2018 REPORT TO THE COMMUNITY REPORT TO2018 THE COMMUNITY PARKS FOR ALL FOREVER PARKSCONSERVANCY.ORGPARKSCONSERVANCY.ORG PARKS CONSERVANCY BOARD OF TRUSTEES OFFICERS Colin Lind (Chair) Rodney Fong John Murray Managing Partner, President, Fong Real Estate Company CEO, Paypro Corporation BOARD ASSOCIATES Blum Capital Partners (retired) San Francisco San Francisco Frank Almeda, Ph.D., Senior Curator, John Gamble, Managing Partner, Allen Jacob E. Perea, Ph.D., Professor and Dean Sausalito Jessica Parish Galloway John Pritzker Department of Botany, California Academy Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP Emeritus, San Francisco State University Randi Fisher (Vice Chair) Nurse Practitioner, Founding Partner & Director of Sciences (retired) Mark W. Perry, Strategic Advisor and Pisces Foundation San Francisco Free Clinic Geolo Capital Fritz Arko, President and General Manager, David Grubb, Chairman Emeritus, General Partner, New Enterprise Associates San Francisco San Francisco San Francisco Pier 39 (retired) Swinerton, Inc. (retired) Staci Slaughter (Vice Chair) Linda Howell Jake Schatz Michael R. Barr, Partner, Pillsbury Winthrop Walter J. Haas, Chairman, Evelyn & Walter Rob Price, Co-Chairman & Creative Director, Senior Vice President, Communications, Civic Leader Senior Vice President Shaw Pittman LLP Haas, Jr. Fund Eleven, Inc. San Francisco Giants San Francisco General Counsel and Corporate Leslie Browne, Partner, SSL Law Firm Sally Hambrecht, Civic Leader Toby Rosenblatt, Former Chair, Board of Directors, Presidio Trust San Francisco Patsy Ishiyama Secretary, Electronic Arts Inc. Mark W. Buell, Civic Leader Charlene Harvey, Civic Leader Lynn Mellen Wendell (Vice Chair) Civic Leader San Francisco Virgil Caselli, Commercial Property Ventures S. Dale Hess, Executive Vice President, Alexander H. Schilling, Chairman, Union Square Investment Company Civic Leader San Francisco Jessica Verrilli Milton Chen, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and San Francisco Convention & Visitors Bureau (retired) Helen Schwab, Civic Leader San Francisco Sujay Jaswa Founding Partner, #ANGELS Executive Director Emeritus, The George Gordon Ritter (Treasurer) Founder and Managing Partner, and former VP of Corporate Lucas Educational Foundation Kit Hinrichs, Founder, Studio Hinrichs Alan Seelenfreund, Chairman, McKesson Founder and General Partner, WndrCo LLC Development, Twitter David Courtney, General Partner & Phil Marineau, Partner, LNK Partners Corporation (retired) San Francisco Emergence Capital Partners San Francisco Chief Operating Officer, Crosslink Capital Amy McCombs, Lee Hills Chair of Free Press West Shell III, Co-Founder, CEO & Chairman, San Francisco Carlota del Portillo, Dean, City College of Studies, Missouri School of Journalism Conversa Health Dan Kingsley BOARD LIAISONS Larry Low (Secretary) Managing Partner, SKS Partners San Francisco, (retired) Nion McEvoy, Chairman and CEO, Rich Silverstein, Co-Chairman & Creative Chief Legal Officer, San Francisco Amanda Hoenigman Phelps Dewey, President, Chronicle Publishing Chronicle Books LLC Director, Goodby Silverstein & Partners Civic Leader Company, Book Division (retired) Cathy Simon, Principal, Perkins+Will Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP Martha Kropf Robert Morris, Managing Director, Goldman Liaison to the Parks Conservancy San Francisco Civic Leader Paula F. Downey, President and CEO, CSAA Sachs Group, Inc. (retired) Michael Willis, Principal, Michael Leaders Circle San Francisco Insurance Group Regina Liang Muehlhauser, President, Willis Architects San Francisco TRUSTEES Millard Drexler, Chairman, J. Crew Bank of America California (retired) Sharon Y. Woo, Civic Leader John E. McCosker, Ph.D. Julie Parish Odette Alcazaren-Keeley Senior Scientist and First Chair Gianni Fassio, Owner, Palio D’Asti (retired) Donald W. Murphy, Founder, Rosemary Young, Former Chair, Peninsula Landscape Designer Director, Maynard 200 at Maynard of Aquatic Research, California Robert Fisher, Chairman, Board of Directors, The Andes Institute Community Foundation Liaison to the Parks Conservancy Institute for Journalism Education Academy of Sciences (retired) Gap, Inc. Leaders Circle (Emeritus) Burlingame Mill Valley San Francisco John C. Atwater Co-Chairman & Chief Executive Officer, Prime Group San Francisco Janice Barger Civic Leader San Francisco Martha Ehmann Conte Civic Leader San Francisco Betsy Eisenhardt Civic Leader San Francisco AT THE HEART of the 80,000-acre Golden Gate National Parks, there stands a soaring—and symbolic—bridge. After all, these parklands—and the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy that supports them —connect vital ecosystems for threatened and endangered species, share interlocking webs of culture and history, and forge the endur- ing