In this issue, learn how Midpen is restoring nature one acorn at a time, how you can help protect our region's beautiful and biodiverse wildflower blooms and all you need to know about an upcoming opportunity to explore Midpen's newest preserve on a docent-led hike.
Plus, read about Midpen's progress on Measure AA-funded projects, including work to expand public access at La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve.
A variable checkerspot butterfly (Euphydryas chalcedona) at Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve. (Frances Freyberg)
Nature in April: The Search for the
Bay Checkerspot Butterfly
Recently, Midpen ecologists took to a hill in Pulgas Ridge Open Space Preserve in hopes of finding endangered bay checkerspot butterflies (Euphydryas editha bayensis), an endemic species that can only be found in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties.
Bay checkerspots live almost exclusively in serpentine grasslands near their host plant dwarf plantain (Plantago erecta). They also frequent sloping hills and mountains where they can move to a cooler side of the hill when its warm, and a warmer side when it’s cold.
Top: California poppies and lupine (Wing Yung); Bottom: Tidy tips (Sandy Bartlett).
Wildflower Season: Be Polite to the Poppies!
Spring is here, and with it, native wildflowers have begun to bloom across Midpen preserves, adding delicate and biodiverse pops of color to grassy hillsides, shady forest floors and rugged creek banks. As you make your way to a preserve to appreciate and enjoy these blooms, help keep wildflower populations healthy for years to come by following some simple wildflower viewing guidelines:
Stay on established trails. Visitors venturing off trail can trample wildflowers and their habitat, preventing other visitors from enjoying the displays and making it more difficult for the next generation of flowers to grow.
Take photos NOT flowers! Picking wildflowers prevents them from going to seed, which limits future wildflowers blooms.
Enjoy! The blooms of spring don’t last for long each year. But don’t despair — wildflower seeds develop after a flower blooms and when left alone will to drop to the soil to provide next year’s blooms.
Winners of the 2023 Photo Contest (Top row, left to right: Textured Marine Layer Sunset by Leor Pantilat, Up Up and Away by Erica Namba, Lizard by Owen Zimbauer; Bottom row, left to right: Damselfly by Mark Gerow, Ancient Oaks by Jordan Gans, Sunrise by Alex Song.)
2024 Photo Contest Submissions Open!
Calling all photographers! Midpen’s 2024 Photo Contest has begun and runs through July 31.
Want to combine your passion for open space and photography? Submit photos taken in Midpen preserves for the chance to win a $100 REI gift card and Midpen gear. Submit up to three photos in any of the six categories:
Wildlife
Plant Life
Landscapes
People in Nature
Aspiring Photographers (students K-12)
Trail Less Traveled (photos from our lesser visited open space preserves)
Many of the photos submitted for the contest are featured on our social media, website and print publications and are used to inspire and educate. Your photos drive our mission by helping share the beauty and importance of protecting open space lands here in the Bay Area.
Midpen is helping transform an area of Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve that was originally a vineyard into a climate-resilient and biodiverse oak woodland.
Midpen staff and members of the San Francisco Conservation Corps (SFCC) recently took to the vineyard and planted over 300 acorns, 100 of which are projected to grow into full-fledged coast live oak and black oak trees. The acorns were collected from oak trees located elsewhere in the preserve.
SFCC member plants an oak tree. (Shreeya Aranake/Midpen)
Leveraging GIS to Visualize Midpen's Community
While spreadsheets are valuable for data organization, mapping unlocks a deeper understanding. It reveals spatial distribution, concentration areas and empowers data-driven decisions with a geographic lens. Midpen’s Geographic Information Systems (GIS) team recently built two interactive dashboards to explore demographics and disadvantaged communities in California, allowing users to reveal and discover meaningful trends on a census tract level.
These dashboards are flexible tools are designed to work in concert with one another by synthesizing publicly available datasets across California. Those data are then displayed in a manner that is intuitive, interactive and location based.
Since opening La Honda Creek Open Space Preserve to the public in 2017 thanks to local voters approving Measure AA, Midpen has been working to build out ecologically sensitive public access in this vast coastal preserve. A primary goal is to provide public access to the central area of the preserve and connect the small existing trail system in the northern area with the larger trail network in the southern area with new trails and trailheads.
