Loma Prieta Chapter eNewsletter: October, Volume 1
YOU Can Make a Difference; Read How in This eNewsletter
► Watch "Save Marsha from the Big Squeeze" and then join the Bay Alive Campaign.
► Send our petition letter to the Bay Conservation and Development Commission urging their guidelines center nature based solutions.
► Give public comment on October 17th at the Bay Conservation and Development Commission Board Meeting.
► Attend the Forest Protection Forum "Mixed-Intensity Forests: Nature's Phoenix" on October 21st.
► Learn about Willets at risk from sea level rise.
► Take a hike! See the comprehensive list of Chapter activities available through October.
Save Marsha from the Big Squeeze!
Can our Bay depend on you? Watch the most recent video in our sea level rise educational series. Bay marshlands need space to migrate as sea levels rise. Trapped between rising sea levels and shoreline development, Bay marshlands are being squeezed to death.
Guardians of Nature Benefit Raised $100,000. Thank You!
We’re excited to share that this year’s Guardians of Nature Benefit was a great success, having raised $100,000 to support our Chapter’s fight for a healthy tomorrow! Thank you to everyone who purchased a ticket, attended, sponsored, or participated in our silent auction. Your support is crucial to our mission of environmental protection.
We extend special thanks to our honoree, Congresswoman Anna Eshoo, for her inspiring words and decades of dedication to the environment and her constituents.
Visit our Facebook page to see event photos and watch the tribute video created by our volunteer, David Simon. We thank all of our volunteers and staff who worked tirelessly to make this event a success.
We hope that you will join us to celebrate our community and our future honoree at the 2025 Guardians of Nature Benefit.
Forest Protection Forum
Mixed-Intensity Forests: Nature's Phoenix Monday, October 21st, 4:00 pm
Presented by Chad Hanson, Independent Forest Ecologist and Founder of the John Muir Project of the Earth Island Institute
Dr. Chad Hanson, forest and fire ecologist with the John Muir Project (and a national Board member of the Sierra Club), will present current scientific evidence and explain why these claims are misinformation, and how the truth is quite the opposite from what we are being told. Learn more and register.
Raise Your Voice to Ensure Nature-Based Solutions Are Front and Center in New Bay Area Sea Level Rise Plan
Now is the time to influence the Bay Conservation and Development Commission (BCDC) plan for sea level rise resilience. The Regional Shoreline Adaptation Plan (RSAP) will guide cities and counties around the Bay on how to design and implement sea level rise adaptation strategies. We need your voice now to ensure that the RSAP centers nature-based solutions and community health.
Then join us on October 17th to give public comment at the BCDC Board Meeting. This is our last chance to shape the draft plan before it’s finalized.
Fighting Sea Level Rise with Nature: Nature-Based Adaptation in San Francisco Bay
The San Francisco Bay is far more than a beautiful backdrop to our home. It is the centerpiece of our regional identity and a vital protector of our communities and environment. With sea levels rising, the Bay’s natural defenses, its living shoreline, are as much at risk as our built environment. Squeezed between shoreline development and rising seas, the Bay’s living shoreline is at risk of drowning. Yet we all depend on its invaluable ecosystem services (benefits that nature provides to people) and will increasingly need it as a core asset in our response to sea level rise and climate change. Through nature-based adaptation, we can harness the power of the environment to build resilience, protect communities, and preserve critical ecosystems that we all depend upon. Let’s explore how this approach works and why it’s essential for the Bay Area’s future. Read the full article.
Willets at Risk
This is the eighth of an awareness through artwork series, by our 16 year-old volunteer Aiden Chen, which we introduced in January.
Shown above is the Willet exhibiting the phenomena of male birds watching the nest at night instead of females. Willets are a shorebird species with two distinct populations: the Western Willets, inland breeders that winter on coasts, and Eastern Willets, coastal breeders that winter in the south of the US. The Western Willet population is forecasted by California Audubon to lose 70% of its wintering range by 2080. Willets have lost native grassland to agricultural conversion while also losing coastal wintering sites and wetlands to urban development and sea level rise. To conserve and save these birds, Sierra Club's Bay Alive and 30x30 campaigns promote the use of nature based solutions to protect the San Francisco Bay wetlands, associated habitats and human communities, from sea level rise. The 30x30 campaign works to conserve 30% of California’s lands and waters by 2030. Learn more.
Sea Level Rise Webinar Series
Learn how nature can help us fight sea level rise with cost-effective and sustainable solutions. Watch recordings of our webinar series with SF Bay experts and please share with your local elected officials.
Finally, Lawsuits Reveal Petrochemical Industry Lies About Recycling.
"For 50 years, the plastics industry lied about the recyclability of plastic, a 'campaign of deception' that deflected regulation and boosted profits while unleashing a tide of toxic plastic pollution, according to a pair of groundbreaking lawsuits filed Monday by the California attorney general and four environmental groups.
