Happy New Year. We are all thankful for the permanent protection of our shared open space lands. Thank you to our loyal supporters of 2022. We look forward to a year of continued dedication to the preservation, protection and stewardship of these lands.
Nature Journaling in the Junior Land Stewards Program
Nature journaling activities have been the focus of the Junior Land Stewards field trips this month. Such activities have included Sound Mapping, My Secret Plant, I notice/I wonder/It reminds me of, and Ecosystem Inspections. El Granada students hiked to Quarry Park while sharing in a history lesson with special guest (and CLT Stewardship Advisory Board member) Barbara Dye. They learned about their neighborhood, the Ocean Shore railroad, and Quarry Park itself. Farallone View students hiked through their neighboring Golden Gate National Recreation Area with Eric Zepeda, of the Golden Gate National Conservancy. They learned a great deal about the park and the local endangered species.
Thanks to a grant from the Land Trust Alliance, this year the Coaststide Land Trust has been offering nature journal training for the CUSD 4th grade teachers and the JLS high school field guides. Teachers are completing a three part series, of which they have already concluded two sessions. The goal of these workshops is to provide the tools and enrich instructional practices for teaching nature journaling within the classroom. Haley Paterson, Junior Land Stewards program manager shares, “It's also been wonderful for teachers to share their successes and challenges in nature journaling with each other and the CLT staff. Teachers have enjoyed meeting each other and participating in these relaxing and enriching development workshops.”
Great Thanks To Our Stewardship Advisory Committee
Where would the Coastside Land Trust be without our Stewardship Advisory Committee? We have these dedicated, hard working people to thank for so many reasons…
The Stewardship Advisory Committee leads the the biological and other environmental monitoring of all of our properties and conservation easements. They document and report the yearly changes in this open space land through photographs and sustained reporting, and provide input for issues on the land that need attention.
They are responsible for the organization of our community work days, as well as some of their own work days - removing invasive plants and saplings, to maintain and support the health of the coastal prairie. Several members of this stewardship team also support and work alongside our youngest stewards within the Junior Land Stewards program.
Thank you to Barbara Lohman (chair), John Zimmer, Barbara Dye, Janet Leonard, Susan Dunn, April Ramos, Terry Sweeney, and Sara Polgar who serve on this Stewardship Advisory Committee, and are the backbone of so much of who we are, and the impact we have on the environment.
Giving Tuesday
Preserving the Coastside for present and future generations.
Donate on this Giving Tuesday to support the critical protection and stewardship of our shared open space land.
Giving Thanks
Giving thanks for you (today and every day), our loyal supporters and friends.
Planting Seeds
The Junior Land Stewards of Hatch, El Granada and Farralone View elementary school have been busy planting their indigenous plant seeds. They will be tending to these and watching them grow until February, when they will transplant them into their pollinator gardens. The list of plants is long and includes California buckwheat, seaside daisy, lizard’s tail, yarrow, yellow bush lupine, clarkia, bee plant, phacelia, prunella, Douglas iris, and sneezeweed.
Junior Land Stewards Prepare Their Plots
The Junior Land Stewards have been preparing their future planting plots. Led by their Half Moon Bay high school field guides, they have been removing invasive species, and sheet mulching to prepare their habitat restoration gardens for planting in the spring. They have also taken part in naturalist scavenger hunts where they have been looking for birds of prey, native and invasive plants, signs of the fall season, and places where wildlife might live.
Donate to support the Junior Land Stewards Program and the critical protection and stewardship of our shared open space land.
Thanks to the Sequoia Audubon Society
A humongous thank you to the knowledgable Sequoia Audubon Society guides who led us all on a really fantastic Wavecrest raptor walk. With a large number of guides, we were able to travel in small groups, and the raptor viewing was pretty incredible for all. This was surely a reminder of why the preservation of open space is so important.
Photo credit: Edward Wang
Donate to support this critical open space habitat- shared my many creatures (big and small).
Thanks to Team Zimmer
Great thanks to John Zimmer, Joe Ramos and Patrick Ryan, who volunteered and worked to remove the overgrowth of Eucalyptus saplings from the Coastside Land Trust’s Surf Beach property. A Herculean task, and we can all be grateful for their good work.
Junior Land Stewards Field Guide Orientation Continues
This group of Half Moon Bay High school students have continued honing their nature journaling practices in preparation for their role as Junior Land Stewards field guides. Students started with an introduction to "I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of", then chose a nature treasure and used prompts to document their observations. Through the process of observing, journaling and labeling the students came away with some great tools to use on our field trips
Donate to support the Junior Land Stewards program and the preservation, protection and stewardship of our shared open spaces.
Junior Land Stewards Field Guide Orientation In Action
On October 18th the Coastside Land Trust hosted Half Moon Bay High School Students from the AP Environmental and Agricultural Programs out at Wavecrest Open Space to prepare these students who will be acting as field guides for the Junior Land Stewards Program. This orientation featured four environmental presenters/ leaders. Barbara Dye spoke about native and invasive plants and their characteristics as well as habitat restoration. Ginny Marshall from Sequoia Audubon Society guided the students in a bird walk where they discovered and learned about the many birds that depend upon the coastal prairie. Sara Polar from the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District (and CLT board member) taught the students about land trusts, trail building, and land management. Ryan Seelbach, geologist and big wave surfer, gave an in depth view of coastal geology, erosion, and wave formation. This was a day of great learning and preparation for all involved.