bonds between humans and the land. But these parks do far more than patch habitat corridors or bring people to their favorite trail- heads. These special spaces pull communities together. These places engender the essential connections between neighbors, helping us understand and celebrate our differences and commonalities. And thus these parks—and the In 2017, more than 27,000 community members connected with their public lands— and each other—by volunteering across the Golden Gate National Parks and around democratic values they represent—bridge us Mt. Tamalpais. William Hough (One Tam youth and community program manager) and Greg Reza (Marin County Parks volunteer program coordinator), below, helped foster to our best possible future. and inspire those connections. Hear their experiences—along with six other fascinating stories—by exploring videos and vignettes at parksconservancy.org/annual18. “That’s one of the mission statements of the shuttle program: introducing folks to the shuttle but then having them navigate on their “I just want to bring so many children and own to get here. So for the kids, the goal is: families, so that they can feel the energy when they grow up and have kids, they’ll come and the love and embrace the outdoors-hug on out here. ” -Michael Bennett a tree and ugh!’ at a bug and see a banana slug for the very first time.” -Sister Stephanie Hughes Sister Stephanie Hughes believes nature can restore body and you can see the hardness shell away, like an onion,” she says, 4,721 soul. When she first started exploring the Presidio, she was using “because they are experiencing peace and tranquility for the very Campers served in 2017 a walker—the result of a “horrible past” and health afflictions. first time.” by Camping at the Presidio LEADERS BLAZE But then, she stepped into the parks. “I felt the dirt under my feet Michael Bennett, another leader in San Francisco’s Bayview (a Parks Conservancy and it was different; I felt alive,” she recalls. neighborhood, also saw how “park prescriptions” helped program in partnership NEW TRAILS Being outdoors changed her life, and now she wants “the improve the health of his community. He was among the first to with the Presidio Trust, community to heal in the same manner that [she] was healed.” partner with the Conservancy’s Jennifer Greene and other park National Park Service, COMMUNITY CONNECTIONS After getting trained by Camping at the Presidio, Sister Stephanie staff in cultivating trust in the Bayview and arranging free shuttles and Bay Area Wilderness has been bringing people from “fight or flight” neighborhoods to the Presidio. Since 2012, Michael has introduced hundreds of Training); 762 people roiled by violence to Rob Hill Campground. During the past 12 residents to their national parks—and he hopes to nurture even were connected to the years, she has guided thousands of adults and kids from across more park ambassadors through youth internships. “One of my parks through community the Bay Area on park trips. “A lot of the children are shut up and dreams is for folks of color to have an opportunity to come out shuttles last year shut in and hurting, but when we bring them to open spaces, here and work in the Presidio,” Michael says. 104,615 Native plants grown at Parks Conservancy nurseries to support 47 restoration projects across the Golden Gate National Parks, including the multi- year Lupine Diversification ECOLOGIST PLANTS Project at Milagra Ridge and the Butterfly Translocation Project A BRIGHTER FUTURE in partnership with the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife RESTORATION ON MILAGRA RIDGE Service, and Creekside Center for Earth Observation Hopefully people recognize that Like many of her Parks Conservancy colleagues, restoration Ruby is part of a team that’s trying to reestablish healthy “ specialist Ruby Kwan plays a vital role not just in the life cycle populations of lupine—a host plant for the endangered Mission you don t have to be in a position like of endangered species in the parkslands—but also in the lives blue butterfly. Last year, a multi-partner project “translocated” ’ of young people emerging into adulthood. 30 of the butterflies to Milagra Ridge to boost the local mine, you don t have to be a scientist, ’ On a wet, windy day on Milagra Ridge, Ruby teaches the finer population that was nearly wiped out. you don t have to be in environmental points of planting lupines to a group of students from Pacifica’s As fulfilling as that difficult work has been, however, Ruby law or ’policy to make a difference Oceana High School, including freshman Daniel Geronimo. It’s derives just as much satisfaction nurturing the growth of Oceana a new experience for soft-spoken Daniel, who continues to gain students. She’s an alumna. “It really brings great joy,” she