[...] Thetwo paired suits filed in San Francisco Superior Court follow an investigation announced in April 2022 by California attorney general Robert Bonta, and a separate probe by lawyers working for the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, and San Francisco Baykeeper. " - Sierra, the Magazine of the Sierra Club Read more.
Exxon on Trial For Deceiving the Public about Recycling and Hiding Harms of Plastic Pollution
On September 23, the Sierra Club, the Surfrider Foundation, Heal the Bay, and San Francisco BayKeeper filed one lawsuit against petroleum and plastics manufacturing giant ExxonMobile while the California State Attorney General’s Office filed another.
The California lawsuit calls out Exxon’s fraudulent use of the “chasing arrows” usage on plastics products to imply that they are readily and safely recyclable while, truthfully, only a tiny portion about 5% of worn out plastics are recycled in the United States. Read more.
"The Project consists of two new high-voltage direct current (HVDC) terminals and associated new transmission lines. [...] the EIR must address the issues outlined [...] with a more thorough and transparent analysis of impacts and feasible mitigation measures. Specific attention should be paid to cumulative impacts, environmental justice, the protection of sensitive biological and hydrological resources, and wildlife movement through the landscape."
Unique Requirements for the Pacheco Reservoir Expansion Project
"This report ignores requests for information from Water Supply and Demand Management Committee (WSDMC) members at the August 26 meeting, and public input provided for that WSDMC meeting. The information provided in this staff report is materially the same as the WSDMC staff report. No additional information has been added."
Announcing Our 2024-2025 Environmental Stewardship Program
Save the Date! We'll start our 2024 - 2025 Environmental Stewardship Program on Thursday, December 12th, at 6:30 pm. BIODIVERSITY is this year's theme. The first session will introduce the them topic and explore our Bay Alive Campaign. This will be the first of six sessions, being held the second Thursday of the month. Each session will explore a different environmental issue on biodiversity that we're working on and where you can help. Another exciting change is that we will offer a hybrid program so we can meet and share some time together before the program. There is much more to come. For now, save the date, December 12th, 6:30 pm.
Palo Alto City Council Directs Staff to Protect Baylands and Parkland
Plans for Palo Alto’s Airport Expansion threatened to encroach into dedicated parkland and vulnerable habitat for endangered species such as the Salt-marsh Harvest Mouse. Expanded airport operations could worsen emissions as well as noise and air pollution impacts which are already burdening the communities of Palo Alto, East Palo Alto, and Menlo Park. Our letter to the City Council advocated against the expansion and was joined by more than a dozen organizations. Read more.
Redwood Shores BioTech Campus Meets Community Resistance
The September 5, 2024, Redwood LIFE development's Community Workshop #2 drew a crowd of around 75 at the Redwood Shores Library, filling the room with anticipation. When the session opened to questions, resident voices were raised, challenging the format. Without open dialogue, many felt unheard, as if the workshop mirrored previous developer-led meetings where community input seemed unwelcome. Concern was expressed at residents being asked to provide design input in the absence of answers or information about concerns that had been raised in the past community meeting. Learn more.
In the Community
Weeding (Oct. 20th), Cleanups (Oct. 27th and Nov. 2nd), and BioBlitz (Nov. 16th) from our friends at Keep Coyote Creek Beautiful.
One of the best ways to safeguard a thriving and just future is by ensuring that your Loma Prieta Chapter remains a champion for the environment of Santa Clara, San Mateo, and San Benito Counties. Naming us as a beneficiary in your bequest will provide meaningful and enduring resources that will allow continued local and powerful environmental activism.
Please contact our Chapter Development Coordinator Justyna Guterman for the specific language for your estate planning and/or read more here. For additional information about planning a bequest please contact Julia Curtis, (800) 932-4270.
Photographers, see the great images in our Chapter Annual Summaries and help protect local nature with your images! Share with us your high-resolution photos of local nature, with or without people, to inspire local residents to support Loma Prieta Chapter work. Please contact Chapter Development Coordinator Justyna Guterman.
Your Loma Prieta Chapter was founded in 1933; what else happened that year in October?
1933, October 12 – The United States Army Disciplinary Barracks on Alcatraz was acquired by the United States Department of Justice, to incorporate the island into its Federal Bureau of Prisons as a federal penitentiary.
1933, October 17 – Albert Einstein arrived in the United States as a refugee from Nazi Germany.
"Most Americans lack experiences from their own lives to comprehend that the Earth could warm by as much as 1.5 degrees Celsius above acceptable levels. To them, it is a small, meaningless number. By translating that figure to its Fahrenheit equivalent of 2.7 degrees, it can have a clearer meaning. Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist, uses the analogy of a fever. Think about how much worse you feel when you run a fever of 101.3 degrees Fahrenheit, which is 2.7 degrees above normal. That fever is the equivalent of what the planet is already facing, and expect worse."
How to avoid depression about this: support your Loma Prieta Chapter, as a member, volunteer and/or donor.
