighbourhood have been
   vandalised and have died, we wanted to give the replacements as big of a
   chance as we could.
 * We wanted to keep as many non-dangerous mature trees as we could for shade
   with climate change and increasing local temperatures and for carbon
   sequestration to fight climate change.
 * To have removals take place with minimal impact to the local wildlife of
   birds and bats. And for replacement trees to have ecological benefits for
   those species. San Francisco is part of the incredibly important great
   Pacific Flyway where lots of birds use our urban canopy as a stopover on the
   long migrations North and south.
 * To get planting replacement trees committed to and have community input into
   this.


WHAT HAPPENED AS A RESULT

It’s been a long year or so of discussions, protests and appeals and we wanted
to update you on how things went through both the initial community protest and
the appeals process.

 * The initial proposal by the Department of Public Works (DPW) was for 39 trees
   to be removed, the protests of the community were heard and the Bureau of
   Urban Forestry (BUF is a Department of DPW) went back and looked again at the
   individual trees and decided we could keep some by heavily pruning them. As a
   result we are only loosing 28 - there may be plans to remove more in five or
   so years but that will be a separate proposal later down the line. - This is
   a 30% reduction in the amount of trees scheduled for removal, a significant
   slowdown in the reduction of our urban canopy.
 * A passionate appeal by Jacky led to her favourite tree outside what used to
   be Cafe La Vie, being one of the ones saved.
 * With regards for replacement trees, the mandate from the board of appeals was
   to have a planting plan in place that had community input, before removal of
   the trees. While this didn’t happen exactly because of a request from hvna to
   speed up the removal process in advance of eateries re-opening, there is a
   plan in rough formation now. And thanks to everyone who filled out the survey
   on replacement trees! (More on this in a moment)
 * With replacement trees we tied them to a 3 month replanting schedule from the
   day the tree is removed. This, by BUF/DPW standards is a super fast timeline
   and it also guarantees that budget is set aside for the replacements whereas
   it might have been lost in the shuffle and we could have ended up with no
   replacements.
 * To help the little trees get their best start in life, we got a mandate from
   the board of appeals that instead of the usual small 15 gallon trees this had
   to be increased to a 24” box, which represents a few more years of growth and
   hopefully more robust trees!
 * There is budget set aside as a commitment to watering the replacements for 3
   years which should be enough to establish them such that they can support
   themselves.
 * BUF have been planting up some of the empty basins in the neighbourhood and
   are continuing to plant more and considering the possibility of making more
   basins.


TREE REPLACEMENT PLAN

Thanks again to everyone who filled in the survey Josh posted in this fb group
and John Nulty sent out on his mailing list. There were over 60 respondents!

The most asked for tree was the Jacaranda tree. After that magnolias were
popular and overall a strong preference for flowering trees.

(While a few people in the comments section requested Cherry blossom, it has
been observed by BUF that they don’t grow well in San Francisco as a street
tree, have a look at the ones in Japan Town, they are old but still very tiny)

There was a preference toward evergreen trees over deciduous with a preference
toward clumps of the same tree on a street. (Deciduous means they drop their
leaves seasonally and evergreen means they keep their leaves all year round)

Evergreen trees are great because they filter the air all year round, scrubbing
the air and improving our air quality!

With replacements BUF is limited to what is available in the larger 24” box size
and they have been working very hard and diligently in trying to meet the
desires of the neighbourhood from the survey, health considerations for the
tree, availability of trees in the nursery and the requirements of the
individual basins (for example choosing shorter trees under power / muni lines
etc)

All the replacement species are designed to be drought tolerant once
established, as we seem to have little sky-water over here (I’m from England, we
have too much of it over there!)

Here is a map of the plan from BUF / DPW as to which trees are due to be
replaced and with what:

bit.ly/tree-plan-hayes-valley

The key to the map is looking at the colour of the little tree markers:

Pale green = Ficus trees that were proposed for removal but are staying.

Purple = Jacarunda trees

Blue = California Lilac / Ceanothus the ‘Ray Hartman’ subspecies

Dark red = Catalina Ironwood

Dark green = Magnolia (st Mary’s variety)

Black = being removed but because of where it is a replacement is not possible




A little about the replacement species:


JACARUNDA

Flowering - Deciduous - Not California native

Beautiful Purple flowering tree, can grow quite tall and keeps its flowers for a
long time during spring and summer once the tree is mature.

