Golden Gate National Recreation Area
Rancho Corral de Tierra Update

Staff Greetings and Farewell

We are pleased to announce that Carey Feierabend has been selected as Deputy Superintendent of GGNRA.

Carey has more than 30 years of experience working for the National Park Service. Prior to her time in San Francisco, she worked at the NPS Southwest Regional Office in Santa Fe as a historical architect, preservation planner, and cultural landscape specialist. Since 2011, Carey has served as the Chief of Project Management at GGNRA. Carey is a graduate of the University of Virginia, and earned a Masters of Architecture at Yale.

San Mateo Community Liaison Christine FitzGerald is now the proud mother of a little girl named Astrid. She returned to the park briefly following maternity leave, but has decided to spend more time with her family and will be leaving GGNRA at the end of October. We will miss her, and wish her well on her next chapter.

To maintain communications with our stakeholders, we will be identifying a new liaison in the coming months to focus on community relations. In the meantime, please contact the NPS Planning Division at 415-561-4930 if you have any questions.

You may have met a few of our seasoned professionals in the field, including Susie Bennett (GGNRA Lead for Natural Resources), Georgia Vasey (Community Programs/Stewardship lead for Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy), and Corbett Robinson (GGNRA Trails Supervisor). Next spring, you may also see our new GGNRA Visitor Use Management Specialist, Robin Graham, out on the trails. She will be helping to administer a new visitor use study at Rancho to get a better understanding of visitor use patterns and desires for the future. If you see any of these folks in the field, please stop by and say hello.

In addition to our field staff, the San Mateo Geographic Leadership Team meets monthly to coordinate San Mateo parklands projects. This team, led by our Deputy Superintendent, includes representatives from all divisions across NPS and the Parks Conservancy and works behind the scenes to ensure projects are completed successfully from planning and compliance to design and construction.

Grassland Restoration and Hickman’s Potentilla Protection Project

The Rancho Grassland Restoration and Hickman’s Potentilla Protection Project is well underway in its second year. Potentilla hickmanii is a Federally listed endangered species that was previously thought to be extirpated from San Mateo County.

It was discovered by Caltrans in the 1990’s while exploring the feasibility of building Highway 1 over Montara Mountain. Because of the rarity of this species and its endangered status, community groups encouraged Caltrans to look at other alignment options, like the Devils Slide Tunnel. In part, this small wildflower helped save Montara Mountain for wildlife and park users alike.  

Unfortunately, development was not the only threat for this plant. About 99 percent of this species occurs in small patches on the hills of Montara’s grasslands, which are being invaded by non-native plants and trees. Keeping these grasslands open is a critical part of the protection of this species.

Wildflowers like this wavy leaved mule's ear dot the grasslands in Montara, photo credit Kirk Wrench

Over the last 2 years, our stewardship focus has been on removing invasive grasses such as harding grass and jubata grass, relying heavily on our volunteers to accomplish these goals. Most recently, 20 Monterey cypress and pine trees were removed from the crucial grassland habitats that support a variety of plants, including the endangered potentilla. Over the next two winters thousands of native grassland and coastal scrub species will be planted on site. The extensive stands of surrounding forest will continue to provide an interesting and diverse shady experience for park users. 

We learned over the last week that a number of park visitors and neighbors were surprised and concerned about the tree removal. In response to this, we are pausing our work and are planning to offer an additional public hike later this month (date TBD) to discuss our planning process and the overall recovery plan for the grasslands and potentilla. We plan to send out an announcement to this group once this date is set.

Grassland Seed Increase Project

Grasslands create one of the most ecologically diverse habitats on the planet. In California, less than 1% of native grasslands remain, largely due to development. Ninety percent of California’s rare plants and 30% of California’s rare wildlife rely on grasslands to survive. Without grazers or fire cycles to help keep encroaching vegetation at bay, grasslands need active management to stay open and provide crucial habitat for the plants and wildlife. The hills above Montara are no exception. Because there was no management to promote native grassland vegetation communities here for decades, the balance between woody plants and grasslands has been tipped, and GGNRA is implementing projects to help restore that balance.

In order to support large grassland restoration efforts in Montara, GGNRA has been collecting native, locally-sourced seed material and sending it to a seed increase farm for propagation. The seeds from these “farmed” native plants get harvested over multiple growing seasons in an effort to increase our seed bank. Eventually these seeds will return to Montara and will be direct seeded on site or propagated into seedlings at our park nurseries. For the 5-acre project area, approximately 80 lbs of seed are needed to reach our restoration goal.

San Mateo County’s Animal Waste Clean-up Project

NPS is partnering with the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD) to address animal waste in our watersheds. Recent studies have concluded that bacteria is a major pollutant on the coastside and animal waste (particularly dogs and horses) can be a big contributor threatening human health and aquatic life. 

RCD now has funding from San Mateo County to conduct a pet waste education/outreach campaign. RCD conducted a waste clean-up event in the San Vicente Creek/Fitzgerald Marine Reserve area to remove animal waste before it is washed into the ocean during the first big rain of the season (first flush). If you know of other areas where animal waste accumulates, please let the RCD know so we can coordinate future cleanup efforts. Thank you for your help in tackling this important subject.

Farralone School Environmental Education Partnership

Farallone View School exploring Rancho

Following a successful National Geographic Bioblitz at Rancho in 2014, the Parks Conservancy has been partnering with Farallone View School to continue science education with students. Last spring, all grades participated in a multi-day mini Bioblitz event to explore the national park in their backyard. 

Habitat Restoration Volunteer Programs

If you would like to explore more of your national park with GGNRA, join us for our monthly drop-in volunteer days, typically held the first Saturday of the month from 10am-1pm. For more information, including meeting location, contact Community Programs Manager, Georgia Vasey, at gvasey@parksconservancy.org.

Milagra Ridge and Mori Point Trail Updates

New trail construction – Milagra Battery Trail, Connemara, Milagra Ridge

New accessible trailhead construction – Old Mori Trail, Mori Point

In our last newsletter, planning for a new trail at Milagra Ridge and new trailhead at Mori Point was underway. Construction of these new facilities is now complete. Come on up to Pacifica to check them out.