Donate to support the Junior Land Stewards and the critical protection and stewardship of our shared open spaces.
Photograph credit: Barbara Dye
Nature Journaling Workshops for Junior Land Stewards Teachers
This week the classroom teachers working with the Junior Land Stewards program began their first of three nature journaling workshop trainings. They are training to facilitate this practice within the classroom and in the field. Within this first session, these fourth grade teachers from Hatch Elementary, El Granada Elementary and Farallone View Elementary came together to collaborate, share ideas, and become familiar with the tools and basic framework.
The Nature Journaling workshops are facilitated by Elexis Padron. They are funded by a grant from The Land Trust Alliance. This workshop was hosted by El Granada Elementary in the library. Great thanks to EG principal, Erin O'Connor Brown, and librarian Annemieke Baker for hosting us.
Half Moon Bay Pumpkin Festival Information and Community Table
Photo Credit: Aaron Burden
Happy Pumpkin Festival weekend! Stop by and see us at our CLT booth in the Bank of America parking lot, where we will be selling pumpkin seeds and cookies. We will be there all weekend, and would love to see you there to say hi, answer questions, and chat.
Coastside Land Trust Annual Report
Check out the Coastside Land Trust 2021 Annual Report. You will notice a new visual format this year, which we hope will delight you.
The Coastside Land Trust is dedicated to the preservation, protection and enhancement of the open space environment including the natural, scenic, recreational, cultural, historical, and agricultural resources of Half Moon Bay and the San Mateo County Coast for present and future generations.
MULCH Appreciated
Many thanks to Ramsey and Michael from the City of Half Moon Bay Public Works who took on the herculean task of bringing the mulch to Wavecrest Open Space, in preparation for this year’s Junior Land Stewards’ gardens. Many students and staff thank you both.
The Junior Land Stewards have begun their year of study
All seven 4th grade classes (representing Alvin Hatch, El Granada, and Farallone View elementary schools have begun their Junior Land Stewards (JLS) Program journeys. Students began with an introductory lesson on what they have to look forward to this year, which includes their upcoming work in the field and in the classroom. Coastside Land Trust educators were excited to learn what these future land stewards already know about their local environment. Students learned and practiced documenting their thinking through an “I notice, I wonder, It reminds me of " lesson with the John Muir Laws' Nature Journal Connection. High school field guides from the Advanced Placement (AP) Environmental Science and Advanced Agriculture classes were also briefed on how they can volunteer on JLS field trips. These first field trips will begin during the last week of October, and there is great excitement in the air!
Wavecrest Raptor Walk with Sequoia Audubon Society
Photograph credit: Barbara Dye
Wavecrest Raptor Walk
Saturday, November 5, 2022
10:00am -Noon
Come explore our local overwintering raptor population. Wavecrest is the single most important site on the San Mateo Coast for wintering raptors, which can be seen hunting in the property's broad fields. Raptors and other species rely on its expansive grasslands, wetlands, and roosting sites. Wavecrest is the place to see many raptors, including White-tailed Kites, Northern Harriers, Turkey Vultures, Sharp-shinned/ Cooper's/ Red- tailed/ Rough-legged Hawks, American Kestrels and Falcons.
Thank You For Coming Out To See Us
Thank you to the many community members who stopped by our tables this morning to learn and share support for the upcoming coastal trail extension. A wonderful turnout of people stopping by on bikes, with dogs, and out for a hike with cameras, binoculars and/or family and friends. We are looking forward to making this an even more pleasurable space for many people to enjoy- while curbing erosion and rehabilitating the bluff top.
Donate to support this project, as well as all of the critical land preservation, protection, and stewardship done by the Coastside Land Trust.
Rebuilding Coastal Prairies With Grey Hayes - Community Webinar Recording
The Coastside Land Trust welcomes Grey Hayes to talk about the many facets of the coastal prairie - including an in depth talk about what lives within it, and why we should care. He also explores the history, current restoration and conservation efforts, and the concept of re-indigenation from the perspective of a restoration ecologist.
Grey Hayes has worked in land stewardship with UC Natural Reserves, large-scale monitoring and strategic planning with The Nature Conservancy, professional education with the Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve, and has taught at UC Santa Cruz. He has served as an advisor for the Sierra Club and the California Native Plant Society, and is a recognized Fellow by the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation.
Check out Grey’s blog and sign up for his newsletter at www.greyhayes.net.
You can also check out the California Native Grasslands Association to learn more about our California grasslands, how they are being researched and conserved, and how you can get involved.
Please donate to support the Coastside Land Trust free webinar programs and the protection and stewardship of our critical shared open spaces.
Junior Land Stewards join Together Bay Area biodiversity discussion
Junior Land Stewards (JLS) program manager, Haley Peterson joins the TOGETHER Bay Area “Together Tuesdays” discussion on Urban Biodiversity. She shares how JLS students of Cabrillo Unified school district encourage biodiversity through their endemic plant restoration work, while also connecting and learning about the natural world (through nature journaling, field trips, and in- class studies). This discussion is a great way to hear a bit more about the important work the Junior Land Stewards are doing, as well as other groups within the Bay Area .
Donate to support the Coastside Land Trust and the protection and stewardship of our shared open spaces.