The Mercury News has a good story on the threat of a lawsuit over the environmental management of Sharp Park Golf Course.  The city is in the midst of a controversial privatization process for the course.

The center took the opportunity to speak out against a city consultant’s recent recommendation to invest $18.5 million of private capital into restoring the 18-hole Sharp Park Golf Course to its original design by well-known golf course architect Alister MacKenzie — a design that would involve moving four holes back to the ocean side of Highway 1 and replacing them with multi-purpose playing fields at their present location on the east side of the highway.

Instead, Center for Biological Diversity spokesman Jeff Miller said the seaside property ought to be restored to a more “natural condition” than a golf course. [...]

In the meantime, the city’s solution has been to drain the wetlands — especially one called Horse Stable Pond — to levels below that which frog eggs can survive just as they are preparing to hatch into tadpoles, Miller said.

“We think the golf course, as it’s currently being managed, is not consistent with protection of these species,” he said. “We think there’s way more people who like to hike, picnic and do other recreational activities (in this area). The question is, is golf the highest use for this area right now?"[...]

Regardless of the numbers put forward, many think the golf course has a long and glorious future ahead of it. It has already attracted three long-term leasing management bids from different parties, including current course manager Mark Duane.

Steve Smith’s Jazz Legacy plays a combination of their own original compositions plus arrangements honoring some of the great jazz drummers: Art Blakey, Buddy Rich, Elvin Jones, Tony Williams, Philly Joe Jones and others.

Bach Dancing & Dynamite Society
307 Mirada Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019
$35.  Tickets at the door. Reservations for members.
Doors Open at 3 PM, Music from 4:30 to 7:30 PM, with intermission. 

Sewer Authority Mid-Coastside encourages Coastsiders to drop off their unused medications, rather than dumping them down the drain.

While the effects of “pill pollution” on humans are currently not fully understood, several studies have identified a demonstrated, negative effect of pharmaceuticals on certain wildlife—including fish and amphibians.  Measurable concentrations of prescription and nonprescription drugs, steroids, and reproductive hormones have been detected in 80% of the 139 streams across 30 states tested by the US Geological Survey (2002).  

You can drop off your old medications at one of the Coastside receiving stations. Disposal is available during normal business hours of 8:30 am through 5:00 pm.

San Mateo County Sheriff’s Sub-Station
California Avenue
Moss Beach

Half Moon Bay Police Department
537 Kelly Avenue
Half Moon Bay

This Friday, October 3rd at 7:00PM, the Half Moon Bay Library will be hosting Onye Onyemaechi in an African Village Celebration.  Take a tour of the drumming culture of Southern Sudan through group dances and song.  This program is part of the San Mateo County One Book One Community celebration. 

The Center for Biological Diversity last week filed a 60-day notice of intent to sue the City and County of San Francisco for illegally killing and harming two endangered species at Sharp Park Golf Course in Pacifica, in violation of the federal Endangered Species Act. Activities at the golf course have been killing federally protected California red-legged frogs, and recent studies show that ongoing course operations may be threatening endangered San Francisco garter snakes.

“The time is right to restore Sharp Park to its natural condition,” said Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. “San Francisco has a golden opportunity to save taxpayers’ money, preserve our endangered species, and improve recreational access to our coast.”

The Center is calling on San Francisco to cease harming endangered species, restore Sharp Park to its natural state as a coastal wetland, and provide more diverse recreational opportunities for the public at the site. The Center opposes a flawed plan released recently by San Francisco’s Recreation and Park Department that calls for privatizing the mismanaged and financially failing golf course and illegally reconstructing flooded portions of the course at the expense of endangered species.

The operation and mismanagement of the golf course is undermining habitat-restoration work within the nearby Golden Gate National Recreation Area for the garter snake and the frog at adjacent Mori Point. In 2005, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service notified the Recreation and Park Department that golf course operations were illegally “taking” threatened California red-legged frogs (Rana aurora draytonii) by draining and pumping the frog’s aquatic habitats, which strands and desiccates frog eggs and kills tadpoles. New evidence has surfaced that extremely rare San Francisco garter snakes (Thamnophis sirtalis tetrataenia) have been killed by groundskeepers mowing grass in areas that the snake uses for basking.

Sharp Park Golf Course is owned by the City and County of San Francisco but is located to the south of the city on the coast, in Pacifica. Its ongoing environmental problems are largely due to poor design and unfortunate placement. To create the course in the early 1930s, the Recreation and Park Department dredged and filled areas around a lagoon known as Laguna Salada for 14 months. Not surprisingly, Sharp Park has had problems with flooding and drainage ever since. The course’s ceremonial opening day was delayed twice due to wet playing conditions, major coastal floods have on two occasions destroyed several holes, and normal winter rains flood the course nearly every year.

Tonight (M, 9/29) Holy Family Episcopal Church will hold a special screening of “Renewal," a powerful documentary that describes the actions of people of faith as they take on the environmental challenges facing our country today.

The film begins with the story of Evangelical Christians in Appalachia bearing witness to the devastating effects of mountain top removal by coal companies. It then goes on to tell of a variety of environmental actions by Muslims, Buddhists, Jews, Native Americans, and Christians of every flavor. These narratives offer an inspirational look at the grass roots efforts by people of faith to heal and protect our planet.

The show begins at 7:00 p.m. at Holy Family Episcopal Church, 1590 S. Cabrillo Highway, Half Moon Bay [about 0.2 mi South of Cameron’s Pub].

The program is free and open to the public.

Click below for Seton Coastside’s compilation of memories from twenty years of Teddy Bear Clinics, or visit our albums from the clinics in 2005, 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Half Moon Bay botanist Toni Corelli put together a guide to some of the habitats and plants of the Half Moon Bay Railroad Right-of-Way for the Coastside Land Trust’s tour of that parcel. Every Coastsider wandering our open spaces should print out a copy to have on hand.

Click the image to download the booklet. It’s design to be printed on both sides of two sheets 8 1/2 by 11 paper and stapled in the middle as a booklet.

All breastfeeding moms and their supporters are invited to join the Quintessence Breastfeeding Challenge at Ink Spell Books on Saturday, Oct 11 at 10:45am. Ink Spell is at 500 Purissima St., Half Moon Bay.  We’ll also be unveiling the Breastfeeding support Logo at the bookstore.

Join us to celebrate breastfeeding in a fun “competition” where every child “wins” because they are breastfed! This fun event is a challenge for which geographic area has the most breastfeeding babies, as a percentage of the birthrate, “latched on.” at 11am local time.

We’re celebrating breastfeeding and demonstrate promotion, protection and support for breastfeeding women and their families. It’s a chance for education and peer support done in a fun social way.

The local event is sponsored by Sara Russell and Chris Pritchard, of mama to mama, a doula service, and Cindi Whittemore of Ink Spell Books.  Doulas are women who help laboring women and postpartum women with the transition into motherhood.  Doulas offer breastfeeding support, newborn care and family support just before birth and for the weeks and months after the arrival of a newborn.