News and Events
from One Tam

LINC 2020 students participate in a park cleanup, following local health department guidelines.  Photo: Grecia Solis Pacheco / One Tam

We are now accepting LINC 2021 Applications! This popular five-week program (Linking Individuals to their Natural Communities) brings together youth from across the Bay Area for a variety of local service projects while deepening their understanding of ecology and climate change and providing workshops to gain career and leadership skills.

Projects and activities will vary by week and may include plant identification and habitat restoration. At the conclusion of the program, all participants receive a $500 cash award.

Please see the application for details on this year’s program format. Pending COVID-19 safety restrictions, we may celebrate with an overnight camping or backpacking trip.

Applications are due March 15. Please share with young people in your life who might be interested!

Michael Sturtevant prepares to plant native grasses along Deer Park Fire Road following road rehabilitation.  Photo: Monica Stafford / One Tam

This winter, One Tam’s Conservation Management team supported Mount Tamalpais State Park by planting roughly 500 plants along the Deer Park Fire Road above Muir Woods. 

The team conducted two rounds of planting, focusing on herbaceous plants and grasses to support the enhancement of native grasslands while also controlling erosion along the road. The plants were grown at the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy’s Marin Headlands plant nursery and included California blackberry, pearly everlasting, yarrow, and gray rush alongside grasses like purple needlegrass, blue wild rye and red fescue. 

By planting these native species, State Parks aims to help prevent erosion and facilitate the natural recruitment of plants from the surrounding habitat. In turn, the team hopes to reduce opportunities for invasive plants in this pocket of grasslands. 

This surveying and planting work played to the Conservation Management team’s strengths. As David Greenberger, Assistant Conservation Management Specialist, put it, “we know the land out there really well, including the threats in terms of weeds. Luckily, we have the protocols to deal with those while helping support native grasslands.” He also noted that the grasslands in the area support a rich diversity of species in addition to those planted in construction areas. 

The team will be back out in the area this spring and summer to continue their monitoring work.

Foothill yellow-legged frog. Photo: Ian Austin

Did you know that Mt. Tam is home to the sensitive foothill yellow-legged frog? Foothill yellow-legged frog range and numbers have declined dramatically in Marin County and in the One Tam region over the last 75 years. They are now only found in Big and Little Carson Creeks on the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed, and in San Anselmo Creek in Cascade Canyon Open Space Preserve. These popular Marin hiking destinations are also important breeding habitat for the foothill yellow-legged frog, a federal and state species of special concern. 

The frog populations are threatened and are easily damaged if park visitors or their dogs go into the waters around the falls. Please limit disturbance of the frogs, the eggs, and the tadpoles by staying out of the water and do your part for conservation! 

Want to do more? Please join One Tam partner Marin Water for a two-part virtual Frog Docent training on Saturdays, March 13 and March 20 from 9-10:30 am. Learn about this threatened species and what you can do to protect its breeding habitat. Get outside and become a community scientist by educating visitors about this incredible species and the freshwater habitat crucial to its survival. To register, email volunteerprogram@marinwater.org or call 415-945-1128.

Monarch butterfly. Photo: Morgan Stickrod via iNaturalist

This week, the Xerces Society released the data from the fifth annual Western Monarch New Year's Count, which includes data from the local community science effort to count migratory monarchs at overwintering sites, coordinated by NPS Ranger and Marin Community Liaison Mia Monroe and supported by One Tam. She shared that while overall both the Thanksgiving and New Years’ Counts were alarmingly low, monarchs did remain at several Marin sites between the two counts. They will hopefully become the first breeding generation of the year.

What happens now? There's more to observe and help document: the second annual Western Monarch Mystery Count is a community science effort where everyone can help document monarchs moving east, into inland Marin communities. You might see them finding nectar in your garden or undertaking spring re-migration/dispersal when out on a sunny day hike. Documentation of presence and behavior early in the season through this iNaturalist-based effort adds invaluable information to a gap in our knowledge! Check out more ways you can help here.

We are also excited to announce that the Parks Conservancy was recently awarded a grant from the California Wildlife Conservation Board’s Monarch Butterfly and Pollinator Program. This will support monarch overwintering site assessments and enhancements on both National Park Service and Marin County Parks lands. Stay tuned to future e-newsletters for updates and connections to this work.

Photo: Kirke Wrench

The howl of coyotes at night is a peak sensation we experience in Marin’s landscapes, and there’s a new way that you can help protect them. You can contribute to the National Park Service’s Marin Coyote Study by providing location information if you encounter a coyote carcass (including roadkill). Part of this research involves collecting small samples for DNA analysis to gain information about population, diet, and genetics. Please contact Katie Smith (katie_smith@partner.nps.gov) with information and location details. 

And please upload your coyote observations with photos to our Tracking Coyotes in Marin iNaturalist project! Learn what NPS is looking for and please remember to maintain a generous distance at all times to help keep coyotes safe!