Events

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.

The Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Dr. Krista Kemppinen for a talk on “Biodiversity and the Extinction Crisis” on Tuesday, October 12 th at 7pm. We hear the term biodiversity and use it, but do we really know what it means? Do we realize how many species we have lost and continue to lose? Do we understand the consequences of these losses? Join Dr. Kemppinen, a scientist in the Endangered Species Program at the Center for Biological Diversity who will take the time to clarify these questions and much more.

The Friends of San Pedro Valley Park welcome Dr. Jack Dumbacher from the California Academy of Sciences. He will present his lecture Poisonous Birds and Chemical Defense in New Guinea Birds on Tuesday, November 9 th at 7 pm.

The Friends of San Pedro Valley Park are pleased to welcome Dr. Alejandro Velez Melendez from San Francisco State University as our December speaker on Tuesday, December 7th at 7 pm. The topic will be communication amongst animals, specifically Pacific chorus frogs. We communicate and so do they, so join us to discover what they are saying and how. It should prove to be a fascinating lecture. Don’t miss it.

The Friends of San Pedro Valley Park are pleased to announce that Mr. John Blair has agreed to give the membership and the public a mushroom walk in San Pedro Valley Park, 600 Oddstad Blvd. Pacifica, CA. It will take place on Saturday, December 11 th at 10:30 am and will last approximately an hour and a half until noon. Heavy rain cancels. The rescheduled date is set for Sunday, December 19th at 10:30 am. Please meet in front of the visitor center. For all fungi enthusiasts and nature lovers this is a field trip not to be missed!