FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FRIENDS OF EDGEWOOD NATURAL PRESERVE
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FOCUS ON...CAROLYN CURTIS By Laverne Rabinowitz Carolyn Curtis has been serving as the Coordinator of the Friends of Edgewood since its founding, and coordinated the major and varied efforts to preserve the Park for many years. She’s savoring the victory these days (and the relief) yet hasn’t let the fact that her guard can now be let down relieve her from planning, wishing and working for further improvement to the Preserve and its use. Her immediate wishes for Edgewood are for a full-time ranger to patrol the open space and for better signs. With County funding being cut, she says, fulfillment of these goals may depend on a large increase in membership of the Friends of Edgewood! Carolyn came to champion Edgewood both through her membership in the California Native Plant Society (CNPS) and out of a firsthand familiarity with the uniqueness of the park gained from many visits per week when she lived in Emerald Hills adjacent to Edgewood in the mid-1980’s. But there’s much in her background that made her uniquely suited for the role she assumed as coordinator. A native of the Chicago area, Carolyn first came to California on a cross-country bike trip in 1969, fell in love with the Napa Valley, and returned in 1970 to live there. She and her husband worked in the wine industry and Carolyn also taught German at Napa Junior College and a parochial school. She had always had a love for wildflowers, but had never known much about them. Living next to an open space in the Napa Valley, she taught herself, together with a friend who had a degree in botany, how to identify the plants she saw. Her interest led her to join the CNPS chapter there in the mid-1970’s and her interest and knowledge have only increased. Carolyn was a staffer for 18 months on a congressional campaign in 1979-80, then moved to the Redwood City area and worked in marketing for a large modem company until laid off in 1985, whereupon she began to pursue full-time her skills as a technical writer. She continues to work as a free-lance technical writer in the electronics industry. She joined CNPS’ Santa Clara Valley Chapter on moving to our area but didn’t become active there until 1984. The early 1980’s had seen the first big fight for a golf course, culminating in the CNPS lawsuit against the County over its deficient Environmental Impact Report. When the subject heated up again in 1987, she served on the CNPS Edgewood Park Committee. This phase of the struggle ended in spring 1988, when the San Mateo County Supervisors began to pursue putting the golf course on San Francisco watershed. When in 1991 the San Francisco Supervisors voted against allowing San Mateo County to use SF watershed land for its new golf course, Edgewood was again proposed as the preferred site. At this point the Edgewood Park Committee decided immediately to broaden its group of Edgewood supporters and to start a grassroots petition drive. At the end of the battle, the Save Edgewood Park Coalition consisted of 43 organizations and 12 businesses. With 100 park users as volunteers 11,000 signatures were obtained between September 1991 and May 1992* and countless letters and telephone calls directed to supervisors and other local officials. Carolyn estimates that the drive often took 20 hours a week of her time! But, she says it was "the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done in my life, and I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything in the world. All the people [who worked on it] were so grand." She is writing a journal article and planning a book on the Edgewood vs. Golf Course saga. The account should be inspiring for its example of how grassroots efforts can and do win out over seemingly more powerful interests. It’s clear that Edgewood is an open space Carolyn loves. She has several "favorite parts" of the park depending on the season, but she especially loves the Sylvan Trail in early spring when Solomon’s seal blooms along the wooded paths and hound’s tongue and Indian warrior combine with their beautiful sky blues and maroon reds. She likes the areas where one passes from one zone to another--e.g., from woods to grasslands; and the Clarkia Trail’s spring-blooming yerba santa and sticky monkey flowers and the silvery foliage are delightful to her. Farther down the Clarkia Trail she loves the orange lichens and the Melica californica grass like "bursts of fireworks" in the rocks. And of course, she loves the carpets of flowers in April and in June on the serpentine grasslands. It may seem superfluous to say that Carolyn has other interests (where does she find the time!). Nevertheless, in addition to a very big role in CNPS this year (as VP for programs) and next year (as President-elect), she sings alto with the California Bach Society, enjoys growing native plants and vegetables, and continues with her love of bicycling. It’s clear that the fight for Edgewood would have had many supporters on its own merits, but it’s also clear (to this writer, at least) that it might not have been fought so brilliantly nor won so satisfactorily without the dedication of Carolyn Curtis. Hats off to you, Carolyn! Though the Supervisors voted in May 1992 to declare the park a natural preserve and the San Mateo County Parks and Recreation Commission concurred, the issue was resurrected in August when Supervisor Nolan proposed a new feasibility study for 1/3 of the park and was not laid to rest until August 1993 with the amendment of the Joint Powers Agreement and declaration of Edgewood as a Natural Preserve. |
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