Thursday, December 14, 2023, 7:00 pm – 9 pm
Speaker: Jen McBroom, California Invasive Plant Council
Register HERE for this Speaker Series Program

Topic:
San Francisco Bay is the largest estuary on the west coast of North America and a critical stopover along the Pacific Flyway migration route for millions of shorebirds and waterfowl.  Rimming the Bay between freeways, airports, and landfills remain precious tidal wetlands and opportunities to return salt evaporator ponds to functioning ecosystems.  Since 2005, the Coastal Conservancy’s Invasive Spartina Project has used airboats, genetic testing, sophisticated GIS, and a lot of hard, muddy work to push back the invasive plants that threaten habitat for shorebirds, waterfowl, and the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse. Learn about how hometown heroes are doing their part to address the global biodiversity crisis.

Speaker Bio:
Jen McBroom is a biologist at Olofson Environmental Inc. and has been counting Ridgway’s rails for the Invasive Spartina Project since 2005. She got her start in the tidal wetlands of the San Francisco Bay studying song sparrows and marsh wrens after finishing her degree at UC Davis. Since then, she has logged many hours in muddy boots mapping invasive plants and observing the wildlife at the edge of the Bay.

Photo: Marsh along San Leandro Bay
Photo by: Simon Gunner

Next Speaker – Thursday, January 11, 2024
Northern Spotted Owls, by Taylor Ellis, National Park Service