The UC Berkeley Botanical Garden has the following positions open:
For information and to apply go to https://botanicalgarden.berkeley.edu/employment
Posted in Garden, Job Openings | Tags: Job Openings, UC-Berkeley Botanical Garden
The BBC reports
The number of delegates with links to fossil fuels at the UN climate summit has jumped 25% from the last meeting, analysis shared with the BBC shows.
Campaign group Global Witness found more than 600 people at the talks in Egypt are linked to fossil fuels.
That’s more than the combined delegations from the 10 most climate-impacted countries.
Read more at COP27: Sharp rise in fossil fuel industry delegates at climate summit – BBC News
Posted in Environment | Tags: COP27, fossil fuel industry delegates at climate summit
The Berkeley Rausser reports
The University of California, Berkeley’s strength in addressing the world’s greatest environmental, social, and governance (ESG) challenges has earned it the top spot in a new worldwide ranking that measures performance across a range of sustainability issues.
Posted in Environment | Tags: UC Berkeley
Audubon reports
The stealthy, winged creatures arrive at night, seeking backyard hummingbird feeders. The nectar is meant for avian visitors, but in the twilight hours, it is lesser long-nosed bats that feast on the sweet liquid.
Read article at How Hummingbird Fans Are Helping to Protect a Border-Crossing Bat | Audubon
Posted in Animals | Tags: bats, lesser long-nosed bats
fromMarinCNPS
Protecting biodiversity and facilitating landscape-scale tidal marsh restoration: Management of invasive Spartina in the San Francisco Estuary”
Guest Speaker: Drew Kerr and Simon Gunner, California State Coastal Conservancy’s Invasive Spartina Project (ISP)
Since 2005, the Coastal Conservancy’s Invasive Spartina Project has used airboats, genetic testing, sophisticated GIS, and a lot of hard, muddy work to push back the invasive plants that threaten the San Francisco Bay estuaries and the endangered species, like the Ridgway’s rail and salt marsh harvest mouse, that live there. Learn about how hometown heroes are doing their part to address the global biodiversity crisis.
Posted in Environment, Talks | Tags: Spartina Management
The Energy Mix from the Climate News Network reports
An administrative decision on carbon removals, adopted in the dead of night with no community input, is raising alarm with experts attending the COP 27 climate summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt.
In an early and worrying outcome of the two-week conference, the 22-member supervisory body for the carbon trading regime under the Paris agreement adopted a set of “dodgy recommendations” that fail to anticipate negative social and environmental impacts or factor in the rights of Indigenous people, states a post in ECO, the daily COP newsletter produced by Climate Action Network-International.
Read more at ‘Free-For-All’ Carbon Removals Plan at COP 27 Sidelines Social, Environmental Impacts
Posted in Environment | Tags: COP 27
Join us under the dark skies of Death Valley’s doorstep for our springtime stargazing event — the Great Orion Stargazer Festival! This event will feature three nights of huge telescopes, astronomy lectures by professional astronomers, nightscape photography workshops, booths, food, giveaways, camping onsite in SHIFTPODs or your own tent/RV/etc., and of course prime viewing of The Great Orion Nebula — one of the biggest, brightest deep space objects in the sky!
Read more Great Orion Stargazer Fest — Eastern Sierra Observatory
Posted in Astronomy | Tags: Great Orion Stargazer Festival
Posted in Job Openings | Tags: Job Opening, Solano Resource Conservation District
from Yerba Buena CNPS
Register now for our exciting November speaker program November 10, 7:30 PM
Speaker: Amelia Ryan, Vegetation Ecologist, Pinnacles National Park
Though identified nearly 20 years ago as a probable new species, the “Pinnacles Jewelflower” has languished undescribed. At last, this species is in the process of being described. As an extremely rare endemic species, describing it is the first step to making sure it is preserved. In this “preview” talk, we will look at what we know so far about this species, its characteristics, and its preferred habitat, and discuss the distribution and status of other similar species in the area. We will also cover some other interesting and unusual plants found at Pinnacles.
Posted in Talks, Wildflowers and Other Plants
National Zero reports
Climate change is hitting the United States harder and faster than most of the rest of the world, with temperatures increasing 68% faster and the impact being felt in every corner of the country, the National Climate Assessment reports, according to the Washington Post.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Climate change, U.S. Warming Faster Than Rest Of World
NPR reports
Some animals like birds and frogs are famous for the sounds they make. But have you ever heard a turtle talk? Most turtles were thought to not make sounds at all — before researchers went deep.
Read more Dozens of species thought to be mute make sounds after all : NPR
Posted in Animals | Tags: Turtle sounds, Turtles
Posted in Drives, Park | Tags: Kings Canyon & Sequoia National Parks Closures
Posted in Desert, Drives, Park | Tags: Death Valley Road Openings
Center for Biological Diversity News Release
The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest released its final decision today to deny cattle grazing on almost 33,000 acres of scenic, biodiverse public lands in the Eastern Sierra. The area harbors habitat for bi-state greater sage-grouse, rare Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep and Lahontan cutthroat trout.
The U.S. Forest Service had been reviewing whether to initiate cattle grazing on inactive allotments where sheep grazing was discontinued to protect Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep from domestic sheep-borne disease. The four allotments have been free of all livestock grazing for approximately 15 years, allowing these rare high-elevation habitats to recover.
Posted in Animals, Environment, Park | Tags: Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, Livestock Grazing, Sage Grouse
NPR reports
A total lunar eclipse is happening Tuesday, and it might be a good time to catch a peek, because the next one isn’t for three years.
The initial phase of the eclipse begins at 3:02 a.m. ET, according to NASA. The partial eclipse then begins at 4:09 a.m. ET, when to the naked eye, it looks like a bite is being taken out of the moon. The lunar disk enters totality at 5:17 a.m. ET and will last for about an hour and a half.
