A Magical Month

Photo Courtesy Yakuta Poonawalla 

January was a special month for the team! We added a new team member- Michael, our academic intern from San Francisco State University-volunteered at the second annual coho salmon release at Muir Beach, and participated in an amazing MLK Day of Service!

Water from the Sky

With winter comes rain

Drenching happy volunteers

Quenching thirsty roots

Announcements

Want to become a long-term Steward at Lands End? Read on!

If you love being outside, are interested in habitat restoration, and want to make a positive impact in your national park, we encourage you to sign up for our new Lands Ends Volunteer Steward Program!

This volunteer opportunity is different than our drop-in programs. Volunteers will be trained and be a part of the greater National Park Service Volunteer-In-Parks Programs. For more information, and to fill out the application, please click here.

Events

For a complete list of upcoming events please visit the Presidio Trust and Parks Conservancy events homepages!

EXCLUSION: The Presidio’s Role in World War II Japanese American Incarceration
Tuesday–Sunday, 10 am–5 pm; through March 2018

Visit the Presidio Officers’ Club for an exhibit detailing the Presidio’s role in the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II. What led to these dark events? What have we learned and how does this shed light on the current issues of mass incarceration, immigration reform, and racial profiling? For more information, please click the link.

February 14, 3–6 pm: Galentine’s Day Hike 

 A five-mile, mildly strenuous hike through Muir Woods! Please call (415) 388-2596 to sign up.

February 16, 11 am–Noon: Fort Point History Tour 

Learn about the history and architecture of historic Fort Point! Tours typically last 30 minutes. Meet at Fort Point entrance, click here for map.

February 24, 8:30–10:30 am: Family Bird Walk 

Birders experienced and new, join Jonah Benningfield on a bird walk through the Presidio. Binoculars and Jonah’s Birds of Mountain Lake guide will be provided. Registration required, click here to register.

February 28, 10 am–Noon: Tennessee Valley Hike

Join Ranger Al Blank on a five-mile walk up the Tennessee Valley Trail. Registration required, please call (415) 331-1540 for reservations.

February Wildlife

Top: California Newt, Bottom Left: Centipede, Bottom Right: Millipede

Photos Courtesy Aracely Rojas-Garcia & Vincent Nicolosi

Coho Salmon in our Backyard

By Vincent Nicolosi
Ecological Restoration and Volunteer Management Intern

The Redwood Creek coho salmon represent a beautiful life-cycle that plays out within the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

But what makes the story of the coho so special?

One remarkable characteristic about these fish is that they can adapt to live in both fresh water and the ocean. Coho salmon spend the first year of their lives in the fresh waters of Redwood Creek. As they mature and head down stream toward the ocean, they begin to physically transform into salt water fish.

For the next two years of their lives, the salmon call the Pacific Ocean home—swimming all the way up to Alaska!

As their life cycle comes to an end, something truly special occurs. The coho salmon return to their birthplace—Redwood Creek! Somehow, they find their way back to the entrance of Redwood Creek, located at Muir Beach, and swim upstream to lay their eggs and produce the next generation of salmon.

It’s simultaneously tragic and beautiful that the adult salmon never return to the ocean after they lay their eggs. Instead, they hover over their freshly laid eggs for as long they can, protecting the eggs, until they inevitably die.

The death of the parent fish marks another life cycle event. As their bodies decompose and those nutrients are reintroduced to the creek, they facilitate life for other microorganisms, small animals, and plant life. 

The lifecycle of the coho salmon plays out in the running waters of Redwood Creek and the distant depths of the Pacific Ocean. These well-traveled salmon represent more than an incredible story, but also the interconnected elements of nature that inspire us to continue to preserve and protect all our open spaces.

The coho salmon population once numbered nearly 500,000. Today, the number of salmon has dropped to roughly 1 percent of their historic numbers, making the Central Coast California coho salmon endangered at both the state and federal level¹.   

