Stories

You may have noticed while out on the trails, in your own backyard or even driving around in your car that there have recently been butterflies everywhere.

Each year when spring arrives and the grasses begin to grow tall throughout the preserves the annual practice of timed mowing occurs in select areas of Midpen preserves.

Beginning in May, crews will start building a new parking area and easy-access loop trail at Bear Creek Redwoods.

On April 4, neighbors from East Palo Alto’s University Village, along with staff from the City of East Palo Alto, Midpen and regional partners, celebrated the opening of a new access point to Ravenswood Preserve, improving connectivity to nature for East Palo Alto residents.

If you’ve ever spent a spring afternoon wandering through vibrant wildflower patches, you’ve likely stopped to admire the striking gold hue of a California poppy, or the intricate patterns of tidy tips.

Wildflowers are more than just a pretty picture that decorate our open spaces; they are ecologically important native species that support our region’s incredible biodiversity!

Great news for cyclists visiting Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve! Following recommendations from the 2022 Purisima Creek Multimodal Access Study, we’ve been enhancing amenities to make it easier to reach and enjoy the preserve without a car. 

Midpen wrapped up the restoration of several recently acquired properties that were incorporated into Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve.

It’s spring, which means that wildflowers of all shapes, sizes and colors begin to decorate Midpen preserves, including in areas managed with conservation grazing. Carefully managed conservation grazing can create specific conditions that help rare and common native wildflower species thrive.

After the Santa Cruz kangaroo rat was rediscovered in Sierra Azul Open Space Preserve in 2019, Midpen and collaborators launched a genetic research project to better understand this rare species and its evolutionary history.