News and Events
from One Tam

Hello!

Dear Friend,

Blue skies at last! Winter is waning on the mountain, and we are welcoming spring again.

I recently came aboard as One Tam’s Development & Membership Manager – at the perfect time to celebrate not just the changing of the season, but also to celebrate ten years of the One Tam partnership. My first few weeks have been about learning about the past and looking to the future of our work together.

I hope to meet you soon at one of our upcoming member events, including the Plants of Mt. Tam walk next Wednesday, March 27.

Please drop a line if you have any inquiries, ideas, or would like to say hello!

Best,

Becca Lizarraga, Development & Membership Manager, One Tam

RLizarraga@parksconservancy.org

One Tam At Ten

Celebrate One Tam at Ten with us! Background photo: Steelblue

Save the date! One Tam is turning 10 years old! We can’t believe it either. Our first decade of working together as the One Tam partnership has brought many accomplishments toward a healthier and more accessible Mt. Tamalpais. And we couldn’t have done it without you, our community of supporters. We’ve learned a lot, and we’re excited for what’s ahead in our work together. In fact, we're marking this milestone with a one-of-a-kind celebration, and you're invited!

When: May 9, 5:00-8:00 pm

Where: East Peak, Mt. Tamalpais

• Savor delicious local bites, beverages and live music
• Stroll the Verna Dunshee trail and learn from One Tam staff and experts
• Take in the views atop Mt. Tam with others who treasure it

Learn more and purchase tickets by April 24 >>

Wildflower Walks

Fairy slipper orchid (Calypso bulbosa), a small and dazzling native wildflower. Photo: Lisette Arellano/Parks Conservancy

Don’t miss your chance to walk with wildflowers this spring, and with Robert Steers, author of the new book, The Plants of Mt. Tamalpais. We have two special opportunities for One Tam members coming up – register now as these botanical adventures will fill up fast!

• March 27 at Crown Road Trailhead >>
• April 13 at Rock Spring Trailhead >>

Not a member? One Tam members receive special access to fun and informative experiences like these! Become a member today!

Bee Lab Buzz

Staff and volunteers participate in California Bumble Bee Atlas training. Photo: Kelly Sullivan for the Parks Conservancy

We are excited to announce that the Tamalpais Bee Lab is opening back up to volunteers this spring! In fact, after a lot of planning, we’re moving into a new phase of this program and offering new opportunities to get involved.

You may remember that this community science volunteer opportunity focused on collections management, which was a huge need associated with inventorying wild bees across Marin. We're shifting our focus in this next phase to better understanding local bee communities, gathering information to inform future targeted monitoring studies, and contributing local data to broader efforts seeking to study and protect native bees.

To achieve these goals, this year we are taking part in the California Bumble Bee Atlas, a statewide effort to track and conserve bumble bees, and nationwide Ground Nesting Bee Surveys to help us fill critical knowledge gaps about this important group of bee species. We’re also starting a new local effort – the San Francisco Bay Area Leafcutter Bee Search Party – to find Trachusa gummifera, a rare endemic bee species only known from a few historical records, which has been missing for decades and was last seen in the Mt. Tam region. Volunteers can get involved in each of these exciting efforts! Learn more >>

Want to volunteer? Sign up for events on our calendar, and be sure to check out the program page for more information.

CITY NATURE CHALLENGE: BIGGER THAN EVER!

Get ready for City Nature Challenge! Partcipation is easy – just take take pictures of wild-growing living things you observe and upload them to the iNaturalist app. Photo: Kelly Sullivan for the Parks Conservancy

Are you curious about your local environment? Do you wish you knew the name of that flower in the sidewalk, the fly on the wall? City Nature Challenge is coming, and every observation of the life around you contributes to this international effort to document it. The opportunities to get involved abound, whether on your own or as part of a local event, including with One Tam! Mark your calendars for our dates below:

Tuesday, April 23, Online: Get ready for City Nature Challenge by joining this introductory webinar, including how to use the iNaturalist app. In partnership with California Academy of Sciences. REGISTER >>

Saturday, April 27, Ring Mountain: It’s bioblitz time! Join us for an exploration of Ring Mountain with our Parks Conservancy and Marin County Parks friends, and help document the species we see. A great way to learn about wildflowers! REGISTER >>

