Pacifica Riptide

The Blue Marble

Join the Pacifica Beach Coalition in paying it forward and bringing attention to the plight of the ocean by sharing THE BLUE MARBLE with people committing random acts of kindness, such as picking up litter, composting, recycling, restoring native habitat, and conserving water and other natural resources. The Blue Marble is a famous photograph of the Earth taken by astronauts on December 7, 1972. It is likely the most widely distributed photographic image in existence, one of the few to show a fully illuminated Earth, because the astronauts had the Sun behind them when they took the image. To the astronauts, Earth had the appearance of a blue marble. When you get a Blue Marble, pass it along.

Pacifica Beach Coalition's New Web Site

PACIFICA BEACH COALITION'S NEW WEB SITE

Help Threatened Shore Birds: Pacifica Plover Protection & Planting Program

The snowy plover, a threatened bird species on Pacifica State Beach at Linda Mar. Native birds find neither food nor shelter among invasive plants such as ice plant and cape ivy, which volunteers replace with bird-friendly native plants such as dune grass and beach sagewort. Small, white snowy plovers sometimes can be seen resting in the sand dunes. For more information, contact Clark Natwick at 650-219-9214 or clarkn@mac.com.

Pacifica plover volunteers conquer ice plant.

Snowy plovers look on approvingly.

Pacificans plant bird-friendly native plants.

(Clark Natwick and Bill Collins provided these words and pictures of the snowy plover habitat and dune restoration projects ongoing at Pacifica State Beach in Linda Mar, all part of the Pacifica Beach Coalition and Pacifica's Environmental Family.)

Pacifica Beach Coalition & Environmental Family Honor King Holiday with Beach Cleanup & Restoration

Pacifica Beach Coalition, in collaboration with Pacifica’s Environmental Family, joins the annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service sponsored by the CORPORATION FOR NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE during the King holiday weekend. Pacificans and others put in a little beach time and volunteered at Pacifica State Beach in Linda Mar on Saturday, January 17.   

These two service projects are among thousands of activities taking place throughout the country this coming weekend to honor the legacy of Dr. King. In 1994, Congress passed the King Holiday and Service Act, directing the King Center and the Corporation for National and Community Service to encourage Americans of all ages to donate time over the MLK holiday weekend to help make their communities better places and, in so doing, to honor Dr. King's life and teachings. All ages are welcome to participate.

Every January, for the past 12 years, longtime Pacificans Clark Natwick, Mary Petrilli, and an ever-widening group of supporters and friends have been planting native plants on our local beaches. They also remove non-native plants to give more room for native plants to take root. During this time, Clark and his volunteers have planted more than 12,000 native plants at Linda Mar, resulting in an amazing diversity of habitat. One of the many outcomes of this effort has been a dramatic increase in the number of endangered snowy plovers visiting Linda Mar each year along with a beautiful burst of flowers each spring.

Pacifica Beach Coalition cleanups have taken place since this group’s inception in the late 1980s. In that time, this group has picked up tons of litter from Pacifica beaches and has been an effective advocate for our beaches with our elected city officials. Pacifica Beach Coalition holds beach cleanups on the third Saturday of each month from 9 to 11 a.m. at this same location.

INFORMATION: Call Clark Natwick at 219-9214 or email him at clarkn@mac.com about habitat restoration. Call Lynn Adams at 355-1668 or email her at PickItUpPacifica@gmail.com about beach cleanups. King Holiday: MLK DAY OF SERVICE  

Aragon High School Students Help @ Linda Mar

On November 23 (a Sunday morning), 26 students from Aragon High School in San Mateo came to Pacifica State Beach at Linda Mar to help remove invasive Cape Ivy, Cal Trans Buckwheat, and Ice Plant. They also viewed from a distance the Endangered Snowy Plover snuggled in the beach sand dunes. Larry Wuerstle, Clark Natwick, and Paul showed the enthusiastic students what to do, and the students removed about two truckloads of invasive plants. (Clark Natwick photos)

Help Snowy Plovers Survive on Our Beaches

* Stay out of the posted habitat areas and remain at least 50 feet away from birds and nests. Even the most knowledgeable birder will cause impacts to plovers in these areas.
* Walk near the water line on plover breeding beaches.
* Walk dogs only where authorized and always keep them on a leash.
* Dispose of garbage properly to avoid attracting predators.
* Leave driftwood lying on the beach. It provides nesting and feeding habitat for plovers. Do not build wood structures because upright wood provides perches for avian predators.
* Share your knowledge with others going to enjoy the beach.
* Volunteer to educate the public or to restore plover habitat.
* Contact GGNRA to volunteer as a snowy plover outreach docent: george_durgerian@nps.gov
* Call Point Reyes National Seashore for more information about the snowy plover docent program there: 415-464-5124

Quest for Fear Benefit Sold-Out Socko Success

Pacifica Beach Coalition Quest For Fear/Surf Music evening a BIG SUCCESS

Sanchez Concert Hall rides a monster wave of good vibes for Earth Day

The Sanchez was buzzing Friday night in a rollicking, hugely successful benefit for next month’s Earth Day events. The show, which was sponsored by the Pacifica Beach Coalition, featured a showing of Grant Washburn’s remarkable new surfing film, Quest For Fear; as well as the music of The Wander-Ins, the psychedelic images of Steve Austin, and the good humor of host Ian Butler. The only people who weren’t thoroughly entertained were the unfortunate souls that got turned away at the door of this sold out event.

As the crowd arrived, an award-winning program about last year’s Earth Day clean-up was projected on the screen. The show, which was made for PCT 26 by Steve Brown and Bob Twigg, featured many of the audience members. Over 600 volunteers collected over 12,000 pounds of trash in 2 hours on that day.

