Open Space Council: Blog

Open Space Happenings: 02.08.12

2012-02-08T08:00:00-08:00

Your helping of Bay Area news and inspiration for those of us who care about parks, trails, farms, ranches, and other open spaces...

Video from the National Parks Conservation Association. Hat tip to Outdoor Afro.

Open Space District Elects Officers. Curt Riffle, representing Mountain View and most of Los Altos, is elected the president of the Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District. (Los Altos Patch)
Saving Bohemia Ranch. It's the culminating move in a complex deal creating Sonoma County's newest private park — one with a year-round waterfall, stunning views and diverse ecology including rare plants like Pennel's bird's-beak. (Press Democrat)
Saving People and the Environment. My hope is that people of African descent of all faiths join together to meet the environmental needs of those who are impoverished. (NY Times)
The Bay Area's National Park Expands South. Golden Gate National Recreation Area, which includes Alcatraz Island, the Marin Headlands, Muir Woods and many other Bay Area landmarks, has added one more piece to its portfolio: a large chunk of the Peninsula south of Devil's Slide. (KQED Quest)
Will Travis being celebrated for work along SF Bay. A tribute to Will Travis, 16-year executive director of the Bay Conservation and Development Commission. (SF Chronicle)
We can fund that! USDA grants help the local food movement grow. On Friday, as part of the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food effort, USDA Deputy Secretary Kathleen Merrigan announced the largest allotment of grants for value-added producers in recent history: nearly 300 grants across 44 states and Puerto Rico — to the tune of $44 million. (Grist)
Removal of Hawk Hill trees changes the look of the Marin Headlands. Workers last month finished cutting down 200 non-native trees to help create more habitat for the endangered mission blue butterfly. (Marin IJ)
Is Brown's plan to close state parks all a political gimmick? As California Gov. Jerry Brown moves forward with a plan to close 70 state parks by July 1, environmental leaders, political scientists and budget experts say "the Washington Monument syndrome" appears to be at work again. (Mercury News)

Every Wednesday we post a list of news - with some art, videos and fun thrown in - related to the members, partners, supporters, and friends of the Open Space Council. Scroll through all of these posts here. And let us know if we should include anything in next week's Happenings.

Our next Gathering will be the Almost Spring Gathering, even though we're wondering what happened to winter. It'll be on March 15 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in Berkeley. We have a dynamic panel to talk about social media. Learn more, get excited, post to Facebook, and sign up to attend.

Before All That, There's This

2012-02-06T08:00:00-08:00

Before we open the doors to the Golden Gate Club at 8am on Thursday, May 10.

Before we host an invite-only reception for sponsors and special guests on Wednesday, May 9.

Before we print the nametags for 300+ people who will attend the conference, and who spend their days (and maybe nights) thinking about land, parks, animals, science, acquisition, stewardship, gear, kids, signage, farms, ranches, trails, and an infinite amount of other things related to land conservation.

Before we even open up registration for those 300+ people.

Before we finalize the agenda and the group of speakers who will inform and inspire from the podium.

Before the 30+ Exhibitors are lined up to share their wares and services in the two Exhibitor Halls.

Before we even ask Exhibitors to join us...

Before all this, we invite you to join us as a sponsor for this annual event that people talk about all year.

As a sponsor you will:

Get visibility in print and online before, during and after the conference. Our website, emails, blog, and Twitter-feed reach thousands of people around the Bay Area who care about land, parks, farms, trails and open spaces.
Engage with attendees at the conference at an Exhibitor booth, from the podium, and at lunch and breaks (specific benefits vary across the sponsorship levels). The 350 people who attend want information, resources, and connections.
Leverage your marketing dollar by associating yourself with a trusted partner and leader – the Open Space Council. For 22 years the Open Space Council has been a sought-after convener and a respected voice for land conservation in the Bay Area.

See all these people?

Want to get in front of them? You can. Click here to learn more about sponsorship.

We want to thank the organizations and companies who have already joined us as sponsors of the 2012 Open Space Conference. Thank you! They are:

Ecosystem Sponsors

Watershed Sponsors

Park Sponsor

Restoration Design Group

Open Space Happenings: 02.01.12

2012-02-01T08:00:00-08:00

Welcome to February! Here is your helping of Bay Area news and inspiration for those of us who care about parks, trails, farms, ranches, and other open spaces...

