Nancy DeStefanis

Last updated

Nancy H. DeStefanis is an American environmental educator, field ornithologist and lecturer. She is credited for discovering and documenting the first colony of great blue herons to nest in San Francisco in 1993, and for monitoring them for the San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory every year since then—an activity that earned her the nickname of "Heron Lady of Golden Gate Park". [1] [2] [3] She features in Heron Island (1998), a short documentary directed by Judy Irving about the heronry of Stow Lake in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. [4] In 2005 she received the Jefferson Award for Public Service. [5]

DeStefanis is the founder and executive director of San Francisco Nature Education, a nonprofit introducing children in underserved schools to urban nature conservation and science. Prior to working as an environmental educator, DeStefanis was an attorney who served as a community organizer for the United Farm Workers Union and as executive director of California Women Lawyers. [6] [7]

Related Research Articles

San Francisco Bay Shallow estuary on the coast of California, United States

San Francisco Bay is a shallow estuary in the U.S. state of California. It is surrounded by a contiguous region known as the San Francisco Bay Area, and is dominated by the large cities of San Francisco, San Jose, and Oakland.

Presidio of San Francisco Place in California, United States

The Presidio of San Francisco is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area.

Richmond District, San Francisco Neighborhood in San Francisco, California, United States

The Richmond District is a neighborhood in the northwest corner of San Francisco, California, developed initially in the late 19th century. It is sometimes confused with the city of Richmond, which is 20 miles (32 km) northeast of San Francisco.

Golden Gate Park Urban park in San Francisco, California, United States

Golden Gate Park, located in San Francisco, California, United States, is a large urban park consisting of 1,017 acres (412 ha) of public grounds. It is administered by the San Francisco Recreation & Parks Department, which began in 1871 to oversee the development of Golden Gate Park. Configured as a rectangle, it is similar in shape to but 20 percent larger than Central Park in New York City, to which it is often compared. It is over three miles (4.8 km) long east to west, and about half a mile (0.8 km) north to south. With 24 million visitors annually, Golden Gate is the third most-visited city park in the United States after Central Park and the Lincoln Memorial.

Oakland Arena Arena in California, United States

Oakland Arena is an indoor arena located in Oakland, California, United States. From its opening in 1966 until 1996, it was known as the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Arena. After a major renovation completed in 1997, the arena was renamed The Arena in Oakland until 2005 and Oracle Arena from 2006 to 2019. It is often referred to as the Oakland Coliseum Arena as it is part of the Oakland–Alameda County Coliseum Complex with the adjacent RingCentral Coliseum. Oakland Arena seats 19,596 fans for basketball.

Marin Headlands Southernmost peninsula of the Marin Peninsula in California, Unites States

The Marin Headlands is a hilly peninsula at the southernmost end of Marin County, California, United States, located just north of San Francisco across the Golden Gate Bridge, which connects the two counties and peninsulas. The entire area is part of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area. The Headlands are famous for their views of the Bay Area, especially of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Crissy Field Former U.S. Army airfield, now part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area

Crissy Field is a public recreation area on the northern shore of the San Francisco Peninsula in California, United States, located just east of the Golden Gate Bridge. It includes restored tidal marsh and beaches.

Shoreline Park, Mountain View Park in Mountain View, California, United States

Shoreline at Mountain View is a park in Mountain View, California, United States. The city park was dedicated in 1983, some fifteen years after the City undertook the daunting task of planning a regional park that would provide citizens with environmentally savvy recreation opportunities, from a site that was originally a landfill.

Golden Gate Biosphere Network

The Golden Gate Biosphere Network is an internationally recognized voluntary coalition of federal, state, and local government agencies, nonprofit organizations, universities, and private partners within the Golden Gate Biosphere (GGB) region. The Network works towards protecting the biosphere region’s biodiversity and conserving its natural resources to maintain the quality of life for people within the region. The Network has been part of the UNESCO Man and Biosphere Programme since 1988 and is part of the US Biosphere Network and EuroMAB. It is recognized by UNESCO due to the significant biodiversity of the region, as well as the Network's efforts to demonstrate and promote a balanced relationship between humans and the biosphere.

