11/1/19: Update from our Modini Preserve staff on the impact of the Kincade Fire:

ACR staff, including resident biologist Michelle Cooper, prescribed fire specialist Jared Childress and land stewards Tomas Ruiz and Kyle Doron were able to return to the preserve earlier this week and found the Modini ranch house, outbuildings and barn still standing. Our relief was magnified tenfold with gratitude to CAL FIRE Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit and the thousands of state and local firefighters determined to thwart infrastructure loss within the burn zone. In our case, the efforts to save these structures were significant: hand lines, back burning, bulldozer lines and even retardant drops. Of our 3,000 acres, roughly 2,850 burned. In the vicinity of the residential compound, the land itself...

Our plan to conduct a 9.5 acre controlled burn at Martin Griffin Preserve looks favorable for this Sunday, October 20, 2019. If weather conditions permit, ACR will be joined by more than 20 firefighters from partner organizations, county & local fire agencies and our volunteer wildland firefighting team to burn understory growth located midway up the Bourne Ridge.

We anticipate running a test ignition at 9:00 a.m.; if within the parameters of our permit from CAL FIRE and the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, the controlled burn will commence, with ignitions expected through 4:00 p.m. The team will continue to monitor the site throughout the night. Because smoke will be visible from the Bolinas and Stinson Beach areas, we are working closely with traffic, fire and...

In late August Sarah Warnock—who returned to live in West Marin in 2018 when her husband Nils was appointed director of conservation science at ACR—was combing the Tomales Bay shoreline near Cypress Grove Research Center. Although trained as an ornithologist, Sarah has a passion for fossils and was on a mission. She was rewarded beyond all expectation when she found the roots of a mammoth molar sticking up through the rocky shore, as if to wave hello. Having lived for many years in Alaska, where mammoth fossils are not uncommon, Sarah recognized it right away.

Since the discovery, Sarah has been working with regional experts to confirm the identity of the fossil and to devise a plan to carefully remove the molar for future analysis. Bobby Boessenecker, paleontologist and adjunct...

Since 1985 ACR has protected Toms Point from development and for the benefit of the natural systems of Tomales Bay. Through the archeological excavations of Tsim Schneider, Lee Panich and team, we also have come to understand the cultural importance of places like Toms Point—both historic and contemporary—to native people of California and are deeply grateful to continue on a path of shared purpose with regional tribal members and researchers.

Their work recently was highlighted in the San Francisco Chronicle and is recommended reading for our North Bay community.

...