The Coastside is subject to earthquakes, tsunamis, severe weather and wild fires. Coastsiders can learn how to prepare at home or away for these disasters Tuesday night from 6:30 to 9pm at Adcock Center, 535 Kelly Ave, in Half Moon Bay. 
   
Representatives from the City of Half Moon Bay, Coastside Fire Protection District, San Mateo County Sheriff’s Office of Emergency Services and the U.S Geological Survey will be on hand to provide helpful information on how Coastside residents can prepare themselves and their families for these various hazards. 

RSVP:  Half Moon Bay Police Department (650) 726-8288 

The public is invited to walk across the recently-completed bridge at Devil’s Slide, Friday, September 26 at 10am.

The bridges have been finished and Coastsiders are invited to come join CalTrans and some "dignitaries" for the morning’s event and walk across.  There’s no on-site parking. Shuttle service will be provided from the Park-and-Ride lot in Pacifica, on Linda Mar Blvd.  Shuttle vans will run beginning at 9:30 a.m. 

RSVP’s to .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) at Caltrans are suggested.

The US Fish and Wildlife Service has issued a new proposal for designating critical habitat for the California red-legged frog.  While it’s ten times the size of their previous proposal—up to 131,091 acres in San Mateo County from 13,000 acres— it leaves out a lot of areas that are near existing development, including the city of Half Moon Bay, reports the the County Times. The new proposal was required by a lawsuit against the agency, based on interference by Deputy Assistant Secretary of Interior Julie MacDonald [Wikipedia].

"If you’ve got a house, a shopping center or a parking lot, a lot of those areas are not considered critical habitat areas, even if they lie within the designated area," said Al Donner, a spokesman for the Fish and Wildlife Service in Sacramento.

Sounds confusing, but state biologists based their habitat maps on Geographic Information System models and the location of known red-legged frog breeding ponds, then looked at their range of movement (as much as a mile) and at other potential habitats they could occupy in the immediate area. They assumed no healthy colony of frogs could exist in the back of a subdivision, so they focused on rural areas instead. Many of these, like Crystal Springs Reservoir, are already protected from development.

Jeff Miller, a conservation advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity, called the proposal a "partial victory."

"Not even close to everything within those areas will be protected as critical habitat," he said, referring to sites across the entire state. "They’re including a lot of areas that we know have good frog habitat but it doesn’t include all the areas that were historically occupied by red-legged frogs."

The 60-day public comment period ends Nov. 17. To read the proposal online, go to http://edocket.access.gpo.gov/2008/pdf/E8-20473.pdf. To make a comment or request a public hearing, visit http://www.regulations.gov and follow directions there.

The County of San Mateo is sponsoring a focus group for residents of the unincorporated areas to discuss the County’s website.  We would like to hear from you about what works, what doesn’t, and how you use the website as a resource.

The date for the focus group has not been set, but it will last about two hours, and be held in the County Center complex in Redwood City.

If you are interested, please email .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address) with your contact information.

Jan Garrod, general manager of Garrod Farms and Cooper-Garrod Estate Vineyards in Saratoga and president of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau, has joined the Board of Directors at Peninsula Open Space Trust (POST).

All of us want to thank all the pilots who flew continuously low over us today; displaying very clearly their numbers to be documented.

So they continue to give us the evidence we need for their continuing illegal flying.

They just might want to talk to the manager of the San Carlos Airport to update themselves.  Would be a shame if they weren’t being educated about the ongoing process to protect our locals.

Remember the saying: "what goes around; comes around"?  Still true.

The San Mateo County Resource Conservation District (RCD) needs volunteers to conduct a circulation study to understand how pollution travels within and out of the harbor September 27, 28, or 29.

What would I do?

Volunteers in kayaks, rowboats, canoes, jet skis, or small motorized boats will collect water samples at a series of buoys that will be set up in the harbor.

What supplies or equipment would I need?

A beach coordinator will provide volunteers with tools to collect water samples and record observations. Volunteers are encouraged to provide their own kayaks/ boats/ jet skis, protective clothing, and safety gear if possible. If that is not possible, the RCD will provide a kayak, paddle, and personal flotation device. The RCD will provide snacks and drinks as well.

How long will it take?

Volunteers will arrive an hour before their first shift for training and to get to the first buoy. Water sample collection will take place over a two-hour period. Why not sign up for more than one shift and enjoy a break at a local waterfront restaurant? ?

Where do I sign up?

Visit the project web page, www.sanmateorcd.org/harbor.html. Email the RCD at [email protected]. Or call the RCD at (650)712-7765.

Want to understand California politics?  The three locally produced films that the Film Society will be screening this Friday may not cast much light on our current budget impasse.  They will, however, throw some light on our disfunctional political system—and provide a few laughs along the way.

The feature is an investigation of why it has taken almost two decades to repair a problem everyone agrees needs to be fixed immediately. This film is simultaneously hilarious and disturbing, which is probably why it won two Emmys. One of the shorts is even more amazing -  a tale of a problem that had to be fixed quickly—and was! The other short asks 108 voters for their opinion on a single subject. Of course this results in 108 different answers.

Film makers behind all three films will be at the screening.  Please come and give all three films the audience they deserve. 

Three films about the California experience.
Friday, Sept.19 at 8:00 pm
Coastside Film Night is open to the public of all ages.
Methodist Sanctuary,  777 Miramontes, Half Moon Bay (Corner of Johnston & Miramontes)
$6.00 per person

Short: Textilis108 (15 mins)  Filmmaker Jander Lacerda asked 108 people in San Francisco’s Mission District to explain why America is the "land of opportunity". Lacerda will be at the screening to help explain why a filmmaker from Brazil came to make a film about American possibilities.
Short: Amazing: The Rebuilding of the MacArthur Maze (30 mins)  David L. Brown presents the remarkable story of the fiery collapse and rebuilding of a key connector in the Bay Area. 

The MacArthur Maze is that stretch of highway where three major freeways meet just east of the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge.  We have all driven it, and those forced to navigate its path everyday had to be amazed and grateful when it was replaced in just 26 days.

How was this Herculean feat accomplished so quickly? Brown tells the story in the words of all of the main players in the drama: the legendary contractor C.C. Myers; Caltrans Director Will Kempton and the engineers working for him; the Arizona steel fabricator whose company built the steel girders; the fire fighters who responded to the accident; and the reporters who covered the story.

Feature: The Bridge So Far—A Suspense Story   (1 hour) Everybody agrees that the Eastern span of the San Francisco-Oakland Bridge is in danger of falling into the Bay. Why has it taken almost two decades to replace?  In this humorous Emmy Award winning documentary film maker David L. Brown explores the subject through interviews with engineers, bridge builders, architects, lawyers, seismologists, comedians, and a couple of California’s better-known politicians. 

"A documentary that is very funny. And as a bonus, you’ll find yourself learning something - almost against your will." Sacramento Bee

"That producer-director David L. Brown was able to create a snarky and compelling documentary - leaning more toward Michael Moore filmmaking territory than Ken Burns - is surprising in itself. See, Brown’s project was sponsored by the Professional Engineers in California Government, an organization that represents Caltrans workers."  Sacramento Bee

Brown won an Emmy Award for his work on this documentary (Outstanding Achievement in Documentary). So did animator Charlie Canfield (Outstanding Graphics and Animation in a Program).  Both will be at the screening. 

For more info see: www.HMBFilm.org