The Granada Sanitary District’s quarterly recycling drop-off day for special items is this Saturday, 9am to noon.

All Seacoast Disposal customers in Clipper Ridge, El Granada, Miramar & Princeton may dispose of non-curbside recyclable items, such as large household appliances (including refrigerators), furniture, mattresses, box springs, car parts, computer monitors, fluorescent bulbs, metal, tires, TV’s and other electronic equipment free of charge. Read the official flyer [pdf] for details.

No motor oil, paint, or hazardous waste will be accepted. The next Special Item Recycling Drop-off Day will be on October 28, 2006. Drop off is on Obispo Road in El Granada, across the street from HMB Fire Station

The Granada Sanitary District is at (650) 726-7093 and Seacoast Disposal is at (650) 355-8400

Much lower than normal populations of krill in the Pacific is threatening the bird populations in the Farallon National Wildlife Refuge, according to an AP story in the Mercury News.  Scientist say that changes in west coast climate patterns have reduced the krill populations near the Farallones.

Tiny Cassin’s auklets live much of their lives on the open ocean. But in spring, these gray-and-white relatives of the puffin venture to isolated Pacific outposts like the Farallones to dig deep burrows and lay their eggs.

Adult auklets usually feed their chicks with krill, the minuscule shrimp-like crustaceans that anchor the ocean’s complex food web.

But not this year. Almost none of the 20,000 pairs of Cassin’s auklets nesting in the Farallones will raise a chick that lives more than a few days, a repeat of last year’s unprecedented breeding failure, according to Russ Bradley, a seabird biologist with the Point Reyes Bird Observatory who monitors the birds on the islands.

California State Parks is looking for volunteers interested in helping in three parks in the San Mateo Coast Sector—the Pigeon Point Light Station Historic Park, Pescadero Marsh Natural Preserve, and Half Moon Bay State Beach.  Volunteers may choose to help in one or more of the three parks. The sector also has a special need for highly trained volunteers to present programs for school groups in the parks and in local schools.  Free training for new volunteers will begin in August.  Volunteers receive passes for free parking at nearby state parks.

San Mateo County Resource Conservation District (RCD) announces the recent appointments of Jack Olsen and T.J. Glauthier to its Board of Directors.  The mission of the RCD is to help people protect, conserve, and restore natural resources through information, education, and technical assistance programs. The RCD is a public agency dedicated to the protection of the 157,000 acres of coastline in San Mateo County including all watersheds in the county that drain into the Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary.

Coastside County Water District (CCWD) is looking to fill the vacancy created by John Muller’s resignation from the CCWD board to join the Half Moon Bay City Council.

Applicants should submit "a brief statement of interest and qualifications" to the district by Thursday, August 3. The board plans to fill the vacancy at its next regular meeting on Tuesday, August 8. Candidates for the position must reside in and be registered to vote in the district.

The candidate appointed would serve the remainder of Muller’s term, which ends November, 2007.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District received 6,500 hairy weevils that will be released by the District today and tomorrow on Skyline and Foothill-area open space preserves as part of an effort to control and reduce the spread of the non-native, invasive weed yellow starthistle and restore the natural values of the preserves. The hairy weevil, Eustenopus villosus, one of several insect species researched by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, has been an effective biocontrol agent in the control of yellow starthistle.

“By introducing the weevils, a natural enemy of yellow star thistle, the District reduces removal costs and provides a long-term, sustainable method of control,” said Lisa Infante, the District’s Resource Specialist. “In effect, introduction of the weevil is an effort to recreate the natural system of ecological checks and balances that prevent this non-native, invasive plant from eliminating desirable native plants and habitats in the open space preserves.”

Originally from Greece, the hairy weevil is 6-8 mm long, has a distinctive long snout with antennae, and an overall brown-gray striped color and hairs covering much of its body. The hairy weevil attacks with adult weevils feeding on developing buds and larvae feasting from within on immature seeds, effectively diminishing the yellow starthistle seed production. To lay eggs, fertile females chew a hole in the side of buds shortly before the flowers open and deposit an egg. The larvae hatch in about three days, and after about two weeks of feeding, the larvae pupate inside the flower bud. Adults continue to feed on late-developing flower buds and then overwinter in seedheads or ground duff.

The Nature Conservancy has purchased six federal trawling permits and four trawling vessels from commercial fishermen in Morro Bay.  The deal is the result of a three-year process of negotiation with fishermen, and trawl permit owners in Monterey, Moss Landing and Half Moon Bay have also expressed an interest in selling their permits and vessels.

The Conservancy initiated the trawler buy-out program at Morro Bay as a pilot project three years ago. Concerned by a National Academy of Sciences report that documented the negative environmental effects of bottom trawling, the Conservancy and its nonprofit partner, Environmental Defense, approached Morro Bay trawl fishermen and harbormasters about developing a market-based plan that would protect seafloor communities and help boost a troubled fishery.

Trawlers drag large, weighted nets along the sea bottom, damage habitat and scoop up fish and other creatures not targeted by the fisherman. The catch they produce is high in volume but often low in value, and it puts pressure on several other species.

Revenues from Pacific groundfish trawling fell from $110 million in 1987 to $35 million in 2003.  Fishermen and the Conservancy worked together to identify areas that would be off limits to trawling and submit them to the Pacific Fishery Management Council.  In June 2005, the council approved the no-trawl map covering 3.8 million acres of ocean between Santa Barbara to south of Monterey Bay [PDF of map].

Volunteers on Half Moon Bay’s beaches are looking for snowy plover eggs, to keep them safe, according to a story by Julia Scott in the County Times:

Within an hour of their discovery on Francis Beach, volunteers erected a netted enclosure to protect the plover family from predators. Finding western snowy plover eggs is so rare, and the chance of their survival so small, that human intervention at this stage has been crucial since the bird was listed as a threatened species in 1993.

Photo: Ducking traffic

Jack Walicki

4:44pm. Back to HMB traffic crawls up the hill. Mother duck decides to lead six of her ducklings from the south end to the north end of the Crystal Springs reservoir. Even though cars are pouring from the 280 ramp, all lanes stop and little ducks waddle as fast as they can through the road: Someone however, decides that waiting 20 seconds is too long, and decides to jump ahead and tries passing illegally on the right shoulder. We all lean on our horns, that impatient driver stops abruptly just when the  ducks enter the shoulder. I think that they all made it. Click on the picture for more.

The Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) has extended the deadline for comments on its proposed new Good Neighbor Policy from June 16 to July 7.

A final public workshop will be held after July 7 to provide an additional opportunity for comments. After this workshop the full Board will meet in a public meeting to discuss and vote on the revised policy.