Golden Gate National Recreation Area U.S. National Recreation Area surrounding San Francisco Bay Area

The Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) is a U.S. National Recreation Area protecting 82,027 acres (33,195 ha) of ecologically and historically significant landscapes surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area. Much of the park is land formerly used by the United States Army. GGNRA is managed by the National Park Service and is the most visited unit of the National Park system in the United States, with more than 15 million visitors a year. It is also one of the largest urban parks in the world, with a size two-and-a-half times that of the consolidated city and county of San Francisco.

Arastradero Preserve

Arastradero Preserve, officially known as Enid W. Pearson–Arastradero Preserve, is a nature preserve that protects most of the Arastradero Creek watershed, including its ephemeral Mayfly Creek tributary. The preserve is owned and operated by the City of Palo Alto, California. The main parking lot hosts an interpretive center and is located at 1530 Arastradero Road.

The 49-Mile Scenic Drive is a designated scenic road tour highlighting much of San Francisco, California. It was created in 1938 by the San Francisco Down Town Association to showcase the city's major attractions and natural beauty during the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition.

Harold Gilliam was a San Francisco-based writer, newspaperman and environmentalist, a columnist for the San Francisco Chronicle and Examiner newspapers. The Harold Gilliam Award for Excellence in Environmental Reporting, given by The Bay Institute, is named in his honor.

Strawberry Hill (San Francisco) Hill in San Francisco

Strawberry Hill is a hill in San Francisco, California, near the center of Golden Gate Park. The hill occupies an entire island in the park's man-made Stow Lake, and is connected by two bridges to the mainland of the park.

Audubon Canyon Ranch U.S. nonprofit organization

Audubon Canyon Ranch (ACR) is a 501(c)(3) not-for-profit environmental conservation and education organization headquartered in Stinson Beach, Marin County, California, on the eastern shore of Bolinas Lagoon. The lands upon which ACR operates are within the ancestral territories of the Coast Miwok, Southern Pomo and Wappo peoples. ACR recognizes that Indigenous communities are very much alive today and striving to protect and maintain relationships with cultural and natural resources on ACR lands; they acknowledge that Indigenous lands are occupied by them and others.

<i>Wished on Mabel</i> 1915 film

Wished on Mabel is a 1915 American silent comedy short or "one-reeler" filmed at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco, California, and directed by Mabel Normand. The short also co-stars Normand and Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle.

San Francisco Nature Education is a non-profit environmental education organization in San Francisco, California that provides interactive environmental education programs for the development of leadership and stewardship in youth and adults. It was founded by Nancy DeStefanis, who serves as its executive director.

Spreckels Lake

The Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility, commonly referred to as "Spreckels Lake", is an artificial reservoir behind an earthen dam and adjoining clubhouse situated on the northern side of San Francisco's Golden Gate Park. Completed in mid-March 1904, the reservoir was built for the use of model boaters of all ages, interests, and skill levels, designed specifically for racing model sail and power boats and to propagate the skills and crafts necessary to build and sail competitive model boats of all types. The Spreckels Lake Model Yacht Facility is considered one of the finest examples and one of the most beautiful of the naturalistically styled, man-made model boating facilities in the world and is always open to anyone wishing to sail its waters with few restrictions. The facility is also the permanent home to the San Francisco Model Yacht Club (SFMYC), the organization at whose request Spreckels Lake and the adjoining clubhouses were built and whose history is and always will be irrevocably intertwined with the history of the facility.

Stow Lake Boathouse

The Stow Lake Boathouse is a recreational facility in San Francisco.

References

  1. Ungaretti, Lorri (2014). Legendary locals of San Francisco's Richmond, Sunset, and Golden Gate Park, California. Charleston, South Carolina: Arcadia Publishing. p. 15. ISBN   978-1-4671-0177-6. OCLC   885224856.
  2. "Blue Herons, chicks nesting in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park". ABC7 San Francisco. 2017-04-14. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  3. Alessandra Bergamin. "Great blue herons at Stow Lake, San Francisco". Bay Nature. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  4. Heron Island , retrieved 2020-02-20
  5. Maddan, Heather (2005-04-30). "The Jefferson Award: Nancy DeStefanis, naturalist". San Francisco Chronicle. Retrieved 2020-02-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  6. "San Francisco Nature Education - About Us - Staff". sfnature.org. Retrieved 2020-02-20.
  7. Coale, Kristi (2020-06-18). "The Heron Lady of Golden Gate Park is Still Watching". Medium. Retrieved 2021-01-27.