As someone with hayfever, personally I had reservations about flowering trees
but it turns out that Jacarunda is pollinated by bees, not wind, so it doesn’t
need to spread its pollen far and wide which is great for us summer-snifflers!

There is one flowering on Grove st between Laguna and Octavia if you’d like to
see one in action right now.

Fun fact: the bloom in Pretoria, Australia coincides with the year-end exams at
the University of Pretoria, legend has it there that if a flower from a
jacaranda drops on a student’s head, the student will pass all their exams.

https://www.thespruce.com/growing-jacaranda-mimosifolia-3269356





CALIFORNIA LILAC

Flowering - Evergreen - California native

This is a pretty blue flowering tree that is really great for our native
pollinators! Butterflies, Bees and humming birds love them!

It’s fast growing but doesn’t get very big so it’s a good tree for places that
have overhead power lines. They are also known as ‘nitrogen fixers’ which means
they can help keep the soil healthy.

Fun fact: The seeds of this plant can lie dormant for hundreds of years and are
typically dependent on forest fires to trigger germination of their seeds!

https://www.gardenia.net/plant-variety/ceanothus-california-lilac





CATALINA IRONWOOD

Lyonothamnus floribundus

Flowering - Evergreen - California native

This tree can grow up to about 15 metres (nearly 50 ft) and has glossy dark
green leaves and small woolly white flowers.

Planting trees native to the state is a great way to support local wildlife,
even though this tree is native to the islands around Catalina and not to San
Francisco specifically, it will be great for nesting birds and native bees and
other wildlife that live in both places.

Fun Fact: natural populations of this tree grow in distinct groves. Each grove
contains up to several hundred genetically identical clones!

https://www.fuf.net/tree/fernleaf-catalina-ironwood/





MAGNOLIA

Flowering - Evergreen - Not California native

Magnolias have lovely thick dark glossy leaves and produce really good shade.
They have big white fragrant flowers. It’s slow growing but long lasting and has
a lovely big oval canopy once mature

The St Mary’s magnolia is a medium sized tree and it sequesters a good amount of
carbon

Fun fact: San Francisco botanical gardens has (when it’s open) over 200
different species of Magnolia, one of the best collections of its kind in the
world. When they bloom in late-winter / early spring you can take a tour round
the gardens with their magnolia curator!

https://www.sfbg.org/magnolias

https://www.fuf.net/tree/southern-magnolia/




Here’s a link to that replacement tree plan again if you want to look at it in
google maps:

bit.ly/tree-plan-hayes-valley

The above is a shortened link to:

https://www.google.com/maps/d/edit?mid=1ZOdYbNxJP7-dsB92GIp-LZGzQ9w487cU&usp=sharing

Any questions or comments please email Susan Cieutat susan AT sfdonors.com

 * Tags
 * ecology
 * trees
 * hayes valley
 * san francisco

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Behind me are dozens of California Sea Lions. I’m in San Francisco opposite the
famous pier 39 where for over 30 years this floating marina has been the
batchelor pad home to nearly 600 Male and juvenile sea lions.

You may be wondering why I’m wearing a tiny hat, well I’ve come to wish Happy
Birthday to half of them!

That’s right, 50% of all California Sea Lions are born today, on June 15th, and
the rest are mostly born this week!

The marina here is a lot emptier than usual because at this time of year, the
males have left to patrol the breeding grounds on islands off the coast of
southern California. They are hoping to mate with the females just a couple of
weeks after they last gave birth.

The female sea lions carry their babies for 9 months, but after mating, they can
delay implantation of the embryo for up to 3 months. Scientists believe they use
the length of day to trigger their coordinated delayed implantation. That’s why
they all share the same birthday!

You can find California Sea Lions from Alaska all the way down to Mexico and
along the gulf of California, and with such a wide geographical range, this
tightly synchronised breeding increases the likelihood that they’ll all be in
the same place at the same time.

You can see here that the larger ones have tufty blond hairdos, these are the
older males, their head gets lighter and their skull more pronounced as they get
older. The males can weigh up to 1000lb and can move up to 5mph on land, they
are smart but can be dangerous so you don’t want to get too close.

