The Coastsider Farmers’ Markets and The Half Moon Bay Oddfellows Lodge #143 are honored to present two outstanding musicians,  Mr Stevie Coyle, along with Taylor Brown in a benefit concert on Saturday, January 22 at 7pm at the Oddfellows Hall in Half Moon Bay.  All proceeds from the performance go to the family of Dusty Dimas to help defray the cost of the spectacularly expensive but so far effective treatments for leukemia for this 4 year old Coastsider.

This will be a “Pass the Hat” affair, in keeping with the traditions of small communities coming together to help one another in times of celebration or distress, contributing what they can to assist their neighbors.  A Top Hat will be passed between sets, and guests contribute what they can.  GIft cards to New Leaf or gas cards are also really valuable ways to help the family.

Colleen Granahan, Dusty’s aunt and the assistant manager of the Coastside Farmers’ Market in Pacifica, is conducting a Blood Drive at the Skate Park on Kelly Avenue that afternoon as well.

The historic Oddfellows Lodge is located upstairs at 712 Main Street, Half Moon Bay.  To reserve a spot, drop a note indicating the number of guests to [email protected]

NOTE: If you choose to participate in this project, please also share your King Tide photos with Coastsider by emailing them to [email protected]. You can get the times of local high tides from Coastsider’s daily tide table, or from NOAA’s 2011 forecast.

Seasonal high tides occurring within the San Francisco Bay and along the outer coast on January 19 (9:19am in Princeton according to NOAA) and 20 (10:07am) and February 16 (8:18am), 17 (9:10am), and 18 (10:01am) will provide a preview of what residents might experience regularly in the future as a result of rising sea levels.

You are invited to share photographs of areas that are known to flood and erode and / or areas where the high water levels can be gauged against sea walls, jetties, bridge supports, dikes, buildings or other coastal infrastructure around the Bay Area. Members of the public who photograph these high tide events along beaches, roads, parks and estuaries are invited to submit their images to a Flickr site maintained by the San Francisco Bay National Estuarine Research Reserve (NERR).

The NERR and its partners are interested in using the images to document the coastal impacts Bay Area residents are likely to face with increasing frequency as sea level continues to rise. “Before and after” pictures showing average water levels and the extreme high water levels for the same location will be particularly useful.

Submission details: Please include your contact information and geographically reference the photos with specific locations (GPS position, if possible), orientation, date and time of day. Consider what kind of licensing to add to your photos. We suggest the “Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike License.” This license will allow us to feature your photography in presentations, websites, publications, etc.

The photographs and associated information will be used to create a map that will catalog coastal areas that are currently affected by extreme water levels. A report containing a selection of the submissions will be available after the event. Photos may be used in presentations, websites and publications on sea level rise impacts, coastal initiatives and climate action.

NOAA’s proposing to limit the altitude of planes flying over marine sanctuaries. The agency says this would be a clarification of existing regulations.

Currently, overflight restriction zones for the sanctuaries are not clearly depicted on FAA aeronautical charts. NOAA is working with the FAA to change the notation on aeronautical charts from “recommended” to “required,” which would provide appropriate notice to pilots and ensure the protection of resources under NOAA’s stewardship.

Regulations for Monterey Bay, Channel Islands, Gulf of the Farallones and Olympic Coast National Marine Sanctuaries all restrict low altitude overflights within specified zones in each sanctuary (subject to certain exceptions) in order to protect marine mammals and seabirds from disturbance by aircraft.

At Monterey Bay, Channel Islands and Gulf of the Farallones, flights below 1,000 feet are restricted within the designated zones. At Olympic Coast, flights below 2,000 feet are restricted within one nautical mile of Flattery Rocks, Quillayute Needles or Copalis National Wildlife Refuge, or within one nautical mile seaward from the coastal boundary of the sanctuary.

A detailed description of the proposed changes is available online.

The public comment period has been extended and comments on the proposed changes will be accepted through Feb. 7, 2011.

Here some Chantrelles that I collected a little inland from the coast, as well as some other, inedible, varieties I found while collecting.

I love that all the mushrooms are so different! 

After being frustrated and looking for edible mushrooms for over two months on the coast and coming up with no edibles I finally decided to go inland a bit. 

I pulled over next to a live oak tree and jumped out of my car with my “fruity” looking mushroom basket and found the mother lode under a live oak tree!  They were the smaller little button/golf ball sized ones—still I was very pleased.