See more City Nature Challenge events around the Bay Area >>

What’s City Nature Challenge? This international celebration of the incredible diversity of life all around us happens in two parts: an observation period (April 26-29) and an identification period (April 30-May 5). All you have to do is take pictures of wild-growing living things you observe and upload them to the iNaturalist app. No experience is needed to participate, and your participation matters – what you observe becomes information that scientists can use. What better way to celebrate Earth Day than to learn about what lives here? Learn more and plan your participation >>

Support Grows for Forest Health

Muir Woods is one of the places that will benefit from a recent grant from the Wildlife Conservation Board. Photo: Paul Myers/Parks Conservancy

In February, the Wildlife Conservation Board awarded $4.26 million in grant funding to support One Tam’s forest health work over the next four years. This support will help us put into action our Marin Regional Forest Health Strategy, which we released last fall to help our forests grow more resilient in the face of threats like climate change. Projects that will be supported by the grant include:

• Reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire and habitat loss on Marin Water lands by removing highly flammable foliage, dry woody biomass, and other hazardous fuels.
• Managing vegetation to increase forest health and support biodiversity throughout the county.
• Returning beneficial fire to State Parks lands and Muir Woods National Monument.

See our press release about this important achievement for forest health in Marin >>

Read more about this work in the Marin Independent Journal >>

What have we been up to while monarch butterflies are overwintering?

Volunteers and staff plant native milkweed for monarch butterflies at Mt. Burdell. Photo: Nicolette Michel/Parks Conservancy

While western monarch butterflies have been overwintering and weathering this winter’s storms and cold temperatures on the coast, One Tam staff and volunteers have been working to enhance inland habitat for upcoming breeding seasons at three selected sites on Mt. Burdell in Novato.This involved planting narrowleaf milkweed (Asclepias fascicularis), the butterfly’s host plant, as well as nectar plants at two sites with remnant patches of narrowleaf milkweed, and one site where narrowleaf milkweed was introduced. A Wildlife Conservation Board grant with Proposition 68 funds supports this work.

This winter’s work was a true partnership effort involving 61 staff from the Parks Conservancy, Marin County Parks, and Presidio Trust, and 29 adult and six youth volunteers, including Marin Master Gardeners. We planted 672 narrow leaf milkweed plants and 427 nectar plants over four days between mid-December 2023 and early February 2024. Seeds for these plantings were locally collected and grown in the Marin County Parks nursery. In addition to making this wonderful effort to improve breeding habitat, we also played a game to help us think like a monarch butterfly and learn about what they need to survive through real-life scenarios. Thank you to all who participated!

You can help support our vital monarch butterfly conservation research by posting any egg, caterpillar or butterfly pictures on iNaturalist or by sharing with Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper, even from your backyard! Especially now, you can observe adults leaving overwintering sites and heading north to look for breeding habitat. Sightings submitted over the next month will be included in the Western Monarch Mystery Challenge, which runs through April 22 and is tracking the butterfly’s inland movement.

Gearing up for Summer Youth Programs

LINC participants from the 2023 cohort learn about the ecology of Muir Woods with Ranger Jackson Lam. Photo: Darryl Burton/Parks Conservancy

One Tam’s youth programs are gearing up for summer! We’re especially excited this year about our partnership with Canal Alliance, which continues to grow: Canal Alliance recently received a Whale Tale Grant from the California Coastal Commission to support its University Prep (UP) Program, specifically for monthly experiences in coastal parks and open spaces for UP participants. Part of this grant will support One Tam youth program staff to plan and facilitate these programs at key places within One Tam’s area of focus, such as Lake Lagunitas, Muir Woods, and Samuel P. Taylor State Park, among others.

In addition, our popular Linking Individuals to Their Natural Communities (LINC) and Urban Trailblazers programs will be underway starting in June. This year we received over 250 applications for LINC alone, which has a program size of 24 students. Both programs involve a mix of service learning, outdoor experiences, and leadership development for Bay Area youth. Participants from Marin County will get to learn and grow at special One Tam sites such as Muir Woods, Muir Beach, Lake Lagunitas, and Bothin Marsh.

Marin County Parks Breathe/Respira Grants

Visiting Roy's Redwoods. Photo: Marin County Parks

Since 2014, Breathe/Respira grants have helped bring underserved community members to County parks and preserves. These grants fund group visits, community outreach, and programs. Marin community organizations can submit grant applications by May 31, 2024. Visit marincountyparks.org to learn more about Breathe/Respira grants. 

