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Glen Park: Home to the Red-back Jumping Spider

April 28, 2011 by Elizabeth Weise

By Murray Schneider, Glen Park News

High above Alms Road on April 27th, with the Miraloma Improvement Club behind him, Dylan Hayes, Recreation and Parks gardener, demonstrated to six Friends of Glen Canyon Park volunteers the art of pulling invasive Italian thistle, wild radish and poison hemlock that threaten native Douglas iris and aromatic yarrow.

Red-backed Jumping Spider

Hayes’s tutorial took place in Fox Meadow, a sequestered part of Glen Canyon Park that recreational walkers rarely see. Strewn with bushy coastal brush, hydra-coiled Cape ivy, and thorny blackberry, Fox meadow, home to wild coyotes, is one of the few pristine natural areas in San Francisco, according to Hayes.

“This habitat marks the beginning of time,” Hayes pointed out to a volunteer. “It is priceless and deserves generational understanding and respect.”

Hayes leaned down, observing a spider that crawled along his yellow pop-up bag.

“It’s a Red-back Jumping Spider, the largest jumping spider in North America,” Hayes said.

The largest jumping spider in North America!

In Glen Canyon?

As Hayes pointed to the swath of red skin on the arachnid’s dorsal side, the spider vaulted from his fingers and burrowed beneath a stand of poison oak, a sanctuary from pursuing hands.

“What do they eat?” quizzed the volunteer, incredulity writ large on his face.

“Anything smaller than it is,” said Hayes, a City gardener for 14 years, six with the Natural Areas Program. “They’re predators!”

The volunteer’s eyes widened.

Taking the bait, Hayes opined, “They’re ferocious.”

Replacing the high stepping spider wasn’t difficult for Hayes, his head shaded with a wide-brimmed gardener’s hat and his hands protected by a tight-fitting blue rubber gloves. He next nabbed a Box Elder beetle camouflaged among coyote brush. The insect crawled along his extended finger, a more benign resident of one of the most naturally wild places within San Francisco’s 49 square miles.

A red tailed hawk sailed above, eyeing a gopher Hayes had earlier pointed out.

Hayes’ colleague, gardener Randy Zebell, said, “It’s amazing that 800,000 people live in a place and share it with such nature.”

Under Hayes and Zebell’s supervision, the volunteers collected their tools: mattocks and rakes. They stuffed the extricated hemlock, radish and thistle into three separate pop-up bags and then headed down the slope that would eventually wend its way past Silver Tree Day Camp. Below them the songs of sparrows combined with the laughter of Glenridge Nursery school children.

Hayes led the way, then momentarily stopped. He turned around, looking puzzled.

“You know,” he said, “There should be a place such as this where a person can get lost.”

Try Fox Meadow.

But watch out for the jumping spider of San Francisco County.

Filed Under: Uncategorized

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Glen Park Association
2 weeks ago
Glen Park Association

Meet one of the Greenway’s most diligent volunteers -- A Townsend Warbler as far as Google knows. Progress in removing invasive oxalis is going well, but work remains! As the sun comes out, please join us at the Glen Park Greenway Native Meadow (between Lippard and Brompton Streets) to carefully remove invasive oxalis plants. Email our oxalis remediation lead, Kathy Keller at greenway@glenparkassociation.org if you can help! ... See MoreSee Less

Meet one of the Greenway’s most diligent volunteers -- A Townsend Warbler as far as Google knows. Progress in removing invasive oxalis is going well, but work remains! As the sun comes out, please join us at the Glen Park Greenway Native Meadow (between Lippard and Brompton Streets) to carefully remove invasive oxalis plants. Email our oxalis remediation lead, Kathy Keller at greenway@glenparkassociation.org if you can help!
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Glen Park Association
2 weeks ago
Glen Park Association

Join us THURSDAY JANUARY 19 at the Glen Park Association Quarterly meeting. We'll be in-person at the Glen Park Rec. Center at 6:30 PM. Our agenda includes:

-- A special presentation from QuitCarbon,
-- Meeting the new owners of @canyonmarket ,
-- Learning more about projects at @sfrecpark & @sfpublichealth, and
-- Electing 2023 GPA officers.

Have you renewed your membership for 2023 yet? Help keep our neighborhood vital by joining today at www.glenparkassociation.org/glen-park-association-membership/
... See MoreSee Less

Join us THURSDAY JANUARY 19 at the Glen Park Association Quarterly meeting. Well be in-person at the Glen Park Rec. Center at 6:30 PM. Our agenda includes:

-- A special presentation from QuitCarbon, 
-- Meeting the new owners of @canyonmarket , 
-- Learning more about projects at @sfrecpark  & @sfpublichealth, and
-- Electing 2023 GPA officers.

Have you renewed your membership for 2023 yet? Help keep our neighborhood vital by joining today at https://www.glenparkassociation.org/glen-park-association-membership/
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Blog Roll

Coyote Yipps
Friends of Noe Valley Rec Center
Glen Park Neighborhoods History Project
Open SF History
Sunnyside Conservatory
Sunnyside History
Sunnyside Neighborhood Association
Tramps of San Francisco
Upper Noe Neighbors

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