Our Work

The kids are antsy and the beginning of the school year is weeks and weeks and weeks away. Not to fear—the Golden Gate National Parks are here and near! Here are 10 fun and affordable ways to get the kids outside, in nature, and happily exhausted by the end of each endless summer day.

It’s summer time and that means trails throughout our parks will be bustling with families. Did you know that Crissy Field Center also uses trails for educational purposes? Learn how Camping at the Presidio utilizes the Batteries to Bluffs Trail in their new program “Are We There Yet?”

Parks Conservancy internships launch scientific careers! Chris Briggs was a banding intern with the GGRO in 2000. A dozen years of raptor research later, Dr. Briggs returns to the GGRO as the Banding Program Manager to take over when Buzz Hull retires.

In early June 2012, the Institute at the Golden Gate and the East Bay Regional Parks District, with the support of the National Park Service, hosted a convening of Bay Area park and health professionals to discuss the current state and potential future of the Park Prescriptions initiative and the Healthy Parks Healthy People (HPHP) movement in the region. How will this movement affect parks and people locally?

Some have asked: Why don’t we just buy plants from our local nurseries to restore the park? In short, the Parks Conservancy grows native plants from seed because such a practice increases the chances of the plants’ survival.

A bright flash passes by, triggering someone to yell “BLUE!” Team members nimbly make their way through a mosaic of summer lupines at Oakwood Valley. Quickly but carefully, one person follows the butterfly until it lands. “It’s a mission blue, male, resting on a lupine.” Read on to learn more.

We’ve all hosted parties. But what happens when the party spans a weekend, your guest list includes 250,000 people, and it takes an army to get ready? You enlist volunteers! Find out from one Parks volunteer what it was like to be part of San Francisco’s biggest party of the quarter-century: the Golden Gate Festival.

In the 21st century, Bald Eagles have become a more common than rare sighting in the Bay Area, mostly seen in the wintertime near a supply of ducks or fish.

New Institute at the Golden Gate Director Chris Spence tells us about his vision for the Institute—and his formative childhood experiences in the “spectacular countryside” of Bingley, England.

1. Can you give us a short highlight tour of your history?
I was born in England and spent most of my…

Summer Camp at the Crissy Field Center offers an experience full of fun and adventure—imbued with environmentalism and excitement for our national parks.