Richard Lang and Judith Selby Lang have been collecting plastic debris off one beach in Northern California for over ten years. Click here to watch the video.

Bohemia Ranch — A happy ending and a new beginning. After many years of dramatic twists and turns, the Sonoma Land Trust and LandPaths are delighted to announce the creation of a 554-acre ecological preserve on Bohemia Ranch located between Occidental and Monte Rio, and known to locals as "Waterfall Park." (Sonoma Land Trust) See more on LandPaths website, including how you can visit the Ranch.
Sonoma County's Cedars a rare geologic wonder. The 11-square-mile area, called the Cedars, is a mysterious land of one-of-a-kind geological phenomena next to the Austin Creek State Recreation Area and Armstrong Redwoods State Reserve that almost nobody in the Bay Area knows anything about. (SF Chronicle)
Planners want to direct Bay Area residents to live in existing communities to cut back on greenhouse gas emissions. One Bay Area calls for directing a majority of the 1.5 million new people expected to live in the region by 2040 into existing communities, where they can live closer to jobs, shopping and transit. (Mercury News)
Seeds For Young Farmers. In a recent report titled Building a Future with Farmers, the National Young Farmers’ Coalition (NYFC) surveyed 1,000 young and beginning farmers across the US and found that access to land, capital, health care, credit, and business training posed huge challenges. (Civil Eats)
Lagoon Valley group works to preserve open space. Almost three years after it formed, a group dedicated to protecting Lagoon Valley from development has started collecting money to help in its efforts to buy land. (Daily Republic)
Scouting For Preservation Opportunities. Ralph Benson has been a key figure in the California open space community for over four decades, wearing many hats during that time. (Bay Nature)
State's newest park near Brentwood is named Marsh Creek State Park. This week, the California State Park and Recreation Commission gathered in Brentwood with state park officials and about 130 interested participants to visit the future state park, which will partially open in the next few years. (Mercury News)
San Mateo County to Begin Talks to Take Over Sharp Park Golf Course. Talks that could save Sharp Park Golf Course from closure are set to begin after a decision Tuesday by San Mateo County supervisors. (The Bay Citizen)
What Love Looks Like. A conversation with Tim DeChristopher and Terry Tempest Williams that includes connections to nature, the environmental movement, and why we do the work we do. (Orion)
The Real Rural California Project. Writer and photographer Lisa Hamilton says the lack of direct contact between urban and rural Californians makes it feel as though California is made up of two wholly separate states. In a new project titled "Real Rural," Hamilton and her partners introduce California's unseen rural populations to their urban neighbors through photography, interviews and audio conversations. (KQED radio)

Status Updates, Hashtags, Blogs and other Internet Doohickies

2012-01-30T08:00:00-08:00

What do you think about social media and how it relates to the work that you do?

Image courtesy of Life Long Learning

Is it something you do personally but not sure how it fits in at work? A nice thing but not central to your organization's mission? Is it totally fascinating and maybe a bit overwhelming? Or would you say something more like this:

Image courtesy of Rice Communications

Of course social media is a huge topic - both because of its complexity and because it's so *now*.

Join us for a fully wired and completely plugged-in conversation about social media. Land conservation and environmental organizations are using the internet to engage with people, build movements, tell their stories, and achieve their mission. How can we all use these tools in our work to preserve land and connect people to it? What are the strategies we should all have in mind? What is possible?

Our Almost-Spring Gathering will be held on March 15 from 10am-1pm at the Brower Center in downtown Berkeley. Our panel will include:

Goodby Silverstein and Partners and Audubon talking about Birding the Net
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy talking about the whole communications package
iNaturalist and Pepperwood Preserve talking about citizen science and its links to social media
Others to be announced.

Lunch will be served, tweeting will be encouraged, and there will be plenty of time of networking.

Click here to register.

Bienvenue Bienvenidos Willkommen!

2012-01-27T08:00:00-08:00

We welcome a new member to the Open Space Council: Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve!

From their website: Jasper Ridge Biological Preserve (JRBP) is located near Stanford University's campus in the eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Preserve encompasses remarkable geologic, topographic, and biotic diversity within its 481 hectares (1,189 acres) and provides a natural laboratory for researchers from all over the world, educational experiences to students and docent-led visitors, and refuge to native plants and animals.

In addition to Jasper Ridge, we continue to thank our members as they renew their memberships. You can see the latest on Flickr. We want to give a special shout-out to the Chair of our Executive Committee: