Join a panel of Cornell Lab experts on April 22 at noon Eastern to take a deep dive into spring migration. You’ll pick up tips on forecasting bird migration, along with finding and identifying birds near you. Register to attend.
Posted in Birds | Tags: Bird migration
The Jepson Videos: Visual Guides to the Plants of California are series of short plant identification videos, hosted on YouTube.
To be notified when new videos are posted, please subscribe to the Jepson Herbarium YouTube channel and turn on notifications.
The videos are now organized into playlists! Playlists are organized by family and by region or habitat. It’s also fun to browse the “videos” page where there are thumbnails of each video. Happy botanizing!c Check out the playlists at https://www.youtube.com/c/JepsonHerbarium/playlists
Posted in Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Jepson Videos
from East Bay Regional Parks
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Park District Stands with Asian Community
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On Tuesday, April 6, 2021, the East Bay Regional Park District Board of Directors unanimously approved a resolution denouncing racism, xenophobia, and violence against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, harmful and xenophobic rhetoric related to the geographic origins of the disease resulted in a rise in reported hate incidents and violent crimes against the AAPI community.
It is critical for businesses, community groups, and government agencies to speak out and stand in solidarity with the AAPI community members who are concerned for their safety and well-being.
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Posted in Park | Tags: Racism, xenophobia
One app, every park at your fingertips. The NPS App is the new official app for the National Park Service with tools to explore more than 400 national parks nationwide. Find interactive maps, tours of park places, on-the-ground accessibility information, and much more to plan your national park adventures before and during your trip.
The free app is currently available for iOS and Android devices.
The first step to begin your national park app adventure is to download the NPS App onto your mobile devices, such as phones or tablets. The NPS App is currently available for iOS- and Android-powered devices. It can be downloaded for free through the App Storeand Google Play.
Posted in Park | Tags: New National Park App
April 20 | Environmental Stewardship from East Bay Municipal Water District
• 9–10:30 a.m. | Connecting with Nature through Citizen Science
• 11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. | Watershed Stewardship from Snowflake to the Bay
Posted in Environment, Talks | Tags: Environmental Stewardship
Every April, during the presidentially proclaimed National Park Week, we join with the National Park Foundation, the official charity of America’s national parks, to celebrate America’s treasures. National Park Week is a time to explore amazing places, discover stories of history and culture, help out, and find your park.
Join us celebrating National Park Week 2021 from April 17 to 25! Parks across the country will host a variety of special programs, events, and digital experiences. There are also special theme days during the week to highlight the different ways everyone can enjoy national parks.
Join us on social media, check out each days’ themes, find in-person and virtual events, or stay caught up on news.
Posted in Park | Tags: National Park Week
This California Native Plant Week, we invite you to:
Posted in Garden, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: California Native Plant Week
EarthSky reports
In 2021, the likely peak morning for the Lyrids is Thursday morning, April 22. But the mornings around that date might be good, too. The moon is waxing – staying out longer after dark each night – so you’ll want to watch the time of moonset carefully.
The annual Lyrid meteor shower is coming up. It’s the shower that always breaks the meteor drought that happens each year from January through mid-April. There are no major meteor showers during that time, as you can see by looking at EarthSky’s meteor shower guide. The Lyrids are active each year from about April 16 to 25. In 2021, we expect the shower to pick up steam beginning late at night Monday, April 19, probably peaking in the predawn hours on Thursday, April 22. The following morning (April 23) might be good too, if you’re game.
Read more 2021 Lyrid meteor shower: All you need to know | Astronomy Essentials | EarthSky
Posted in Astronomy | Tags: Lyrid meteor shower
from the Mono Lake committee
The Mono County Board of Supervisors will hold their fourth public hearing on the Tioga Inn project next Tuesday, April 20 at 1:00pm. The project remains unchanged from the version that was considered at the last hearing in December 2020. At that time thoughtful comments from members of the Kutzadika’a Tribe, the community, the Lee Vining Volunteer Fire Department, and the Mono Lake Committee highlighted significant, continuing, and unresolved concerns regarding the project’s impacts on the community.
