Dear Mountain Watchers,
            Greetings from San Bruno Mountain. I would like to thank all of you who have volunteered with us over the past year, given a donation, or recommended a hike on the mountain to a friend.  Your continued participation helps to further our mission to preserve and expand the native ecosystems of San Bruno Mountain, in perpetuity.
          Most of you know about our continual efforts to bring people of all ages onto the mountain, and our work to protect and restore the native ecosystem. Here, briefly, are some of our goals for the future.

•Wetlands restoration: We are very happy about our recent collaboration with Jim McKissock, his organization, EarthCare, and the City of Brisbane to begin restoring the remnant creek system in Guadalupe Valley.  We hope this will lead to a watershed plan for the east side of the mountain.
•Bay to Beaches Greenbelt: Working with Sophie Maxwell, San Francisco Supervisor, and Dave Holland, San Mateo County Director of Parks and Recreation, we have initiated a Green Corridor working group to explore how to establish a wildlife corridor from the Bay to the Ocean, across San Bruno Mountain.
•Strengthened Stewardship Program: We recently merged with “Heart of the Mountain”, the group that has done such a wonderful job restoring the Colma Creek Headwaters. Joe Cannon, experienced restoration biologist and leader of Heart of the Mountain, has begun working as our stewardship director.
•Land Trust: We continue to work on our goal of establishing a land trust program so that we can preserve more of the valuable habitat contiguous to our treasured mountain.

            During these tough economic times, the preservation of a valuable, local, natural resource makes a lot of sense by keeping money in the local economy and benefiting future generations.  Please participate by donating your time and/or money to saving San Bruno Mountain in perpetuity.

Best regards,
Ken McIntire
SBMW Executive Director

Aftermath

The mountain burned black
            in mourning around the stony offspring
of a planet’s fiery skull --

But, do not worry in the dinge,
   for, charred roots now sprout
in secret midnight moisturing fogs,
uncounted seeds are stirring beneath these ashes,
tender in the crumbled crust.
And still the creekbeds waver
              in a silent heat
       with cicadas and beetle,
         frogs, slugs and snakes,
  hidden hearts still beating
      toward the seeping of springs.

And deeper in the dead scrub, a tiny river
            bubbling down the loam’s silence
    between still burning waxmyrtle roots,
    pulsing under fire rotting wood,
    coursing new little worts, mosses and lichens.

            Febrilating canyons beat
    in league with the flickering flame of stars
            and back into all beginnings--
Spreading all voiceless shadows
        up the ridges and down
       into the night’s renewal.
Across all the perched crags of death,
humble bearers of the dirt’s birth.

                        --David Schooley, 8/08

Greenhouse Update

            The Mission Blue Native Plant Nursery project is alive and well.  Although construction lagged over the summer, plans are now being made that would have the framwork completed by the end of January. The nursery is a project of Friends of San Bruno Mountain, under the leadership and care of Doug Allshouse, who helped create and run the nursery when it was in South San Francisco. Paul Bouscal, SBMW board member, is coordinating the construction activities. The original greenhouse plans are being simplified by architect Jerry Kuehl.  Local contractors Marc Salmon (who supervised the foundation work), Joel Diaz, and Cameron Johnson have volunteered their time to put up the framework.  The nursery will be located northeast of the Brisbane Fire Station.
            The nursery has the potential to supply many of the native plants needed for stewardship work on the mountain.  In addition, it should provide a focus for the new volunteer stewardship program that SBMW is initiating.  This project is a genuine example of community spirit and cooperation. Brisbane Councilman Mike Barnes and Mike Pacelli, from Bay Relations, were instrumental in initial discussions with Universal Paragon Corporation, which agreed to donate the land. Sierra Point Lumber has given the project the best price possible on materials, and local citizens have helped out the professional builders where they could. 

Stewardship Program

            Community stewardship is critical to the continuing survival of San Bruno Mountain’s rich ecology, especially in light of the rapidly changing conditions caused by global warming and rapid population growth.  Although SBMW has been able to increase the number of volunteer stewardship hours spent on the mountain over the past few years, this has not been enough to keep up with the advancing invasive species and coastal scrub on the mountain.
            Recently, Joe Cannon, experienced wildlife biologist, instructor at San Francisco City College, and head of Heart of the Mountain (a sister environmental group on the mountain), has begun working with us to develop a comprehensive stewardship program.  Joe brings with him years of experience working with Golden Gate National Recreation Area, and an unbending commitment to preserving the natural world.  His work can be seen at the headwaters of Colma Creek, near the county park headquarters along Guadalupe Canyon Parkway.  We are excited to have Joe’s participation with us.

Lessons from the Buckeye and Owl Canyon Fires
            Since the large wildfire in Buckeye and Owl Canyons last summer, Joe has been monitoring the mountain’s recovery from the burn.  One of his goals is to develop an efficient plan to combat opportunistic non-native plants eager to claim new ground, using small grants from the California Native Plant Society and the fledgling San Bruno Mountain Conservancy.
            A larger goal is to build a case for an increased use of fire for habitat restoration. Through studies done in other areas, and observation and photo-documentation done as Buckeye and Owl Canyons recover, San Bruno Mountain Watch, some San Mateo County officials and the primary restoration contractors on the mountain hope to show that fire is important for the health of the natural ecosystem here.  San Bruno Mountain’s native plant communities evolved with fire, and its rich variety of life is in part due to fires.  Some experienced biologists feel that the exceptional biodiversity of SBM is not likely to survive without fire.
            Planned and controlled burns are also important fire safety tools, as the Buckeye and Owl Canyon fires demonstrated.  Burns were more common in the past, but since the early 1990s, when controlled burning stopped, established fire lanes have grown over, making fires a more serious threat.  When an area hasn’t been burned for many years, the woody fuel load builds to the point where fires that start burn with greater intensity. Talks are beginning among county and city officials, ecologists, and fire safety officials about the possibility of re-introducing fire as a fire safety and habitat management tool.  We plan to encourage this idea.

The Year of the Frog – Mountain Watch Gets Its Feet Wet

            The wetlands surrounding Brisbane are excellent habitat for the Pacific Chorus Frog, a small but very vocal species that became a focus of attention in Brisbane during SBMW efforts to halt development on the Northeast Ridge. Frog habitat and its associated rare and endangered flora have been disappearing around the Bay, and the habitat in Brisbane is no exception. Dana Dillworth, Linda  Salmon and Jim McKissock (founder of Earthcare) have been exploring these rich areas of diversity for years. This summer, the SBMW board decided to expand our mission to include preservation and protection of the vital wetlands ecosystems at the foot of San Bruno Mountain as well as on its slopes.
            During the summer, concerns about the frogs came to a head when Linda discovered some hired workers cleaning out a remnant creek (sometimes mislabeled as a drainage ditch) with weed-whips.  Frogs and rare native wetland plants were being destroyed.  This negative situation became a model for city and citizen cooperation, as Brisbane city engineer Randy Breault agreed to let SBMW take responsibility of the remnant creek in question.  Thankfully for SBMW, Jim McKissock, a wetlands advocate and tireless wetlands restorer, took charge of this project, applying his time and expertise along with help from volunteers Gail Wilson, Philip Gerrie, Kris Hanson, Dana Dillworth and Linda Salmon. Angelo, Brisbane’s expert backhoe driver, and Walt Peters, both from the Brisbane Public Works Department, have been an amazing help as well.
            Our hope is this project can serve as a positive model for the expansion of a wetlands friendly management of the watershed in and around Brisbane and elsewhere on the mountain, and will serve as a model throughout the state and for other endangered areas.