A dedicated group of agencies and individuals are committed to ensuring that the coho salmon population has a chance to make a comeback. The Department of Fish and Wildlife, in collaboration with the National Marine Fisheries Service, Army Corps of Engineers, National Park Service, California State Parks, as well as the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy, have teamed up to jump start the salmon population.

Photo Courtesy Yakuta Poonawalla

From 2014 to 2016 the Department of Fish and Wildlife collected juvenile coho and raised them in a protected environment to ensure their survival¹. A first cohort of hatchery-raised salmon were released in December 2016.

Another cohort of salmon, the fish released this past January 12, were collected in 2015. That year, 200 fish were collected and 180 reached adulthood! Had these salmon not been raised in a protected environment, it is likely only about 10 would have returned from the Pacific Ocean¹!

On a sunny Friday morning, the coho salmon were released back into Redwood Creek with the help of all the agencies and dedicated volunteers. Salmon were carted in watercooler fish tanks from a truck in the parking lot to the creek. Over the course of about 4 hours, all 100 salmon were safely returned to their home.

Photo Courtesy Jaclyn Lim

Members of the community stopped to watch and cheer the salmon on their quest upstream!

The story of the coho is not only amazing because of their journey, but because they brought an entire community together. They represent a remarkable story in wildlife conservation, where people from different organizations and backgrounds work together to do the right thing.

Next year will mark the final planned salmon release of this population jump-start project—a truly magical experience!

For more information on the coho salmon, visit the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy’s website by clicking here.

For more information on the coho short-term rescue project, visit the California Department of Fish and Wildlife website by clicking here.

For a video on the coho click the link!

Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Day of Service: 'A Day On, Not a Day Off'

By Aurora Perez
 Ecological Restoration and Volunteer Management Intern

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”

–Martin Luther King, Jr.

Martin Luther King, Jr. Day is an American federal holiday observed on the third Monday of January. Martin Luther King, Jr. became one the most visible leaders of the American civil rights movement from the mid-1950s until his assassination in 1968. He was greatly influenced and inspired by Mahatma Gandhi’s nonviolent activism, and became a strong advocate for using nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience to overcome injustice. ¹

Photo Courtesy Trikosko Marion S./Wikimedia Commons

After years of campaigning by activists, members of Congress, and Coretta Scott King, amongst others, President Ronald Reagan signed a bill creating a U.S. federal holiday in honor of King in 1983.

At first, some states resisted observing the holiday, and instead gave it alternative names or combined it with other holidays. It was officially observed in all 50 states for the first time in 2000.²

The National Martin Luther King Day of Service was started by former Pennsylvania U.S. Senator Harris Wofford and Atlanta Congressman John Lewis in 1994, with the idea of it being “a day on, not a day off” and “not a day of apathy, but a day of action”.³

They challenged Americans to transform the holiday into a day of citizen action and volunteer service in honor of Dr. King.

On January 15, 2018, in honor of Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Day of Service, we held a volunteer program at the one-of-a-kind Fort Funston. We started the day with our largest opening welcome circle yet, joined by 75 volunteers, plus staff and interns!

Photo Courtesy Yakuta Poonawalla

As the sun peeked through the clouds, we began our work. We weeded over 40 bags of introduced species, such as ice plant (Carpobrotus edulis), sour grass (Oxalis pes-caprae), and New Zealand spinach (Tetragonia tetragonioides). We also planted over 200 California native plants, including American dune grass (Elymus mollis), mockheather (Ericameria ericoides), and sand verbena (Abronia latifolia).

We celebrated the Day of Service by restoring the largest remaining sand dune habitat in San Francisco, home to beautiful, rare flowering plants. It’s amazing what we can accomplish when a community comes together; it’s truly a special thing.

“Greatness is determined by service.”  
–Martin Luther King, Jr.

As the holiday fades away, let’s remember that there are always new opportunities to volunteer and give back to the community, to nature or to those in need. The season of giving doesn’t have to be over yet.

Drop-In Volunteer Programs