Issue link: https://www.ifoldsflip.com/i/1214088
EXPLORE YOUR PARKS Your Guide to Marin County Parks & Programs SPRING 2020 Did you see the coyote and badger video on social media? A motion- activated camera on Peninsula Open Space Trust land filmed a coyote playfully greeting a badger before they walked off together through a culvert, bypassing a busy road. Wildlife cameras are providing insights into the secret lives of animals in our backyard wildlands. The Marin Wildlife Picture Index, funded by Parks Measure A, is the first of its kind in North America, a landscape-level study of ecosystem health. It has collected over five million wildlife photos on 10,800 acres surrounding Mt. Tam. These public lands are managed by One Tam partners: Marin County Parks, the Marin Municipal Water District, California State Parks, and the National Park Service. This project has also engaged more than 1,000 community science volunteers. The data from this project gives public land managers an indicator of the biodiversity and health of the ecosystems in Marin County. As the climate changes in coming years, and we work as stewards to maintain the resilience of this special landscape, this data will help measure the success of our efforts. Aggre- gated data provides insights into the overall health of the environment. But like the badger and the coyote video, each photo also has an individual story to tell. Celebrate the wildlife in our midst April 3 to April 29 by visiting the photography exhibit Casual in Nature: A Celebration of Motion- Sensor Wildlife Portraits, at the Mill Valley Community Center. The exhibit features Marin Wildlife Picture Index images–bobcats, foxes, coyotes, hawks, and more. It's part of Mill Valley Earth Awareness month. There is so much more we have yet to discover in nature. DI RECTOR'S CORNER Max Korten Director and General Manager, Marin County Parks MARIN WILDLIFE PICTURE INDEX