Chapter 11: Great Plains

Where the Great Plains is known to be the habitat for the American Bison, San Francisco and the bay Area are known to have important habitats of its own. The Dungeness crab, Pacific halibut, and Pacific salmon are three typical sea creatures that rely on the bay. Also, a few of the remaining salt marshes are located in this area. These salt marshes support a number of endangered species as well as providing services to animals such as the most famous route for birds in the Pacific; the Pacific Flyway.

The Pacific Flyway in green

 The San Francisco Bay provided the nation's first wildlife refuge, the artificial Lake Merritt, and America's first urban National Wildlife Refuge, Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge. 

Lake Merritt

Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge

Many Aquatic mammals have been recently recorded to re-colonize the Bay Area including the California Golden Beaver, and the North American River Otter.

North American River Otter

  The San Francisco bay has had issues of pollution which has been known to harm the wildlife in that area. Industrial mining and other uses of mercury however have resulted in poisonous metal in the bay. Also, an incident in November 2007, where a ship collided with the Oakland Bay Bridge, had spilled over 58,000 gallons of bunker fuel which created the largest oil spill in that region since 1996.

Source:
http://articles.latimes.com/2007/nov/09/local/me-bay9

http://www.bepress.com/archive/skinner_1962
http://www.birdnature.com/pacific.html

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Chapter 12/13: Rocky Mountain Region and Intermontane West

Although not as significant as the Rocky Mountains, the San Francisco Bay Area

has some recognizable vertical reliefs. There are a few mountains that with ridge and hill structures that were created by compressive forces between the Pacific Plate and the North American plate. These ranges provide for spectacular views in the Bay Area which include Marin County's Mount Tamalpais at 2,571 feet. Contra Costa County's Mount Diablo at 3,849 feet, Alameda County's Mission Peak at 2,517 to 2,604 feet, and Santa Clara County's Mount Hamilton at 4,213 ft. Mount Hamilton is actually quite well known for its significant astronomical studies performed at its crowning Lick Observatory. Although Tamalpais and Mission Peak are quite lower than the other ones mentioned, Tamalpais has no other peaks and few hills nearby and Mission Peak is a coast facing, interior mountain and has a great view from both sides.

Mount Diablo

Mission Peak

There are three major ridges that follow parallel along the fault line.

• Sanata Cruz Mountains
• Berkely Hils which run through Misson Peak
• Diablo Range which includes Mount Diablo and Mount Hamilton 

Looking down from Mount Tamalpais

Similarly to the importance of the Colorado river, the San Francisco Bay Area has a couple of important waterways essential to the population in the area. The largest rivers are the Sacramento and San Joaquin Rivers which drain into the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta and thereafter to Suisun Bay. These two drain into the San Pablo Bay. Other major rivers in the North Bay area are the Napa River, the Petaluma River, the Gualala River, and the Russian River. These two drain into the Pacific Ocean.




Source:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Bay_Area

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Chapter 14: MexAmerica

Mexican restuarant in San Francisco

Although the MexAmerica region is known for its high density of hispanics, San Francisco has a significant amount of Hispanics as well. In fact, over 15% of the population in San Francisco are from Hispanic origins. It is also interesting to note that in nine of the nation's top ten metro areas with the biggest Latino populations, Latinos' median household income on average is about $40,000 a year which falls behind that of the general population's $49,800. The only exception in the top ten list is San Francisco, where Hispanics median household income is $55,000. They also do the best in San Francisco in terms of sheer personal earnings, as opposed to household income.

It is also interesting to note that among the same top ten regions, the lowest share of uninsured Hispanics are found in San Francisco, where 24% of the adult Latino population does not have health insurance. Yet, that is still higher than that of the region's general population, which has an uninsured rate of 13%.

Nevertheless, the population of Hispanics in the San Francisco Bay Area are growing at a much faster than that of the caucasian population and others. San Mateo’s Latino population grew by 18 percent, and now makes up a quarter of the county’s residents.

