Is Mt. Tam at Peak Health? New Report Available

By Michela Gentile, Science Communication Specialist, Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy

Overall, we found in this update that Mt. Tamalpais’ health is still fair. But the story is more complex than its headline.

© Steelblue

June 2024 - One Tam is happy to share that our updated Peak Health report is now available online!

What’s Peak Health? You may remember that back in 2016, the One Tam partners released the first-ever assessment of the health of Mt. Tamalpais to help us answer the question, is Mt. Tamalpais at peak health? It was the first time that over 60 One Tam partner staff and scientists from across the region came together to look at indicators of health. We analyzed these indicators, such as special wildlife species and plant communities, at a landscape-scale to develop an overall picture of health for the mountain.

We found that some species and communities were doing well, and that others needed help. We found that the overall health of the mountain was fair, and that we lacked information about some key species and ecosystems. We delivered regular updates on Peak Health, which is foundational to One Tam’s landscape-scale science and community programming, with an eye toward providing an overall update on the health of the mountain starting in 2022.

What’s new? Now, we’ve completed our first update of that original effort, published as Peak Health: An Update on the Status of Mt. Tamalpais’ Ecosystems. The new report features:

• Updated condition, status, and trend for wildlife and vegetation indicators of ecological health

• New indicators such as bats, bees, and salamanders, representing knowledge gaps we’ve filled since 2016

• New climate vulnerability information for each indicator

• New data sources, such as the Marin County Fine Scale Vegetation Map

So, is Mt. Tam at Peak Health? Overall, we found in this update that Mt. Tamalpais’ health is still fair. But the story is more complex than its headline. We found that some indicators improved while some did not. For other indicators, the seven years between reports was not enough time to see a difference. We also have more information in this update, particularly for vegetation cover, and we changed several metrics to better serve our goals but couldn’t compare them year to year.

Where can we learn more? Beyond perusing the report itself, we invite you to join us at an upcoming virtual program on June 20, 6:30 pm, where we’ll include a presentation of the overall findings from this update—register here.

As One Tam is turning 10 years old this year, we’re reflecting on how foundational Peak Health as a process has been for our work—assessing the mountain’s health on a landscape scale and seeing where we can make a difference as a collective. Thank you to the many contributors, staff, partners, volunteers, donors, and supporters who made this—and all our work—possible!

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