Go to Nature in the City for information about the unique ecology and biodiversity of San Francisco and/or read on:

Despite one hundred and sixty years of intense urban development, San Francisco retains extraordinary natural ecosystems. According to the Nature Conservancy and Conservation International the peninsula region is a global biodiversity hotspot. Our bioregion is recognized by the United Nations as part of the Golden Gate Biosphere Reserve. San Francisco contains dozens of different ecological communities, which still harbor an astounding diversity of birds, mammals, reptiles, amphibians and other critters—including eight federally listed endangered species and twenty globally rare plants.

The perceived dichotomy between rural nature and urban civilization is an artifact of cultural history, and obscures the fact that San Francisco was developed in a unique natural landscape, no less special than anywhere else on Earth. San Francisco, like other cities around the planet, has its own special ecological legacy, which deserves respect and protection no less importantly than the rainforests of Brazil or British Columbia. Our grasslands, dunes, coastal sage scrub, wetlands and oak woodlands are unique in their own right and harbor many, many species of plants, mammals, birds, butterflies and other insect species.

In fact, San Francisco’s lands are home to a half dozen federally listed plants as well as the Mission Blue Butterfly, the California Red-legged Frog, and the Western Snowy Plover, all federally listed animals, protected by the Endangered Species Act. Our rare butterflies and plants are endemic to the San Francisco region – they grow nowhere else on Earth.

Several of our native plant communities, including coastal dunes, coastal freshwater wetlands, and coastal terrace prairies, are extremely rare habitats thanks to the development of California’s beautiful coast – and so San Francisco and the northern peninsula have a unique and important role to play in the conservation of the California coast. The city’s native habitats are also important to global biodiversity conservation. We are right in the middle of the Pacific Flyway where twice each year hundreds of species of birds stop to roost in San Francisco, where they feed and rest, during their long flights between the Americas.  Over a million birds come specifically to San Francisco Bay for the winter each year.

Protecting Biodiversity in San Francisco 

The region qualifies as a hotspot for its biological diversity, and also for the constant threats to its web of life – an entire world city has been built upon the ancient wild landscape. Across our fragmented eco-city, invasive plants, insensitive human activity, institutional neglect, lack of awareness and marginalization continue to erode the city and the peninsula’s biodiversity.

The California Quail is the official bird of the State of California and the City of San Francisco.  In 1900 an estimated 1500 California Quail made their homes in San Francisco. Abundant through the 1970s, by 1998 the population had declined by half, and today, only a handful of quail live in Golden Gate Park.

San Francisco populations of the Pacific Chorus Frog almost disappeared entirely except for one remaining occurrence at the southeast corner of Potrero Hill. If not for the heroic efforts of the city’s “underground” ecological restoration community, the city’s “tree frog” would have vanished into oblivion like the Tule Elk and Xerces Blue Butterfly. Black-tailed Jackrabbits are now confined to Candlestick State Park, and the Chalcedon Checkerspot butterfly only lives on the coastal sage scrub slopes above Laguna Honda. All of these local species declines are due to loss of habitat and the accompanying biodiversity that sustains these native California species. Plants and animals co-evolve over time in communities, where integrity is vital.The conservation of all of the individual species is critical.

The ecological health of our own indigenous biodiversity is paramount to resist the stresses of modern, urban life.The health and integrity of our ecological communities creates resilience in the face of invasive species, human impacts, and climate change. Invasive plants promote soil erosion, wildfire, threaten local food production, and impair water quality. Invasive weeds are a major threat to the last remaining habitats for native and rare plants and wildlife.

Damage to the Franciscan Bioregion or ecosystem has been so severe that the plants and animals desperately need the help of people.Simultaneously people benefit from the conservation, restoration and stewardship of local biodiversity. Through community-based ecological stewardship, we rebuild our lost connections to nature, which nurtures our spiritual, psychological, and ultimately physical health. Getting out into nature in the city provides us with needed exercise.