A question I get asked a lot is how do you tell the difference between seals and
sea lions, the easiest way to remember is that seals are like sausages with tiny
wings, whereas Sea Lions have long flippers they can sit up and run on, they
also have cute little sticky out ears compared to the seal’s ear holes, so just
remember, seal sausages don’t have ears!

Like a lot of marine animals, Sea Lions are suffering from malnutrition due to
the effects of our over fishing and harmful fishing practices.

One thing you can do to help our flippered friends is to ask some questions when
you are buying seafood is to ask not only what type of fish it is, but also
where it is from, and how it was fished.

The Monterey bay aquarium has a great app called “seafood watch“ than can help
you make responsible decisions, together, if we all ask these questions, we will
spread the word that we care about sustainable seafood and saving the rich
tapestry of marine life like these wonderful sea lions.

Shown in video:
* Range map via iNaturalist
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations?place_id=any&taxon_id=41740
* Seafood watch guide by Monterey Bay Aquarium https://www.seafoodwatch.org

Sources:
*
https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/marine-mammal-information/pinnipeds/california-sea-lion/
* https://www.afsc.noaa.gov/nmml/education/pinnipeds/california.php
*
https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/education/april-fools-day/when-are-california-sea-lion-pups-born.html
* https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/California_sea_lion
*
https://www.marinemammalcenter.org/about-us/News-Room/2015-news-archives/sea-lion-crisis.html

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The hot rainless summer days in the west coast of the USA bring with them the
cool ocean moisture pulled inland forming thick fog.

That fog is essential for the redwood ecosystem and the redwood trees
themselves.

Coastal Redwoods - sequoia sempervirens - grow all along the Pacific coast from
central California up to Oregon, including here in Stern Grove, San Francisco
and in Jasper Ridge.

They grow really tall and wide, and the oldest ones around today have been alive
since before the time of Christ - around 2200 years.

They provide essential ecosystem services including filtering trillions of
gallons of water every year.

They capture 13-45% of their own water needs from the fog, and through
condensation on their wide, flat needles dropping down provide all of these
understory plants with 2/3rds of the water that they need.

When redwoods are lost, the understory also loses access to water and even the
streams run emptier.

This fog, captured by the redwoods, also has the advantage of decreasing the
flammability of the land.

Coastal redwoods are the tallest trees in the world, and can grow up to 360ft
(110m) which is about 32 stories high - nearly half the height of the
Transamerica Pyramid in San Francisco.

The bark itself can be at least a foot thick in mature trees with a high water
content and tannins that act as a natural flame retardant. The tannins also give
them their red color.

The trees themselves provide valuable habitat for lots of plants and animals.

Because of their huge size and complex crown, all sorts of plants grow on the
branches - relying solely on the redwoods for nutrients and water. These are
known as epiphytes.

Because redwoods are so immense these can even be fully grown trees! The highest
epiphytic tree in the world is a California Bay which started growing at 322
feet, about 29 stories above the ground!

Arguably the most abundant and important epiphytes are the ferns, specifically
the leather fern - Polypodium scouleri. These fern mats in the canopies store
and absorb water like a sponge, providing vital microhabitats for many
creatures.

For example, the clouded Salamander Aneides vagrans which thrives in these moist
environments because they have no lungs and breathe through their skin.

They have all sorts of
adaptations for existing in the canopies, including a prehensile tail, long legs
and sticky feet.

Many varieties of birds, bugs and bats live in redwood trees - under bark, in
branches or in cavities. At Jasper Ridge, one time in the winter, our group was
eagerly observed by a great horned owl.

These valuable redwood ecosystems are under threat. 96% of coastal redwoods have
been logged for timber in the past 200 years.

Just 45% of the remaining coastal redwoods are in protected areas, and the rest
remain at risk of logging.

Redwood forests store at least three times as much carbon as any other kind of
forest, and because they are so long-lived this longer-term carbon storage is an
important resource in the planet’s fight against climate change.


