San Andreas Trail Reopens--with New Paving over Rough Spots

The San Andreas Trail is open again, and the rough spots where pipeline repairs were made earlier this year are now repaved. Thank you again to our trail walkers, runners and cyclists for your patience and understanding.

San Andreas Trail Closure Continues through September 23

The San Andreas Trail will reopen late Friday afternoon, September 14, for weekend use, and then close again Sunday evening, September 16, for one more week for emergency tree work by PG&E. It will remain closed the weekend of September 22-23 for repaving of two recent pipe repair locations. 

Cyclists, please continue to use alternate routes throughout the week of September 17.

This approximately two-mile segment of paved trail is between Larkspur Drive, Millbrae and San Bruno Avenue.

For schedule changes or updates, please visit the San Mateo County Parks website at 

https://parks.smcgov.org/press-release/san-andreas-trail-closure

Fire Protection on the Watershed: Fuel Breaks Under Way

Fear of fire seems to be all around these days (understandably) —especially if you live along or near typical California grassland.

On the Peninsula Watershed weed control goes on throughout the spring, summer and early to mid- fall months to protect land, our native habitats and the diverse plant and animal life they support from destruction by fire. 

With the initial mowing plus trimming now done, we’re working our way, where needed, along property edges and turning the ground by mechanical “disking.” It exposes a wide stretch of bare mineral soil that works as a fuel break to slow and stop any potential fire.

Normally we launch the first phases of weed control early in the spring, as soon as the ground is dry enough to support the weighty tractor mower. Crews also come back to certain spots a week or so later with hand-operated trimmers and other tools to cut away the growth that mowers can’t get to along fence lines and around valves or other structures.

It all started later than usual this year because the heavy rains that lasted through late March saturated the ground into April and May, stalling our equipment in the mud. Subsequent stages, including the fuel breaks, were delayed too.

But if we usually dig an annual fuel break near you and our crews haven’t been by yet, they’re on the way!      

San Andreas Trail Closure from Monday Evening, Sept. 3 Thru Friday, Sept. 14

The San Andreas Trail, from San Bruno Avenue to Larkspur Drive, will be closed from Monday evening, September 3, through Friday evening, September 14 for emergency tree work by PG&E.  The trail will reopen on Saturday morning, September 15.

Cyclists, please use alternate routes during this period. 

For schedule changes or updates, please visit the San Mateo County website at https://parks.smcgov.org/press-release/san-andreas-trail-closure

The two-mile paved trail bordering the San Andreas Reservoir is the northernmost part of the three-segment Crystal Springs Trail.   

  

Summertime, and the Living Isn’t Necessarily Easy Out There. Still . . .

. . . "The Watershed is full of babies at this time of year."  

So says Watershed Keeper Sarah Lenz. There are fawns, downy baby quail, bald eagle chicks, small fox cubs, and more, all venturing toward independence from their parents and life on their own—in the watershed or elsewhere. Here are a couple of images of this year’s new young residents.

The bald eaglets will be flying and hunting in and near their watershed birthplace for the next several months before they move on. They'll keep that dark brownish mottled color for the next few years before they acquire the adult’s distinctive white head. This is the sixth year in a row that the breeding adult pair has nested and reproduced on the watershed.  

Here, a  gray fox pup explores the tall grassland. These solitary nocturnal animals are the only wild canine species in the U.S. that can climb trees. During the day, they tend to keep to tree hollows or other other secretive spots. So any sighting  is lucky, especially a view of the babies.   

Thanks to Sarah for sharing her look with us. 

The Peninsula Watershed is home to more than 50 different mammals and 165 bird species as well as amphibians, reptiles, butterflies and other organisms that thrive on the 23,000 acres of long-protected and diverse native habitat.  

Life on the Watershed: Just a “Normal Wildlife Sighting”

It is one of the most social--and adaptable--of mammals. 

Coyotes now occupy almost any Bay Area open space, rural and urban. Wherever  one settles, it’s normally wary of humans and tends to stay out of sight. Still, watershed keeper Sarah Lenz captured this Peninsula Watershed resident on camera.  



Wildlife here may be less fearful of humans because of the absence of the human pressures, she says. “But I believe they always know where we are. This was just a normal wildlife sighting on the Watershed.” 

These days, litters of recently born pups have expanded the population. Not all will make it to adulthood, but the ones that do will be able to survive just about anywhere, from watershed to City park.

We don’t know how many coyotes live on the Peninsula Watershed, but the abundance of rodents and other prey make the place ideal for the rangy, mid-sized predator. Along with other green spaces immediately next door, the 23,000-acre space provides an extensive wildlife corridor for them, mountain lions and other roving mammal species. 

Coyotes live in small and close-bonded family units, which at this time of year consist of the two monogamous parents, a couple of cubs from previous litters, and newborn pups. They will fiercely defend their own territory from other coyotes, but socialize with one another—playing, looking after each other, and communicating in a variety of ways, by look and body language as well multiple  yips, growls, whimpers, and howls. 

They routinely roam the same routes, and are superb hunters. They have  long powerful legs for wearing down quick-scurrying prey, along with acute vision, smell, and hearing (they can detect the scurry of a mouse from 100 feet away). Though they prefer mice, gophers and other small live animals, they’re “predators of opportunity,” and will consume whatever else comes there way, including carrion, greenery, berries--or (in more populated areas) a  wayward pet. 

After a year or so, older cubs move on.  A lone yearling in search of its own territory will roam large areas along freeways and even across bridges to suburbs or cities, and possibly back again (a main enemy being the car). A high number of young coyotes will not survive the first year or two of life.

Coyote Safety Tips

The coyote urge to avoid us aside, chance encounters happen, and the normally reclusive animal can be more territorial and assertive at this time of year, during pupping season. So here are some protective guidelines to help safeguard you and our wild neighbors, just in case.

• Never feed a coyote—it’s illegal and can lure it closer,  endangering you asnd others. 
• Keep unattended pets indoors or completely enclosed, especially at night. Also don’t assume a fence will keep a coyote out of your backyard.
• Keep dogs on short leashes (6 feet or less) while walking outside.
• Don’t run away or turn your back on a coyote.
• Yell, clap hands, and/or blow a whistle, and try to make yourself look larger to scare away a coyote in your yard or elsewhere nearby.   

·      

The Goats Are on Board

 

Approximately 500 goats arrived recently at one of our valve lots in Redwood City, where they had ample water and all the summer weeds they could eat after what can be a trying journey by truck and trailer. The enclosed site was soon devoid of any overgrowth there, and the new hands were ready for the next couple of weeks along the Right of Way.

The herd is brought in every year to assist with vegetation management along a stretch of hilly terrain in Redwood City that’s inaccessible to our mowing equipment. They’ll be there for the next week or so.

As in past years, our human crews have been using mowers and string cutters to cut the weeds along the rest of of our Right of Way—approximately 30 miles in San Mateo County—and we expect to be done by early July at the latest. 

The crews will return later in the summer, where needed, to deal with other late-season weeds, and to trim along fence lines and around valves of other appurtenances. 

Our annual vegetation control program begins every spring as soon as the ground is dry enough for the mowing equipment.