Yet one more post from me today.

Yes, yes, tomorrow is another work day at San Bruno Mountain. I'll be getting up early and taking public transit again. It's fun! Join me!

( Text of email with details behind the cut )

The next volunteer work day is Saturday, May 24th from 10am to 12:30pm. We pulled up a LOT of invasive grasses to turn into compost yesterday, and it was totally fucking cool. I will be there for sure on the 24th, so come on out. :)

Aaaaalso... Lizzy and I might be sneaky and just go pull up eucalyptus shoots on our own this coming Saturday, the 17th. Shhhh! It's very sneaky.

Which brings me to a list of some of the plants that you can rip right out of the ground if you come across them:

Pampas grass

Ice plant

Eucalyptus

Cape ivy

English ivy

Scotch broom

French broom

Wild oats

Ripgut brome

Himalayan blackberry

There are more, of course, but it's helpful to focus on one or two plants at first, especially while you're learning to ID the invasive plants. And, of course, if you have any doubts about whether you're pulling up a native plant or an invasive plant, don't pull it up. Pick one non-native that you see on a regular basis, learn it well -- where it tends to grow, what natives it might be confused with, whether it can be composted vs whether composting it is equivalent to replanting it, &etc -- and just pull it up when you see it. Learn one new plant per week, or one new plant per year!

Remember that it took a lot of individuals planting small numbers of pretty or otherwise appealing non-natives for some of these to get here in the first place. Individuals pulling up a relatively small number of non-native plants can make a big difference too, if enough people do it! :)

Consider this a reminder to anyone who is interested that tomorrow is a volunteer work day at San Bruno Mountain.

I will be there tomorrow, and I will be taking BART and the bus. It seems like getting off at Balboa Park BART and taking the 9X toward Fisherman's Wharf is the best way to go. It's a bit of a walk, then, from Geneva and Carter, but it seems totally do-able.

If you would like to go but don't have a car and are unsure of public transit, email me or call me and we can meet up somewhere and go together. I'm planning on catching the 7:38 train from 19th street BART. It's a bit early, but public transit can be slow and I've never made the trip this way before, so I would like to be cautious. :) A book might not be a bad idea, not just for the trip, but in case there's a wait once we get there.

For directions and other details, see this post.

Hey! You!

Habitats are falling the fuck apart everywhere you look, yes? Eucalyptus, cape ivy, Himalayan blackberries, motherfucking pampas grass, and all kinds of other invasive non-native plants run rampant. And yet, restoration sites like at Crissy Field resemble little museums more than functioning environments with all the niches filled, and enough space to be functional.

Seems pretty overwhelmingly hopeless sometimes, yes?

You wanna do something and not just throw money at a project, especially when a)you don't have enough damn money as it is, and b)you don't even know how that money is being used.


Consider volunteering your time at San Bruno Mountain. You will work your ass off, and feel good at the end of the day. Nothing like hauling buckets of mulch to make you feel like you've really done something. The site is not as up-to-date as it could be, but all of the contact information is current.

( Behind the cut is the volunteer email that just got sent out, with information about coming work dates. )

I can't make it tomorrow, but I hope to make it back there for future work days. It really was fun. I mean, yes, you will work your ass off, but it's in a beautiful place, we're blessed with lovely weather, and you'll probably meet all types of sweet, kind people who you may never see again, but who will make you feel better about your species.