Sources
* https://undark.org/2019/12/16/redwoods-burning-logging/
* http://www.ecology.info/redwood.htm
* https://sempervirens.org/redwoods-and-wildfires/

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CALIFORNIAN BATS AND HOW THE WEST COAST CAN PREPARE FOR THE DEADLY WHITE-NOSE
SYNDROME EPIDEMIC

Bats, or as I prefer to call them “sky puppies” are adorable, wonderful and play
an essential role in ecology. But they are facing a significant new threat.
White-nose syndrome is a fungal disease that is spreading at an alarmingly fast
pace, affecting colonies of hibernating bats. It has killed 90% of some species
in the USA, literally millions of bats since its introduction from Europe in
2006. It started in New York, then spread to the central states and with a
recent outbreak as far west as Washington it’s imperative that we prepare in
California.




ECOLOGY AND IMPORTANCE OF BATS

Bats make up 20-25% of all known living species of mammals (1,240+ out of
5,400+), and as the primary predators of night-flying insects they play an
important role in controlling bug populations.

They enjoy eating Mosquitos, which helps reduce the spread of mosquito-based
diseases such as West Nile Virus and Zika. They also eat bugs like the Stink
Beetle, Cotton Ear Worm moth and the cotton Bullworm moth that are hugely
damaging to crops and they can reduce fungal infections of corn, thus saving
Farmers billions of dollars in pesticides in the US alone.

About a third of bat species worldwide are fruit or nectar feeding. These bats
pollinate numerous plants and disperse seeds in their fertile poop. Plants that
benefit from bat pollination worldwide include about 450 commercial species such
as avocado, figs, dates, peaches and almonds. Insect feeders such as the Pallid
bat, can also be important for pollination. Even the Giant cactus and Agave —
for tequila — is pollinated by bats!

We have about 20 species of bat here in California, and all except two (Mexican
long tongue and CA leaf nosed bat) eat insects. The pallid bat changes it’s diet
depending on habitat and is even immune to scorpion venom and will happily munch
on scorpions as a snack.


WHITE-NOSE SYNDROME

Recently a deadly threat to bats has been sweeping the nation causing the
fastest wildlife collapse of the past century. White-nose syndrome is a fungal
epidemic affecting all species of hibernating bats in North America. Introduced
from Eurasia to a single cave in New York in 2006 it has now spread to 31 US
States and 5 Canadian provinces in just over ten years.

The pathogen causes a white fuzzy growth over the nose, hair loss and damages
wing membranes which disrupts the bat’s water balance causing dehydration and
waking it in winter when there isn’t enough food, causing it to consume winter
fat stores and starve to death.


THE FASTEST WILDLIFE COLLAPSE OF THE PAST CENTURY

This fatal fungus has killed over 6 million bats, wiping out over 90-100% of
some populations in affected states and threatening species like the northern
long eared bat with extinction!

Sites that used to have thousands of bats now just have a few individuals
clinging to life.

To put this into context if everyone in San Francisco (860,000) was a colony of
bats, the surviving individuals would amount to less than a hundred people,
about the capacity of a reasonably sized brunch spot.

As well as the spread from the east, recent cases in Washington State are grave
cause for concern for many reasons, and for California a worry because it
potentially speeds up the arrival of the disease.

If you are thinking that we are safe in California from a disease that affects
hibernating bats because we are a so called ‘hot state’, you’d be wrong. Cavers
for Bat Conservation International have identified over 400 caves and roosting
spots in South California alone which have the perfect cool, damp environment
for the fungus to propagate. Even bats that don’t hibernate may still contract
the desease from infected caves and mines.

Unlike in the eastern states, our colonies of bats tend to be smaller, rather
than the huge spectacles of thousands. We have vastly different topography,
geology and plants leading to much variation in roosting spots. This does not
mean we are immune.

From the map below, you can see the speed of the disease and also note that we
have a much greater species diversity than the eastern US. It’s important that
we act now.


WHAT ABOUT CALIFORNIA?

Not a lot is known about the winter ecology or the susceptibility of our western
bats to white-nose syndrome. There are variances in hibernacula microclimate,
skin microflora, roosting behaviour, body mass and physiology for example, that
are different to the bats in the currently affected states.

We need to do baseline studies of our bat populations, roosting and hibernacula
spots and their natural history, before the disease gets to us.

We can learn lessons from the already affected states. Biosecurity and
decontamination are essential to slow and minimise the spread and impact of the
disease.

The fungal pathogen can spread bat to bat and remains present in the roost
sediment and walls. It can also be transmitted from clothing or equipment as
people enter caves and roosting spots.

If you work with bats: glove up, and use a different pair of gloves for each
bat, throwing away the old ones and decontaminating your equipment in between
bats. There is a national decontamination guidance protocol that we can start
following now.

Scientists are working on various cave decontamination theories and potential
vaccines and treatments for the disease.

If you find a dead bat, particularly one which exhibits suspicious signs, take
photos and report it to your local fish and wildlife biologists so that the bat
can be sent for testing as soon as possible.


ACT NOW!

We need to work together now to hold off the spread of white-nose syndrome and
to learn as much as we can about all the bats in our state, and to do baseline
studies and to identify roosts where we can target our decontamination efforts.

If you are a caver, make sure that you respect the local, State and Federal cave
advisories and closures – especially if the cave is off limits or has
restrictions. Help protect bats from white-nose syndrome and educate other
cavers. Avoid caves, mines or passages containing hibernating bats, to minimize
disturbance to their well needed winter hibernation. When you do enter caves do
so carefully and decontaminate all equipment and clothing immediately after
visiting. Do not allow dogs or other pets in caves, as they may also act as
carriers of the fungus.

Another helpful thing you can do — given that I am sure you have your
representatives on speeddial now — is encourage state and federal legislators to
allocate funding to help understand and fight this devistating epidemic. You can
also donate to Bat Conservation International.

Outreach and education on bats and white-nose syndrome to friends, family, and
everyone – is absolutely essential to create empathy, educate and engage people
to help safeguard the future of our bats.

So get out there! Celebrate the adorable bats we call sky puppies!


RESOURCES

 * Report suspicious bat behavior or dead bats to the California Department of
   Fish and Wildife.

 * Information on white nose syndrome, the national decontamination protocol and
   what to do if you spot unusual behaviour or evidence of white nose syndrome
   can be found on whitenosesyndrome.org.

 * Bat Conservation International also have a lot of useful resources.

 * Tags
 * bats
 * white-nose syndrome
 * conservation

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This is the first hike Simon and I did with Wild Equity, December 2013, we went
to Muir Woods and then Lagunitas to find the Endangered Coho Salmon.

The salmon have suffered from many changes to the river over time including the
straightening of the river in the area, there are a lot less places for the baby
fish to grow up. We didn’t find any in Muir Woods but saw several of them
actually mating in Lagunitas!

 * Tags
 * environment
 * conservation
 * wild equity
 * salmon
 * hike

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THE ENDANGERED WESTERN SNOWY PLOVER STRUGGLES TO SURVIVE ON OCEAN BEACH, NEW DOG
LEASH PROPOSAL WILL GIVE THEM A FIGHTING CHANCE!

Sunday before last, Simon and I joined Wild Equity on a walk along Ocean Beach
in search of the Snowy Plover. We were joined by naturalist and renowned
California birder, Dan Murphy, who helped us spot the difference between the
endangered Snowy Plover and the common Sanderling.

The Western Snowy Plover is protected by federal law as a threatened species on
the Endangered Species act, it lives amongst sand-dunes and on exposed beaches
along the west coast of California, Oregon and Washington, though most of the
breeding activity happens on the California coast, where in 2012 it’s habitat
was listed as critical.

The Snowy Plover looks similar to the Sanderling, and looking about along the
beaches near San Francisco you’d be forgiven for mistaking the two.

The Snowy Plover walks quite differently to the Sanderling’s scuttle. You see
Sanderlings everywhere and they both have the white belly, Sanderlings have a
longer beak and don’t have the tell-tell black markings on the head and near the
eyes that the Snowy Plover does.

This year for the first time the population of the Western Snowy Plover has
finally started to trend upwards from the 20 or so that have been struggling to
survive over the past 20 years to a record 104 birds on Ocean Beach! Crissy
Fields still has between 1 and 6 of these plucky little critters per season.

Even though the population in this area has risen a little this year, its still
under huge threat, and the rise in this year’s population may be explained by
habitat loss elsewhere in California driving the little fluffy birds to our neck
of the woods.

Dogs are a massive threat to the Snowy Plover, particularly dogs off leash. Dogs
happily scampering about the beach scares the birds that nestle amongst the
windswept footsteps of the sand on Ocean Beach, and this can be too much
disturbance for the fragile eggs and chicks to survive.

