El Granada Advocates
EG Advocates
EG Advocates is a group of El Granada neighbors concerned about protecting our community, our homes, as well as our beautiful natural environment. We can be fire safe and protect the natural beauty and wildlife of El Granada.
OUR MISSION:
To preserve and protect the natural spaces in El Granada in order to mitigate the impacts of climate change and severe weather while responsibly protecting our homes against fire and flooding.
CURRENT MISSION CAMPAIGNS:
Protecting our wildlife through ecological preservation and promoting biodiversity through additional native plantings
Eliminating the use of chemicals on the land that can harm the land, people, pets, wildlife, plants, local waterways and the ocean.
PRESERVATION PHILOSOPHY:
Stabilizing the Wildlife and Groves:
Worldwide, loss of habitat is recognized as the leading cause of wildlife loss. With the climate crisis upon us, we don't have the luxury of cutting down all nonnative trees to re-grow our parks and landscapes to include only native plants. Clear cutting local groves of trees would kill and force out existing animal, bird and beneficial insect species, creating unknown environmental imbalances at a time when climate change is already unpredictable. Removing a significant number of trees also weakens the groves which can cause dangerous windfall of single trees during storms.
Stabilizing the Climate:
Trees are vital in sequestering carbon dioxide (CO2), a greenhouse gas that contributes to climate change. Cutting trees down releases carbon through decomposition of the dead trees. In some cases, the trees have been burned or reduced into woodchips which accelerates the release of CO2 into the atmosphere. So, by cutting down forests or large groves we reduce significant carbon capture AND create more carbon emissions - a double whammy. There are healthier ways to steward the land.
We advocate widening the biodiversity and carbon capture through:
1. Engagement of regular community volunteer and park service land stewardship to remove invasive seeds, saplings, and plants and replant native trees and vegetation.
2. Limiting tree cutting to where absolutely necessary and holding off cutting until after bird nesting and bat maternity seasons. (After August)
3. Intermixing new native plantings with existing environmental gardens, public spaces and forested areas where appropriate.
4. Encouraging the planting of natives in neighborhood yards.
We Invite You to Join Us:
We hope to educate and inspire fellow neighbors to take action in preserving the unique and beautiful landscape of El Granada and its wildlife. Climate change is quickly evolving and the landscape and all its inhabitants (including us) face an ongoing threat. Our landscape is also threatened by constant development. It is crucial that all of us work to protect this place we call home.
Fire Safety
Safety is of the utmost importance and we can create it by cutting fire breaks in the Wildland Urban Interface (WUI), hardening our homes, creating defensible space, and developing escape plans. However, cutting down all the trees around us is not a long-term, balanced solution, especially for those trees not in the high fire risk zone. Preserving as many trees and habitat as possible during climate crisis will help to capture greenhouse gases and mitigate the effects of climate change. Removing hundreds of acres of trees will heat up and dry out the land, increasing fire risk. Especially if nothing is replanted, this can lead to a spiraling cycle of greater fire risk. Human deforestation, among other things, disrupts the climate cycle, which leads to severe weather and wildfires, resulting in further deforestation and more severe climate change.
Click her for how to harden your home (Fire Safe San Mateo County)
Click here for how to create defensible space (Fire Safe San Mateo County)
Our Median Trees
Our community median trees hold historical significance to our town. One hundred plus years ago, they were purposefully planted as a promenade and green space for residents recreation and a privacy barrier to homes across the street. They provide enormous benefit to our residents as they transpire water into the air massively cooling the ecosystems and homes around them. They are our low lands beautiful, magical park space for neighbors, families, children, pets and wildlife. The Department of public works cuts the grass, clears ladder fuel debris, and trims the trees yearly. We are so grateful that the median trees were not considered a wildfire threat and the trees in Quarry Park are a lower risk than originally thought (according to the El Granada Wildfire Resiliency Scoping Project, San Mateo Resource Conservation District, June, 2022).
The medians and the parks (GGNRA and Quarry Park) are naturalized spaces where wildlife thrives in our town and where megatons of carbon are being sequestered by century old trees. While most of these trees are not native, solutions to minimize how more eucalyptus trees grow can be done by pulling saplings and collecting seeds regularly. Laadder fuels beneath can be reduced and natives can be planted where trees fall or need to be cut. Existing older trees can successfully co-exist with natives. During climate crisis is not the time to be cutting down acres of mature trees since they provide a massive cooling effect. Bringing back coastal prairie habitat can happen in other spaces on the coast as we share the land with all trees and their wildlife inhabitants.
Contact Us
Please use our Contact Form for any suggestions or inquiries.