Many commenters asked the County to delay a hearing until Mono County and the project proponent had formally met at the project site with the Tribe to discuss cultural resource concerns and a path forward. Commenters also noted new information from Caltrans that the possibility of safe pedestrian and bicycle route, connecting the town of Lee Vining with the proposed workforce housing complex, hotel, and restaurant was feasible—despite the assertion to the contrary in project documents.
Read more and learn who to write to by April 18 at Poorly planned Tioga Inn project returns next week
Posted in Environment | Tags: Mono Lake
Posted in Environment | Tags: Virtual Earth Day
Posted in Garden | Tags: Bring Back the Natives Garden Tour
Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour: A tour of Alameda and Contra Costa county gardens
Free. Online, instead of in-person. Four days of garden tours, instead of one.
These programs will be hosted on Zoom, and livestreamed on YouTube.
Please join us any or all of these events, which will be held on the following Sundays from 10:00-3:00:
Posted in Garden | Tags: Bringing Back the Natives Garden Tour
The LA Times reports
Tule elk are treasured creatures in California, and for years, animal rights groups have butted heads with the Point Reyes National Seashore over its practice of keeping elk fenced away from nearby cattle ranches.
Amid a dry 2020, the groups tried to bring water to the creatures but were rebuffed by the National Park Service. Now the federal agency has released a report indicating that more than one third of the 445 elk fenced in at Tomales Point died this past winter, bringing the population down to 293.
Read more at Scores of tule elk died at Point Reyes seashore in 2020 – Los Angeles Times
The New York Times reports
More than 300 businesses, including Google, McDonalds and Walmart, are pushing the Biden administration to nearly double the United States’ target for cuts to planet-warming emissions ahead of an April 22 global summit on climate change.
In a letter to President Biden released on Tuesday morning, chief executive officers from some of the nation’s largest companies will call on the administration to set a new Paris Agreement goal of slashing the nation’s carbon dioxide, methane and other planet-warming emissions at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
That is roughly what most major environmental groups want, and the corporate executives called the target “ambitious and attainable.”
Read more at Executives Call for Deep Emission Cuts to Combat Climate Change
Posted in Environment | Tags: Climate change, Emission Cuts
from Alt National Park Service
A U.S. appeals court affirmed an earlier decision upholding Obama-era standards for Arctic and Atlantic Ocean protections. In an April 2017 executive order, then-President Trump unwound the Obama administration’s permanent ban on offshore gas and oil drilling in the oceans. But in 2019, the District Court for the District of Alaska ruled in favor of a coalition of conservation groups, finding that the Trump administration had overstepped its authority with the rollback.
Posted in Environment | Tags: offshore gas & oil drilling in the oceans
from Audubon
Create your very own bird sanctuary with the help of Audubon’s Native Plants Database. Enter your 5-digit zip code to find a list of the best plants for birds in your area, as well as local resources and links to more information. Start Planting
Posted in Birds | Tags: Attracting Birds, Native Plants
From Golden Gate Audubon
Posted in Birds, Talks | Tags: Bird Recording
The New York Times reports
Dozens of American cities are being transformed this spring, enveloped in darkness as the lights that usually brighten up their skylines are turned off at night to prevent birds from fatal impacts during their annual migrations.
Each year, an estimated 365 million to one billion birds die by smacking into reflective or transparent windows in deadly cases of mistaken identity, believing the glass to be unimpeded sky.
Read more at Turn the Lights Out. Here Come the Birds. – The New York Times
Posted in Birds | Tags: How lights kill birds
EarthSky reports
A recently detected space rock will pass by our planet on Monday, April 12, 2021. It’ll come extremely close, far closer than geostationary satellites orbiting some 22,000 miles (35,786 km) above Earth. The small asteroid has been designated as 2021 GW4. It is estimated to be about 16 feet (5 meters) in diameter. It’s a small space rock, and there’s no risk of impact, astronomers say. NASA/JPL calculations indicate asteroid 2021 GW4 will pass at just 12,313 miles (19,816 km) from Earth’s surface, which is about 5% the Earth-moon distance.