Another less obvious way dogs negatively affect the Snowy Plover - one birder
told us on our walk along Ocean Beach - is through changing and destruction of
the habitat. The Snowy Plover needs a gradual slope from the sea to the dunes,
over time due to human / dog erosion that slope has become steeper and lost some
of its natural dune plant-life. Loss of the natural slope and the plant coverage
further drives the little birds to rest in the more exposed expanse of the
beach.

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area has opened for comment a selection of
proposals which have been in discussion for a long time, that could limit the
exposure of the endangered wildlife to dogs. This graphic from the National Park
service goes into more detail about how long these plans have been in the works.

It’s worth mentioning that it is not just the Snowy Plover that dog restrictions
will benefit, The Golden Gate National Recreation Area is home to over 1,273
plant and animal species (37 of which are rare, threatened, or endangered).

I do sympathise with the opponents of the new proposal, however, we ourselves
have an adorable little 13 month old puppy called Cleo, who likes nothing more
than scampering about free on the beach and having a dig in the sand, and I can
understand how it feels to think about the restrictions hampering the fun of our
little fur-baby. However I am willing to take extra care when I take her out, to
be sure that my time in nature with her doesn’t also negatively impact the
environment we all so enjoy.

These new proposed restrictions are not about sanitising the beach or
disregarding the feelings of the local people and their dogs, its about doing
what’s right. Doing what little we can to co-exist peacefully in balance with
the wildlife that needs us to fight for its very existence.

See the National Park Service FAQ or the Wild Equity FAQ for more information on
the proposed new dog rules. There are a number of different alternatives for
each area, see the pdf maps for more detail- and do look at these maps before
jumping to the defensive.

To add your voice to the comments on this proposal to defend the many unique
native plants and wildlife that exist in the Golden Gate National Recreation
Area go to regulations.gov RIN 1024-AE16, the comment date has been extended to
May this year (2016).

You can comment online at the link above or send a letter to: Superintendent,
GGNRA, Attn: Dog Management Proposed Rule, Building 201 Fort Mason, SF, CA
94123.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) Superintendent Chris Lehnertz says
that they are “fighting really hard to be able to keep off-leash dog walking in
the GGNRA. We’re the only location in the Park Service that allows it [at all]”.

Regardless of whether you think the various proposals are at the right level of
balance between nature and recreation just yet, lets all think hard about both
sides of this story to find the right solution.

Even if the new dog leash proposal goes through as is, you will still be able to
have fun with your dog off leash, join us and our puppy Cleo in all the lovely
dog play areas in and around the city.

We need to approach conservation of the natural world driven by whats
responsible and just, and not purely from a place of gut-reaction and emotion.
Think about the bigger picture, we owe the entire natural world our protection
especially species like the Western Snowy Plover that are too far down the path
to extinction.

Don’t sacrifice the future of an entire species, for the sake of the convenience
of you and your pet.

 * Tags
 * Environment
 * wildlife
 * snowy plover
 * conservation
 * wild equity
 * ocean beach
 * california

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CAREER CHANGE; FAREWELL EVENTBRITE, FAREWELL LANYRD

Those of you who know me personally will likely know that I have always been
passionate about wildlife and the environment.

The News: I have decided to leave Eventbrite and Lanyrd. My plan is to use my
technical and organisational skills to make a difference in environmental
conservation.

Read on for some musings on the intersection of my career to date with my
passion for environmental and wildlife conservation.



Weiterlesen

 * Tags
 * career
 * environment
 * conservation
 * technology
 * eventbrite
 * lanyrd

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Driving over the Golden Gate Bridge from natbat on Vimeo.

> Periscope

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Project Ubiquity celebration from natbat on Vimeo.

> 

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We finished! Ran/power-walked the 12k San Francisco #baytobreakers on (stupidly)
no training!

 * Tags
 * baytobreakers

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Me, Simon and an endangered blue iguana! (at Queen Elizabeth Botanical Gardens)

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Hugging a turtle! (at Grand Cayman Turtle Farm)

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NATALIE DOWNE

Enthusiastic world explorer, digital creative, environmental technologist,
citizen scientist & budding computational ecologist. California Naturalist.
KM6LCB

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