Wildflower Docent Training Begins

Observing spring wildflowers at Ring Mountain. Photo: Marin County Parks

Next phase of climate resilience planning for Bothin Marsh underway

Pedestrians navigate the Mill Valley-Sausalito Multiuse Pathway in Bothin Marsh during a recent king tide event in January. These events underscore the need for action as sea levels rise, a symptom of climate change. Photo: Kelly Sullivan for the Parks Conservancy

The Evolving Shorelines Project at Bothin Marsh has reached an important milestone by completing preliminary plans for enhancing Bothin Marsh’s wetlands and elevating the popular Mill Valley-Sausalito Multiuse Pathway. You can view some of the key elements of the project such as the proposed reconnection of Coyote Creek to the marsh, realignment of the pathway with a new trailhead at Tam Junction, and other nature-based strategies here >>

Our team is now refining these plans into a set of engineered drawings. Through this next phase of the design process, we further define our approach to effectively deliver nourishing sediment to the marsh and improve its ability to accrete, or grow up, to keep pace with rising seas. We will also explore more detailed options for improving safety and experience for all users of the pathway.

A recommendation to fully fund this next step in design will be made on May 3,  2024 to the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority, a regional agency created to help protect, restore, and enhance San Francisco Bay. Stay tuned!

Mt. Tam Watershed Recreation Management Update

Enjoying Bon Tempe Lake in the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed. Photo: Marin Water

Our friends at Marin Water recently presented their draft Watershed Recreation Management Planning Feasibility Study for the Board of Directors’ review and discussion on February 29 and March 21, at the District’s Watershed Committee Meetings. 

The Feasibility Study has been informed through a robust public engagement process, including workshops, meetings, visitor surveys, literature reviews, site visits and data analysis, and will be an important part of Marin Water’s ongoing adaptive management of the Mount Tamalpais Watershed. The District is grateful for the many hours of conversation and learning with the community that has happened throughout this process.

The overall planning effort incorporated community feedback and lessons from other water districts, parks and open spaces beyond the District’s watershed boundaries. The Feasibility Study demonstrates the District’s ongoing commitment to monitoring, examining, and stewarding the natural resources of the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed.

The strategic opportunities identified in the Feasibility Study will help the District continue to protect the source water for more than 191,000 Marin County community members while also taking steps to foster meaningful recreational experiences on the watershed through stewardship, education and outdoor activities.

Stay up to date on the watershed recreation management planning process >>

Fun(GI) & Friends

Stalked bonfire cup (Geopyxis carbonaria), observed by Sadie Hickey, One Tam’s newest Conservation Management Assistant. She joined our team in February and will be supporting our landscape-scale work for a healthy Mt. Tamalpais, such as our early detection rapid response weed management program. Welcome, Sadie! Photo: Sadie Hickey/Parks Conservancy

In the in-between of early spring, we usually say goodbye to mushrooms while greeting the first wildflowers of the year. We’re still getting rain (this year, a lot of rain), and everything is green. A perfect time for a bioblitz, in other words.

A bioblitz is a quick, intensive survey of the species present in an area, which contributes to our knowledge of local biodiversity. In late February, about 25 curious volunteers and staff explored an area of the Mt. Tamalpais Watershed near Rock Spring, looking for fungi and other things that might be observed. It was an interesting spot because of the area’s diversity of habitats, not least because 11 nearby acres received a prescribed burn last October to promote its health. Most of the Mt. Tamalpais area hasn’t burned in decades, even though fire is an important part of our ecology. Would we find any “fire-following” mushrooms?

Yes, it turned out! Pictured above is one example, the stalked bonfire cup (Geopyxis carbonaria). It can be found throughout the northern hemisphere on burned ground where conifers grow. It is one of the first species to emerge after a fire and helps decompose the charred vegetation.

The day also presented us with curled-up California slender salamanders, delicate Western fairy slipper orchids, and many more fabulous fungi. A very large San Francisco alligator lizard even made a special appearance. So far, volunteers and staff have observed 109 different species, and more may follow as we work on completing identifications. Head to the event’s page on iNaturalist to see more finds and photos of what’s appearing in this place, in this peculiar part of the year.

Supporter Spotlight

Thank you for supporting One Tam!

Special thanks to Every Man Jack for becoming a sponsor of One Tam! As a One Tam corporate partner, Every Man Jack supports One Tam’s efforts to maintain a healthy Mt.Tamalpais for all.

Are you a business interested in supporting One Tam? Reach out to Rebecca Lizarraga at RLizarraga@parksconservancy.org