Coastside Wildfire Safety & Risk Reduction Meeting

View the Feb 10 informational meeting hosted by San Mateo County Parks and learn about wildfire risk reduction, fuel management, and public safety on the coast.

Meet Our New NRM Interns - Winter 2021

We're excited to introduce our new Natural Resource Management interns. Meet Johanna, Alissa, and Aidan!

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.

"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.

Everyone counts: Why the census matters more than ever

The 2020 Census gets underway soon and it’s critical that every person living in the county is counted to secure federal funding for medical services, including clinics and children’s health insurance, housing, emergency preparedness, nutrition programs, infrastructure and a host of other services.

Seton needs new heroes

Whether you are an orphan, a prisoner, sick, a refugee, homeless or mentally ill, the Daughters of Charity for nearly 400 years provided charitable health care for the most vulnerable among us. They’ve been the heroes of the poor for centuries all around the world.

How you can stop Medicare fraud by Supervisor David J. Canepa

Depending on which side of the aisle you sit on, the future of Medicare either looks grim or promising as its fiscal strength shows signs of improvement despite the program being constantly under siege by fraudsters. In Congress, there has been talks for years now to either phase out the medical insurance program that benefits nearly 58 million Americans, the vast majority seniors, or possibly even privatize it.

Supervisor David J. Canepa says Internet exchange zones can save lives

San Mateo County will be one of the first in the state to implement the exchange zone and follows Daly City, which established its zone last year at City Hall directly in front of the police station.