August 26 , 2006:
The hidden ecologies of San Francisco Bay's salt flats

Biologist, blogger, and artist Wayne Lanier will lead a walk to Heron's Head in San Francisco, stopping along the way to examine the life in the ecologically rich salt ponds. Dr. Lanier studies how seasonal and tidal dynamics shape the micro-communities in the salt marshes in our own back yard. He's an old-fashioned field biologist who uses digital cameras and relatively inexpensive field microscopes to study and document his work which is published on his own website and the YouTube website.

For more about what he's been discovering in the bay, take a look at his blog.

There is no cost for this event and kids are highly encouraged to come (Wayne thinks they ask the best questions and he loves to recruit an "assistant" to help set up the field microscopes).

We're limited to the number of people who can come out on a walk and peer through microscopes, so please contact Mary Miller (marym@exploratorium.edu) if you would like to join us.

Event schedule:

• 9:30 a.m. - Meet at India Basin in San Francisco
• 10:00 - Hike to Heron's Head
• 12:00 - Picnic lunch (bring your own), look at specimens and talk with Wayne Lanier

DIRECTIONS:
Go to EVANS AVENUE in San Francisco. You can do this by going out 101S to the Caesar Chavez Exit. As you exit, bear left, following the signs that say "Caesar Chavez East". In each split, this is the left exit until you reach Caesar Chavez, then turn East [right]. Continue to 3rd Street. Turn right. Continue to Evans. Turn left. Evans will go East for awhile, then, at the giant PG&E Power Plant, it will curve to the left and bear South in a wide bend along the Bay Shore. Slow down. At the left-hand-side India Basin Park Sign, turn left into India Basin Park and park at the lower Parking Lot. Look north, across India Basin, and you will see Heron's Head Park. On your left is the Bay Trail to Heron's Head Park. Behind you are the Picnic Tables, up on the hill.

Some other eye candy (things we're likely to see):

• Volvox dances
• Amoeba gobbles algae cells in Mono Lake
  
• Jittery spirochete also leads a busy life