Source:

http://www.hispanictrending.net/hispanic_facts_and_figures/

http://www.sfexaminer.com/local/2011/03/asians-latinos-continue-census-climb

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Chapter 15: California

Knowing that California has the highest farm income in the United Sates, it is notable to recognize what San Francisco offers in the food market. Twenty million tons of food a year are produced within the 100 mile range of San Francisco. This includes more than 80 different crops and livestock products. The agriculture in this area bring in about $10 billion a year, which is more than a quarter of California's total agricultural income margin. The only major food group that is not produced with abundance relatively in the region is the grain, accounting for only four percent of the total production value. However most of the agricultural production does not come from the immediate Bay Area, but from the valleys beyond such area. The Bay Area however account fro about 14% of the total agricultural production. One-third of that comes from the valuable wine grape crops in Napa and Sonoma Counties.

The vineyards of Napa Valley

Organic food production in the San Francisco is a small fraction of the total agricultural output. However, it takes up a significant percentage of direct-to consumer sales. The sales of organic food grew at an average annual rate of 18.6%.

It is interesting to note that the a great deal of what is produced in the area is not consumed in San Francisco or the entire 100 mile radius of the city. About 40% of California's agricultural production is actually exported to the rest of the country or oversea. Whereas, about a quarter of the food consumed in the state is actually imported from outside the Country. Therefore, San Francisco is known to export most of its production the area than domestically consume.

source:
http://www.farmland.org/programs/states/ca/Feature%20Stories/documents/Chap_1_foodshed.pdf

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Chapter 16: The Pacific Northwest

The Pacific Northwest gets its a significant amount of power and water from its dam. The San Francisco Bay Area gets some of its power and water from natural resources likewise. The San Francisco Public Utilities Commision (SFPUC) is the agency in San Francisco which provide with water and electric power services to the City and another 1.6 million people within three of the Bay Area counties. SFPUC provides fresh water from the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir to about 2.4 million people. Almost a third of that water is sent to people within San Francisco while the remaining is sent to Alameda, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. In the Hetch Hetchy which is on the edge of the Yosemite was built the Shaughnessy Dam in the 1930's. Not only does it help with providing the water, it is also a large source of the electricity. Aside from the water and electricity, SFPUC is responsible for treating the wastewater before it is sent into the San Francisco Bay and Pacific Ocean.

Hetch Hetchy reservoir

Before the construction of the Hetch Hetchy Aqueduct, half of San Francisco's water supply which was about 6 million gallons per day passed through the Sunol temple. It then purchased by the city of San Francisco in 1930 for US$40 million.

California is also known for generating wind power. The state has three primary regions where they have acres of windmills built to generate energy, including the Altamont Pass Wind Farm; a region in the Bay Area. These windmills provide for significant power to San Francisco and other bay area cities.










source:
http://www.earnfromanywhere.com/?p=542
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Francisco_Public_Utilities_Commission

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Chapter 17: Hawai'i

The center focus of Hawai'i is its tourist attraction. San Francisco is a very attractive city for tourism as well, with its landmark beaches and parks. These beaches and parks are facilitated by the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). This unit in fact is one of the most visited of the nation park systems in all of United States at about 13 million visitors per year. One of the main attractions within (GGNRA) is the Ocean Beach. This beach runs along the west coast of San Francisco at the Pacific Ocean. Much like that of Hawai'i, Ocean Beach has a vibrant surfing community. The most popular part of the beach is at Kellys Cove. It is home to only the most dedicated San Francisco surfers similar to of North Shore of Oahu, Hawai'i.

Japanese Tea Garden

There are more than 220 parks that are facilitated by the San Francisco Parks and Recreation department. The most popular and largest of which is the Golden Gate Park, which stretches from the center of the city to the Pacific Ocean. The area where the park was built over was originally covered by native sand dunes and grasslands. Then in the 1860s was created into the park we know today with the planting of non-native trees and plants. The park itself has several cultural attractions like the Japanese Tea Garden, and the San Francisco Botanical Garden.

Other attractive parks include Lake Merced, which is a fresh-water lake surrounded by park area and the San Francisco Zoo. The only park managed by the California State Park system is found in San Francisco, Candlestick Point. This area is known to be the first of the state’s urban recreation areas.

Source:

http://parks.ca.gov/?page_id=519

http://cityparksurvey.tpl.org/reports/report_display.asp?rid=27

http://www.beachcalifornia.com/sanfran5.html

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