Improving Housing, Access to Health Care for Farm Workers

Note: This is an archived version of an article that first appeared in 2016.

Reseeding a Natural Preserve with Native Grass

Our task was to level and install seed beds for the Green Grass Project at Edgewood Farms —an amazing project spearheaded by the Friends of Edgewood group, which has been helping steward the park and its incredible diversity of plant life for over 25 years.

San Bruno Mountain Elfin Monitoring

Every other year the Natural Resource Management team does a survey of San Bruno Elfin, an endangered species on San Bruno Mountain. Their larva, or caterpillars, feed an attractive native succulent that grows on rocky outcrops.

Tech and Tradition Merge at Grand Avenue Library

 This article was first published in July 2016. More than a century ago Rue Clifford rode a horse through the streets of South San Francisco to gather signatures to support building a library. Her work paid off: industrialist turned philanthropist Andrew Carnegie gave the young city $10,000 to build its first free public library on Grand Avenue.

"Oh No! I Think It's Dead, It Has No Tail!"

It is quite common to mistake a lizard that has just lost its tail for dead! While unfortunately the lizard is now tail-less, it isn't dying, far from it actually. It is very much still alive. Lizards utilize caudal autotomy (tail dropping) as a survival strategy for predatory response! When being chased or spotted by a predator a lizard may drop his or her tail and speed away while the piece of tail continues to wriggle and squirm, mimicking another lizard. If a lizard is bit by a venomous snake it may drop its tail as well, to ensure that the toxin does not reach the rest of the lizard’s body. In some cases, the tail will even grow back, however the regenerated tail does have less function.

Meet the Pacific Purple Sea Urchin

As a Natural Resource Management Intern I visit many of the parks to analyze different habitats and support vegetation management activities.

Stalking the California Golden Violet

A few feet farther up the slope I saw the telltale yellow flowers, looking like a garden “pansy,” peaking out of the mass of green. It was California Golden Violet, Viola pedunculata

Meet Our New NRM Interns

In January of 2020 San Mateo County Parks Natural Resource Management was excited to welcome our first intern team. Meet Alex Wilbanks, Johanna Harrison, and Olivia Kurz.