An award-winning public working group, made up of Midpen board members and local community members, spent a year of hard work and collaboration helping Midpen identify the best potential new parking and trailhead locations that met the project goals and aligned with Midpen’s mission.
Join Midpen’s board of directors in-person or via Zoom during their public meeting at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24 to hear the results of a study exploring the feasibility of the working group’s recommendations. The study explored three potential sites for expanded parking and trailhead access to La Honda Creek Preserve, and the public and Midpen board of directors are invited to provide feedback on the study results. At a subsequent public meeting this summer, the Midpen board will provide direction on which sites to move forward with into the required environmental review phase.
Rancho San Antonio Shuttle & Ride Hail Program Special Meeting
On April 24, Midpen staff will provide an update on the shuttle and ride hail aspects of the Rancho San Antonio Multimodal Access Project. The goal of this work is to identify green modes of transportation that address congestion and parking issues and improve the visitor experience.
After the staff presentation, the board of directors will vote on whether to implement a:
Meetings may be viewed online. There is also a dial-in number to listen by phone. Links are included in the meeting agendas posted online 72 hours before the meeting.
Public comments are welcome at all Midpen board meetings. You can speak for up to three minutes in-person, via Zoom or provide written comments for the board to read. Either way, get started by submitting a public comment form.
EVENTS & ACTIVITIES
Docent naturalist-led hikes in Cloverdale Ranch Open Space Preserve visit High Hill for views of the Pacific Ocean. (Leigh Ann Gessner/Midpen)
Explore Midpen's Newest Preserve on a Guided Hike
It’s rare today for Midpen to have the opportunity to create an entirely new open space preserve, and we did just that in June with the help of Measure AA-funding when we finalized the purchase of 5,100 acres near Pescadero from POST creating Cloverdale Ranch Open Space Preserve.
While the preserve’s 1-mile, out-and-back Wilbur’s Watch Trail remains open daily, it will take time for Midpen to plan for and create expanded public access that balances natural resource protection, local agriculture, community interests and public safety.
In the meantime, trained Midpen docent naturalists offer guided hikes into the currently closed area of Cloverdale Ranch Preserve, allowing the public to experience this landscape of rolling grasslands and coastal scrub offering ocean views and supporting a diverse community of native plants and wildlife. The next docent naturalist-led hike is Saturday, April 20. Reservations are required and can be made online beginning April 6.
Researchers gathering measurements of a Santa Cruz kangaroo rat. (Matt Sharp Chaney/Midpen)
Restoration Open House
You're Invited! May 1 Open House Offers Behind-the-Scenes Look at How Midpen Cares for the Land
Midpen staff are passionate about restoring open space lands to help make life better in the Bay Area and want to share these projects with you during our habitat restoration open house at Midpen’s administrative office in Los Altos on Wednesday, May 1 from 4 to 7 p.m.
Midpen’s overarching mission has three critical components: preserving open space land, restoring the natural environment and providing for ecologically sensitive public enjoyment and education. A large part of the work Midpen does today centers around the restoration aspect of our mission, yet it is often hard to see. Midpen lands have long histories of various human uses, and our staff are excited to share information and answer questions about how we work to restore the natural functions of grasslands, waterways and forests so that life can continue to thrive in our region. Multiple projects will be featured including:
Long Ridge Forest Health, Hendrys Creek Restoration, Irish Ridge Restoration and more!
Drop by anytime, and while you’re there, find out about current paid internships, job openings, volunteer opportunities and the preservation, restoration and public access progress Midpen has made over the last 10 years since voters passed Measure AA.
During the hike at Bear Creek Redwoods, Tyler Feld from Grassroots Ecology highlighted various ways that trees reproduce, the many different sexual identities of fungi and queer behavior in animals. The event also provided a space for folks to build community with one another.
“I wanted to give people the access to be in this space and feel welcome,” Feld said. “I hope that people walk away having made a friend or feel like they are a part of a community.”
Docent Naturalist-Guided Activities
Free guided activities lead by volunteer docent naturalists offer a great way to explore a new preserve, learn about the natural environment or join others for environmentally sensitive outdoor recreation.
Join our talented and dynamic team as we work collaboratively toward our vision and put your passion for open space to work! Here are our current job openings:
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