MROSD has issued a press press release with some details:

Cecily Harris was elected to the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s Board of Directors by voters last night over incumbent Kenneth C. Nitz. Harris earned 59.5 percent of the vote from the constituents in El Granada, Half Moon Bay, Montara, Moss Beach, Redwood City, San Carlos and Woodside. The District’s Board of Directors will adopt a resolution certifying her election at their Dec. 10 meeting. Nitz earned 40.5 percent of the votes. [...]

The District is divided into seven geographic wards each represented by a board member elected to a four-year term. Nitz was elected to represent ward seven on the District’s board in 1996. He completed three consecutive terms, running unopposed in 2000 and 2004.

Harris, a San Carlos resident, became the first opponent to challenge Nitz’s board seat. She is a Financial Services Manager with the San Mateo County Parks Department and served for nine years as a San Carlos Parks and Recreation Commissioner. Issues she is interested in include single and multiple use trails, interpretive programs, and natural resource protection.

The Coastside Land Trust will hold our monthly Francis Beach restoration event this coming Saturday, October 25, 12:30 to 3 pm. We’ll identify native and invasive plants, discuss the strategies for fall seed dispersal, and selectively remove invasive plants to help our natives thrive.

Look for coyote cotton on the Coastside

Coyote Bush (Baccharis pilulari) covers our coastal hillsides and terraces. This time of year—late fall—female coyote bushes release their seeds. Each seed is attached to a white, feathery ball of filament so light in weight that it is very easily blown by the wind. Large mats of these seeds can be seen around the base of the bushes or where the wind has blown them into drifts.

Late fall is the time of year when the majority of our native plant species release their seeds. The first rain has come, and with the next rain the seeds will begin their journey to sprouting and growing roots through the cool winter months in preparation for the warmer spring days, when we will see them emerge from the ground as seedlings.

Many of our native plants are annuals, which means they survive only one year; others are perennials and live for many years. Because of the one-year life cycle of the annuals they are more vulnerable to seasonal drought and predation. Some annuals have developed a strategy to keep their seeds from sprouting the first year, just in case that year is a bad year for success. This multi-year strategy creates what we call the "seed bank," meaning that even if there are not seedlings of a species this year, they can emerge in subsequent years.

Please join us. Check in at the Francis State Beach kiosk at Kelly and the Pacific Ocean, and proceed north on the maintenance road to the maintenance sheds. Our properties are on the east side of the maintenance road. Refreshments, good humor and appreciation are provided for all ages and abilities.

Jo Chamberlain

A mountain lion was struck by a car on Highway 92 about half a mile west of the reservoir.  The driver was unhurt, but the mountain Lion, is thought to be injured and was last seen entering the woods north of Highway 92.

Join guided hikes by naturalists of the Pedro Point Headlands in Pacifica. Pedro Point Headlands is one of the jewels of the San Mateo coast.

The Pacifica Land Trust & the Pedro Point Community Assoc. present a special opportunity to explore the Pedro Point Headlands and/or enjoy an evening at the Pedro Point Firehouse,

• When: Sunday, Oct. 19 Hikes - 1pm on, 5:30 pm - dinner at the Firehouse
• What: Guided hikes, Pedro Point Headlands; Fund-raising dinner, Pedro Point Firehouse
• Who: Pacifica Land Trust/Pedro Point Community Association
• Where: Meet at Castle Kitchen and Bath for hikes. Dinner is at the Firehouse, Danmann Ave.
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Pacifica Land Trust

Acquired by the City of Pacifica and the California Coastal Conservancy over 10 years ago, Pedro Point Headlands is intended to become part of the Golden Gate National Park (GGNRA) and a crucial trail nexus tying together the southern Corral de Tierra-McNee Ranch State Park complex with Pacifica’s coastal trail and other GGNRA park lands. Although still not part of the GGNRA, Pedro Point Headlands is increasingly used by the public as a recreational resource.

Find out more about the unique Site Stewardship opportunities that are available in protecting and enjoying this beautiful open space, home to several unique micro-climates and ecosystems with rare and threatened plant and animal species including the Montara Mountain manzanita, the San Francisco garter snake, and the Mission Blue butterfly.

There will be three hikes through the trails of the Headlands, each led by a local naturalist:  3-hour hike, 1:00 to 4:00; 2-hour hike, 2:00 to 4:00; 1-hour hike, 3:00 to 4:00. Dinner. 5:30 pm

Donation: $25/person includes the dinner and your choice of hike.
Hike only: $5/person or $20/family

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The governor has cut funding for the program that monitors water quality in San Mateo County’s creeks and beaches, report the County Times.

County officials learned of the $35,000 budget cut this week as part of a million-dollar line-item veto the governor exacted on the state’s entire ocean water-quality monitoring program, funded on a year-to-year basis through an appropriation facilitated by the Department of Public Health.[...]

State nonprofit group Heal the Bay won’t be able to collect crucial beach closure data for its annual "Beach Bummer" report, which this spring listed Half Moon Bay’s Venice Beach as one of the most polluted beaches in the state for the second year in a row.

Venice Beach is one of the locations that will lose its county monitors under the new regime. Other locations north of Half Moon Bay, such as Pillar Point Harbor and the Fitzgerald Marine Reserve, will still receive testing thanks to the San Mateo County Resource Conservation District, an independent agency that recently obtained a one-year grant to coordinate a posse of "citizen scientists" who will perform water-quality tests throughout the midcoast area.

The cuts were retroactive to July 1, and the county must find $105,000 to cover the testing it has already been done.

The Railroad Right of Way is owned by the city of Half Moon Bay, but the Coastside Land Trust holds an easement on the property to keep it from being developed. Last Saturday, the CLT took about 60 Coastsiders on a tour of the property and its wildlife.

You can download a copy of the guide to local plants that was created by Toni Correlli for the tour.

Water systems that get their water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir, such as the Coastside County Water District, will get no new water in the next ten years, and will see their cost for Hetch Hetchy water double over the next ten years. The new rates will pay for a series of seismic upgrades, reports Julia Scott in the County Times. Montara Water and Sanitary District gets all it water from wells in the district.

The staff of the [San Francisco Public Utilities Commission] is backing a regional water supply plan that would avoid the controversial environmental pitfall of having to take water from the Tuolumne River to quench the thirst of a growing Bay Area population, principally by "finding" more water through conservation, groundwater pumping and using recycled water for golf course irrigation. The Tuolumne is a federally protected river. [...]

"This project assumes that we would not have to cut back more than 20 percent, even in a drastic drought scenario. It’s bringing the system toward more reliability so we don’t have to do mandatory rationing," said Ed Harrington, general manager of the SFPUC.

The water plan pushes many crucial decisions to 2018, such as deciding where the Bay Area will get all the water it needs in 2030 and beyond. Water officials changed the plan to focus on 2018 instead of 2030 to gain the support of environmental groups, without which the crucial water safety projects cannot proceed.

The Tuolomne River Trust has criticized the report for not taking the impact of climate change sufficiently into account.

For more details on the proposed water system improvement program, go to http://sfwater.org.

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.

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