The space rock is traveling at 18,706 miles per hour (30,104 km/h) or 8.36 kilometers per second, relative to Earth. The closest approach of asteroid 2021 GW4 will occur at about 13:00 UTC (during the day for the east coast of North America; translate UTC to your time) on Monday, April 12. Amateur astrophotographers might try to capture the space rock on Sunday night (April 11) as the asteroid will be passing very close to where we see the galaxy Messier 95, in the direction of the constellation Leo the Lion, as seen from our perspective.
Read more at Heads up! Small asteroid to pass very close on Monday | Space | EarthSky
From Tuesday April 13, 2021 to Friday April 16, 2021 Limantour Rd. at Pt. Reyes National Seashore will be closed between 8 am and 5 pm.
Posted in Drives, Park | Tags: Limantour Rd., Pt. Reyes
The New York Times reports
In the throes of a pandemic that has made the indoors inherently dangerous, tens of thousands more Americans than usual have flocked outdoors, fleeing crowded cities for national parks and the public lands around them. But as these hordes of inexperienced adventurers explore the treacherous terrain of the backcountry, many inevitably call for help. It has strained the patchwork, volunteer-based search-and-rescue system in America’s West.Image
Read full story at Pandemic Wilderness Explorers Are Straining Search and Rescue – The New York Times
Posted in Park, Walks & Hikes | Tags: Search and Rescue
Center For Biological Diversity News Release
Centennial Ruling Signals Officials Must Consider California Wildfire Risks
LOS ANGELES— In a major victory against a destructive development larger than Griffith Park, a judge has issued a ruling blocking Tejon Ranchcorp’s Centennial. The project would have put 57,000 residents on remote, fire-prone wildlands 65 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff found that the development’s environmental review failed to account for the increased wildfire risk the 12,000-acre project would pose to surrounding wildlands. The ruling sends a clear signal that elected officials across the state must consider the serious risks of building on wildfire-prone land.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Tejon Ranchcorp Development
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Marin Chapter’s Plant Sale April Online Dates: Sale will open at 8 am – Wed. April 14
Questions or problems? email: MarinCNPSplantsale@gmail.com |
For more information, plants available, and details go to Marin CNPS Plant Sale
Posted in Garden | Tags: Native Plant Sale
Photos from a visit to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley on April 6, 2021
The Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a botanic garden of California native plants. The garden is open for visitors Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. Admission is free but reservations are required. For reservations click here.
You can see other photos from the Regional Parks Botanic Garden by several photographers on the garden’s Flickr group page at Regional Parks Botanic Garden.
This is part of my continuing pandemic project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard, local botanic gardens, and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project.
The talk will start with a tour of the native plant garden at the Channel Islands National Park Visitor Center. We will then look at where to find these native plants on the popular hiking trails of the islands.
Posted in Park, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Channel Islands Native Plants
Agaves are iconic plants across Mexico and the US Southwest, including Cabrillo National Monument. The towering stalks of agaves provide abundant nectar that feeds bats and many other pollinators. Come learn about the special relationship between nectarivorous bats and agaves as well as some surprising bat/agave interactions, and hear about how Bat Conservation International is restoring agaves to protect endangered bats.
Posted in Animals, Wildflowers and Other Plants | Tags: Agaves, bats, Pollination
Bay Nature has an article Banana Slugs Are One of the Weirdest Animals on Earth.
They discuss “the Bay Area’s most beloved gastropod has a mysterious evolutionary history, and the key to understanding it is… their reproductive parts?”
Posted in Animals | Tags: Banana Slugs
A reservation will be required to drive into Yosemite May 21 through September 30, 2021. You must display your permit on your dashboard at all times while inside the park.
For information go to Entrance Reservations – Yosemite National Park at https://www.nps.gov/yose/planyourvisit/reservations.htm
Posted in Uncategorized | Tags: Yosemite National Park
Photographed in the North Berkeley Flatlands between April 5, 2021.
This is part of my continuing project, the “Stay at Home Photo Project”. It includes many street photos from Berkeley and Albany as well as photos from the UC Berkeley campus, my yard and neighbors’ yards You can see larger higher quality versions of many of the photos at Flickr in my collection Stay at Home Photo Project .
Posted in Photos (Sandy's) | Tags: Berkeley Street Photos, Flowers
Natural History Wanderings 