Biologist and entrepreneur, Zara McDonald heads Felidae and The Bay Area Puma Project research programs. She will talk about mountain lions in the Bay Area, their biology and the recent changes our study has uncovered about these shy and elusive animals living at the urban edge.

Healthy coral reefs are a beautiful sight to behold and we shall have the opportunity to view some wonderful undersea photographs taken by Dr. Luiz Rocha. Regretfully the wonderfully productive ecosystems coral reefs create are under attack, being severely damaged, and declining. Join us for an illuminating talk on the reefs with a world renowned scientist and an elite deep water scuba diver.

Mary Jean “Corky” Quirk is a favorite presenter at the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park lecture series with both children and adults. Yearly she gives us a talk and this time around, due to the pandemic, she will be coming to us live from Yolo County. Don’t miss this remarkable presentation which will give you a chance to see these cute little bats up close and to learn all about them. A program not to be missed!

In this talk, Dr. John Dumbacher will discuss the natural history and conservation concerns for Spotted Owls and Barred Owls , and discuss research and potential actions that are being considered by different management agencies.

December’s program is for all those folks interested in fungi and mushrooms. These fruiting bodies pop up out of the ground during the fall and winter, and J.R. Blair from San Francisco State University will help us better understand what they are and what they do. Do not miss this fascinating and informative program.

January’s program brings the eminent Dr. Tom Parker to begin our 2021 life sciences series to discuss manzanitas and their relatives with an emphasis on evolution. The talk involves several quite different processes such as fire, drought, animals, and hybridization, among others. According to Dr. Parker, differences among species have a great deal to do with the climates they live in, how they respond to fire, and their interactions with animals and not with the shape or color of the flowers.

Spring is the time to look at and enjoy flowers. Join Dr. Nagalingum from the California Academy of Sciences for a closer look at flowers. Different pollinators benefit from variations in flower parts and we’ll discover how and why. We will even discover how flowers in the Victorian age were used in the language of sending discrete messages in the eternal quest for love.
Join us for this most illuminating program on form and structure of flowers.

Please join the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park in March as we host Dr. Doug Bell, Wildlife Program Manager at East Bay Regional Park District, for a riveting lecture on a beautiful raptor - the peregrine falcon.

On April 17 th at 4 pm, the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Senior West Coast Wolf Advocate Amaroq Weiss from the Center of Biological Diversity as she relates the current situation with wolves in California and the West Coast. With California as the latest frontier for wolf reestablishment, Weiss will discuss these remarkable animals and the politics, laws, social issues and science of wolf protection and recovery, and how you can get involved. Join us for a fascinating lecture.

On May 15 th at 4 pm, the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Mark Hylkema from California State Parks with a lecture entitled “Lifeways of the Ohlone Indians of the San Francisco and Monterey Bay Area.” We step back in time to the year 1769 to learn about the archaeology and ethnography of the ancestral Ohlone people and about the native lifeways that once flourished in our neighborhoods and re-live the experiences of the first Spanish explorers.

On Saturday, June 5 th at 4 pm, the Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Kim Young, a Xerces Society Ambassador who will discuss the Western Monarch butterflies, their migratory route and breeding habits. She will discuss the severe decline in butterfly populations that has occurred in the last two decades and the various causes that have contributed to the collapse of the once large and healthy populations that were visible in their over-wintering clusters in forested groves in California.