The County of San Mateo RecycleWorks Program is offering free courses as part of the RecycleWorks Volunteer Academy for residents, employees and business owners in San Mateo County. These courses provide participants with knowledge about conserving resources and a unique opportunity to promote environmental awareness in San Mateo County through volunteering time back to the program. How to sign-up for the […]

Bob McLaughlin of the USGS will lead a 90 minute geology walk on the geological history of this area. Mussel Rock is near the epicenter of the 1906 earthquake and is where the San Andres fault goes into the Pacific Ocean. Learn more about the rock formations, tectonic plates, earthquake faults, and fossils of this unique environment. WHERE TO MEET: […]

Richard Baxter from the Beekeeper’s Guild of San Mateo County will present a program on honey bees and bee hives. Richard has decades of experience in this field and also as a teacher and a business, Golden Harvest Bees. On his website, you will find the upcoming beekeeping classes for beginners, soap making lessons as well as products for sale […]

This new exhibition in the Gallery of California Natural Sciences takes a look at the wildly diverse and intricate world of one of the most important creatures to human agriculture and the natural environment. Through family-friendly experiences, hands-on activities, and media, Bees: Tiny Insect, Big Impact touches on topics of honeybees and Bay Area beekeeping, the diversity of California native […]

Remember when you came to help us install a fence to protect the Snowy Plovers back in August 2014? Well, our volunteers discovered a special treat at Saturday’s beach planting & cleanup. Sixteen Snowy Plovers were spotted hunkered down in the sand outside of their fence or foraging for kelp flies and beach hoppers. Last year no more than 8 were spotted at one […]

Jeff, our devoted Mussel Rock volunteer, found a Go Pro 3 on January 1st. He extracted the Memory card and recovered some pictures. If it is you, contact us, we would be happy to give you your pictures back! Jeff wrote: I believe the owner of this camera was a surfer who lost the camera at the south end of […]

Did You Know? Pacifica’s beaches have been in the smoke-free zone since 2006. Spread the word to help keep harmful butt litter out of the environment and protect our beautiful coastline! Read more about the campaign that created Northern California’s first smoke-free beaches and pier, and about the toxic impact You can make a difference by supporting our current campaign […]

Some of the largest baleen whales—such as blue whales, fin whales and humpbacks—fall into a family called rorquals that use an unusual method of feeding. These whales feed on aggregations of zooplankton and fish by lunging with their mouths open wide to tremendous gape angles to force huge volumes of water and prey into their expandable oral cavities. This extreme […]

A major new study of the world’s oceans has reached a shocking conclusion: Thanks to humans, there are now over 5 trillion pieces of plastic, weighing more than 250,000 tons, floating in water around the world. With a global population of about 7.2 billion, that’s nearly 700 pieces per person. The study, published in the journal PLOS One by Marcus Eriksen of theFive […]

With Thanksgiving near, I’m not thinking of turkey breast or sweet potatoes. I’m thinking about the ocean and my own health, because the two are tied intimately together. Besides working to educate and advocate for shark protection with Shark Stewards, I’m also a surfer and ocean swimmer. This week I had an operation to repair a rotator cuff, a tendon […]