Ian kicked things off with “The South End of the Beach” a tongue in cheek song about surfing the easy waves at Linda Mar.  This was followed, appropriately enough, by the Wander-Ins, a local surf band that got it’s name from the Wander Inn, Linda Mar’s legendary beach bar that closed down years ago. The band’s rocking surf sound was accentuated by the colorful, swirling images that Steve Austin projected above their heads. More than one audience member remarked that the combination reminded them of the Fillmore in the 60’s.

Pacifica Mayor Jim Vreeland, Beach Coalition President Lynn Adams, and Pedro Point Surf Club president Greg Cochran all spoke movingly about the importance of keeping our beaches and ocean clean.  Sue Pemberton of the Marine Mammal Rescue Center raffled off exciting prizes donated by Pacifica’s surf shops.

But the main event was Grant Washburn’s movie, “Quest for Fear” which he had generously donated free of charge. The crowd was riveted right from the opening shot of a surfer flying down the face of an enormous wave at Maverick’s, the world’s premier big wave surf spot, which is located just down highway one. 

The movie chronicles Grant’s annual migrations to South Africa, searching for an elusive wave rumored to equal Maverick’s in size and power. There is nothing like watching a surfing movie in a sold out theater, with everyone oohing and ahhing in unison as the surfers tackle monster waves, especially when the waves do the tackling.

Grant graciously answered questions for the audience after the showing, which earned over $2,000 for Pacifica’s Earth Day cleanup on April 19th. This year we hope to get over 1,000 volunteers helping to clean up our beaches, creeks, parks and streets. If you are interested in getting involved call Lynn Adams at 355-1688.

Special thanks to the city of Pacifica, Pedro Point Surf Club, Coastside Scavenger, Parks Beach & Rec., and Pacifica’s Environmental Family for their generous contributions.

Earth Day Volunteers Cleaned Up Beaches, Parks

Check out a 10-minute compilation of what happened last year for Pacifica Earth Day 2007, when 600 people in Pacifica removed 12,000 pounds of  litter and recyclables in just two hours. To order the whole 30-minute DVD,  please email AdoptTheBeach@gmail.com

Here is the the 2007 EARTH DAY IN PACIFICA video on YouTube.

Please join us year-round in cleaning up the beaches, streets, parks, or city sites in need. Bags and gloves will be provided and a needy site of meaning to you or your group will be arranged. Or develop your own beautification project in Pacifica not limited to beach restoration: nonnative-plant removal,  native-garden plantings, park restoration, creek cleanup. We are blessed to live in this amazing seaside city. Let's join together to put litter in its place, connecting all of us to the earth and saving wildlife all at the same time!

Earth Day Pacifica 2007 had 600 volunteers, 45 community groups, and 13 businesses that collected 12,000 pounds of litter/recyclables and 4,000 pounds of greenwaste from six beaches, five creeks, 20 streets, and 40 sites in just two hours.

Pacifica Kid Helps Take Care of Our Beaches

Pacifica student Matt McLaughlin raises money and teaches others about the Pacifica Beach Coalition. Here he collects litter with IBL at Sharp Park Beach cleanup on March 1. READ THE WHOLE STORY HERE   

LYNN ADAMS
Pacifica Beach Coalition

11th Annual Beach Planting: Riptide Helped PR

Dear Riptide:

On Saturday, January 19 Pacifica's Environmental Family conducted its 11th Annual Beach Planting. Over 30 volunteers donated their time and effort to this event. The number of volunteers was a little less than in previous years, but the volunteers worked extra hard and accomplished a great deal during their two hours on the beach.  Also, in previous years, Go Native Nursery and the City of Pacifica provided native plants for the beach planting.  This year plants from those sources were not available.

The leader of the beach planting for all 11 years has been Mary Petrilli.  Through all these years, Mary's expertise  and experience in native plant botany and ecology has been brought to bear on this project. Mary has been very careful to use only native plants that are suited to Pacifica State Beach.  This year, Mary selected native dune grass from areas on the beach where the dune grass had become very thick.  By doing this Mary was able to locate 300 dune grass plants which volunteers removed from the areas where dune grass was thriving and installed it on bare areas of sand. The same strategy was applied to  native beach strawberry.

Additionally, volunteers removed non native ice plant, an exotic pest plant which blankets some of the beach areas creating a monoculture which prevents native plants from growing. A second exotic pest plant which volunteers removed was Caltrans buckwheat.  This non native pest plant is now growing and proliferating on many areas on the beach. Some of the Caltrans buckwheat is growing right next to the highway.  This growth should be removed by the city because seeds from these plants blow onto the beach and grow new bushes.  This is a serious problem which needs abatement as soon as possible.  The invasive, yellow flowered oxalis is also active on the beach at this time.  Some of the oxalis was removed.

I wish to give special thanks to Mr. Ray Biagini, who provided shovels, bags and a table for our project. Thanks also to Debbie Gehret and Lizzie Claycomb who also provided guidance and encouragment.

I hope you will have an opportunity soon to survey the work that has been done by Pacifica's Environmental Family.  In 11 years, close to 15,000 native plants have been installed on Pacifica State Beach.  These plants beautify and stabilize the beach and provide areas that are hospitable to shore birds and fauna and other native plants. The value of these contributions is probably at least $100,000. The good will that the volunteers have created is priceless.

    Pacifica Riptide by publicizing the beach planting was an important partner in the beach planting.
    Thank you very much for your help.

In addition to this annual planting, Pacifica's Environmental Family also conducts a monthly beach restoration.

Sincerely,

Clark Natwick