Chantrelles have a very delicate flavor and should be cooked with little else.  I made some cream of Chantrelle soup that a was great!

The next few days I returned to the same spot and saw a few “humps” of leaves that were pushing out of the ground closer to the tree.  I pulled the leaves away and found some larger mushrooms—approximately one pounders. 

Later that day, also a little inland from the coast I found another collecting area with large one pound Chantrelles.

As a note:  I don’t collect all the mushrooms in a given area because I want them to fruit in those spots year after year and I only collect the larger ones from here on out as we all want them to release their spores so we get more tasty Chantrelles next year.

I hope to find a King or Queen Boletus, the Prince Mushrooms and the giant horse and or meadow mushrooms in the future. 

As a reminder, never eat any wild mushroom ever unless you can make a positive identification. Very innocent, white mushrooms can kill you very quickly—beware of the Death Cap and the Destroying Angel!

Matthew des Tombe

This Friday will be newly-elected Supervisor Don Horsley’s first Coastside office hours.  Supervisor Horsley will be at the Moss Beach Sheriff’s Office Substation on Friday, January 14 from 10am to noon.

At a public meeting last night, the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District’s board of directors re-appointed Yoriko Kishimoto to fill a vacancy on their seven member, publicly elected board left by the passing of board president Mary Davey in October 2010.

Kishimoto was initially appointed to the board on November 29, 2010 following a public applicant search and interview process, to fulfill the remainder of Davey’s term through January 2, 2011. Because Davey’s position was unopposed in the November 2010 election, she would have served a subsequent term beginning January 3, 2011. The District’s board of directors chose to re-appoint Kishimoto to continue serving on the board until the next general election in November 2012, rather than hold a special election which would have cost the District approximately $556,900.

In preparation for the annual Jay at Mavericks Big Wave Invitational, public safety officials and contest representatives will discuss plans to ensure public safety and manage the expected crowds.

The meeting will the Thursday, January 13, at the Oceano Hotel at 280 Capistrano Road, Half Moon Bay, CA 94019 at 6pm.  This will be an important opportunity for local residents and media to learn about public safety since the contest window opened on December 1, a month later than last year.

Members of the public and the media will be able to ask detailed questions to members of the San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office, California Highway Patrol, San Mateo County Harbor District, and the event’s producer, HMB Surf Group/the Jay at Mavericks Big Wave Invitational. Representatives from other agencies will also be on hand to answer questions.

Public safety officials hope to spread the word that they plan to close the beach and bluffs.  The Jay at Mavericks has arranged for live video feeds to be shown at a festival location in Princeton, as well as on any PC with an internet connection.

The Jay at Mavericks Big Wave Invitational is scheduled to be held sometime between December 1, 2010, and February 28, 2011.

Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST) has acquired 97.5 acres adjacent to the publicly owned Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve near La Honda. POST, a nonprofit land trust, purchased the property on December 17, 2010, for $3.09 million from private owners and expects to transfer it in the coming year to Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District (MROSD) as an addition to the public agency’s Russian Ridge preserve.

POST worked closely with MROSD to arrange this purchase from members of the Silva family, who recently inherited the property from their father, the late Jack H. Silva of Santa Clara. The land sits on the western flank of Skyline Ridge, four miles southeast of La Honda. It includes nearly a mile of frontage along Alpine Road and is surrounded on all sides by protected land, including 3,025-acre Russian Ridge OSP to the north and west and 2,142-acre Skyline Ridge OSP to the south and east. It sits next to the Mindego Hill portion of Russian Ridge OSP that POST saved from developers in 2007 and transferred to MROSD in 2008.

“This rolling landscape is a natural extension of Mindego Hill and surrounding protected lands,” said POST President Audrey Rust. “Our purchase of this strategically located property helps expand the connection between Skyline Ridge and Russian Ridge preserves and creates an opportunity for a future staging area and trail connection to Mindego Hill. It also gives MROSD time to leverage public funding for this property and ensures that the heart and soul of Skyline Ridge remains protected from development.”

The La Honda Historical Society guest speaker this month is Pam McReynolds. In 2000, Pam and the San Mateo County Genealogical Society extracted the information from the early San Mateo County Death Records. What emerged was a fascinating revelation into the ages, races, occupations and causes of death of the people from this area. What might otherwise seem to have been an age of peace and simplicity instead revealed itself as a violent time when a young or violent death was frighteningly common.

All are invited. Get there early for a seat and dinner. Thursday, January 13th, 7pm at Sullivan’s Restaurant.