With Valentine’s Day around the corner, it’s a time to show some love for those who have made a positive and lasting impression on our lives. Here in the Golden Gate National Parks, one incredible community stands out—our PARK VOLUNTEERS.

The Institute at the Golden Gate’s Healthy Parks, Healthy People work does more than just encourage new communities to utilize neighborhood parks as resources for improving health. This initiative also creates new advocates for the health of public lands, like the Golden Gate National Parks.

On November 6–9, 2013, the Institute at the Golden Gate hosted over 140 educators, rangers, experts, and innovators at Fort Baker to brainstorm ideas on leveraging parks as places for climate-change education. Read on to learn what they discussed.

Although Muir Beach will be closed through November, visitors—and the environment—have a lot to gain. When the area reopens in late fall, there will be improved amenities and better habitat for threatened and endangered species. Read on for details.

Wondering when you’ll start to see healthy and sustainable food in national parks? Momentum is building, thanks to the Institute at the Golden Gate’s Food for the Parks initiative. The Institute and Golden Gate National Parks Superintendent Frank Dean are helping develop the National Park Service’s ground-breaking Healthy and Sustainable Food Program.

Want your middle school student to get a job this summer? Consider applying for Urban Trail Blazers, Crissy Field Center’s paid internship program for middle schoolers. Interns will explore their national park, complete various art projects, and have fun this summer—all while getting paid!

The new 13-acre swath of national parkland, atop the Presidio Parkway tunnels and connecting the Main Post with Crissy Field, represents a major, historic park-making opportunity. James Corner Field Operations—the creative minds who designed the much-admired High Line in New York City—seems up to the task.

Get to know our new San Francisco Park Stewardship interns

As autumn nears, park managers are shifting priorities towards wildfire resilience and protecting communities along the wildland-urban interface: the high-risk zone where human development meets flammable vegetation.