People in North America, Central America, Colombia, and western Venezuela and Peru will be able to see the eclipse in totality. Those in Alaska and Hawaii will be able to see all stages of the eclipse.
For the best view, it is best to be in a dark area with little light pollution.
Read on www.npr.org/2022/11/07/1134688501/lunar-eclipse-this-week-november-2022
Posted in Astronomy | Tags: Lunar eclipse
from Yerba Buena CNPS
The release of the long awaited and highly anticipated San Bruno Mountain: A Guide to the Flora & Fauna, researched and written by CNPS Yerba Buena Chapter board members Doug Allshouse and David Nelson!
From the publisher, Heyday: “San Bruno Mountain, located in the center of the San Francisco Bay Area, is a four-square-mile global treasure—a natural preserve touted by biologist E. O. Wilson as one of the world’s rare biodiversity hot spots. Bathed in fog and wind and preserved from destruction by the fierce work of local conservationists, this mountain offers visitors a glimpse of what San Francisco looked like before colonization. Drawing on years of visits, observations, and research to offer a comprehensive flora of San Bruno Mountain and its endangered species, conservationists Doug Allshouse and David L. Nelson help us understand this unique and precious place from the point of view of the plants in this one-of-a-kind field guide.
BayNature reports
In September, a surfer named Nick Ericksen was catching some waves at Steamer Lane in Santa Cruz when a creature emerged from the depths and grabbed his board. To his relief, the creature wasn’t a shark, but a cute, fluffy sea otter. And this otter had an agenda. In a video of the encounter captured by a shoreside onlooker, Ericksen relinquishes the board to the sea otter and struggles to get it back. The otter curls up on Ericksen’s board and, like a true Santa Cruz local, proceeds to ride a few waves.
Read more at Santa Cruz’s Surfboard-Stealing Otter Remains at Large (For Now)
NPR reports
Go into almost any park and there’s often reminders to refrain from going near, petting or feeding wildlife. Not licking strange animals was simply a given — until now.
The National Park Service has added tongue-contact with the Sonoran desert toad among its various warnings for park visitors
— Read on www.npr.org/2022/11/06/1134615997/the-national-park-service-wants-humans-to-stop-licking-this-toad
Posted in Animals | Tags: licking toads
from Bay Nature
The 10.5-acre Regional Parks Botanic Garden, tucked into a valley in Tilden Regional Park, grows native plants from around the state — and attracts birds from far and wide. A Botanic Garden Bird Survey Team has found each of the following species in the garden in the last few years. See the photo birding list with photos by Minder Cheng at A Photo Birding List for the Tilden Botanic Garden – Bay Nature
Posted in Birds, Photography | Tags: Bird photos, Minder Cheng, Regional Parks Botanic Garden, Tilden Botanic Garden
from WildEarth Guardians
WildEarth Guardians and Project Coyote file new lawsuit to end wolf hunting and trapping in Montana
Right now in Montana it’s legal for one individual to kill 20 wolves at a time through cruel hunting and trapping practices.
It’s legal for a trophy hunter to stand 10 feet outside of Yellowstone National Park, toss hamburgers on the ground as bait to lure wolves out of the park, and then shoot them.
Even worse, anyone can offer limitless bounties in exchange for dead wolves.
Read more at One season, 456 dead wolves: that’s the reality in Montana right now – WildEarth Guardians
Posted in Animals | Tags: Montana Wolf Killing
SF Gate reports
A small, 11-centimeter songbird has turned Marin County upside down.
The Eurasian bird — known as the willow warbler — was spotted at the Rodeo Lagoon in the Marin Headlands on Oct. 18 by William Legge of Mill Valley, the Marin Independent Journal reported. It’s thought to be the first-ever sighting on the North American mainland of the warbler, which has since brought excited members of the birdwatching community from across the United States to Northern California.
Read more at A rare songbird made its way to Marin. Researchers are baffled.
Posted in Birds | Tags: Rare bird sighting, Willow Warbler
From Defenders of Wildlife
The BBC reports
Switzerland has reversed the decline of more than half of endangered frogs, toads and newts in one region, research finds.
After conservationists dug hundreds of new ponds in the canton of Aargau, amphibian numbers significantly increased.
Read more at : Conservation: Explosion in frog numbers after mass pond digging – BBC News
Posted in Animals
Posted in Drives | Tags: Eastern Sierra Road Closures
Associate Ecologist Job Description:
Hedgerow Farms and Pacific Coast Seed have been the leading providers of native seed in Northern California for over three decades. We work with agencies, nonprofits, and landowners to help restore land through producing and designing site-appropriate native plant mixes. We are currently adding an Associate Ecologist in our Winters, CA office.
Posted in Job Openings | Tags: Hedgerow Farms, Job Opening
CBS News reports
Limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius is the only way to save the remaining glaciers, but last week the U.N. warned there’s “no credible pathway” for that to happen.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Glaciers
from Theodore Payne Foundation
Horticulture, design, maintenance, botany, nature walks, ethnobotany, art, poetry, and more! Our extensive Education Program offers a range of classes for both beginners and experts with training by TPF staff and guest instructors. Classes are held at TPF in our La Fetra Nature Education Center, on TPF grounds, at various off-site locations, and on Zoom.
See event calendar at : Classes & Workshops | Theodore Payne Foundation
Posted in Class/Workshop | Tags: Theodore Payne Foundation Events
Highway 89 remains closed through the park at the Kohm Yah-mah-nee Visitor Center from the Southwest entrance and Loomis Plaza from the Northwest entrance. Please stay tuned to park website and social media updates for more information.
Posted in Drives, Park | Tags: Lassen National Park
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Posted in Garden, Park | Tags: Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Natural History Wanderings 