For the past 20 years, environmental educator Nancy DeStefanis has spent her spring Saturday mornings planted on the north shore of Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park, helped by a half-dozen or so telescopes and several teenaged interns, explaining to a nature-loving public the nesting habits of the great blue herons that call the area home.
During these pandemic days, she’s not sharing telescopes or gathering interns around her, but you can still find DeStefanis and her red car, tricked out with a tall heron decoy peeking through the sunroof, at Stow Lake several times a week.
She’s more than happy to tell you, in her thick Brooklyn accent, what you’re seeing as you look out over the water at the nests — or heronry — on an island just offshore.
‘It’s so important to get young people out, and that’s the thing we’ve missed the most.’
Known as the Heron Lady of Golden Gate Park, DeStefanis started her working life as an organizer for the United Farm Workers and later was an attorney, at one point leading California Women Lawyers, and advocating for homeless people and AIDS patients. But once she discovered herons nesting at Stow Lake in 1993, she went all-in on ornithology and public education.
In 2000, she founded the nonprofit San Francisco Nature Education, a program that takes elementary school children from underserved communities on field trips to observe local birds. To date, the program has served 20,000 students and trained 250 interns. DeStefanis’ biggest worry these days is that kids aren’t getting outside and in touch with nature.
I met with DeStefanis recently and sat (socially distanced — and six feet happens to be the average wingspan of a great blue heron) on her favorite bench, named in memory of one of her best friends, to see how she and the herons have been holding up in these unprecedented times.
This interview has been edited and condensed from its original form.
The Frisc: How has COVID-19 changed what you do here at Stow Lake and with Nature Education?
Nancy DeStefanis: We not only cancelled the field trips around the lake every Saturday and Heron Watch, we cancelled all our field trips throughout the city. We have a program of 30 public walks for adults and families at the San Francisco Botanical Garden, Heron’s Head Park, Chain of Lakes, all these places. We also had to cancel our small field trips with the school children. But we hope to resume in September.
The herons are only here until the end of July, unfortunately. But we have to do what we have to do.
There are lots of stories about wildlife reclaiming spaces in cities and elsewhere. Has the sheltering in place of people affected the herons in any way?
We had eight nests last year with 22 chicks. We got seven nests right now, and at least 15 chicks. I can’t see them until they actually emerge above the nest, so I don’t see any change, no.
What about over the time you’ve been observing the herons. What differences or changes have happened over all these years?
The great blue herons first nested in 1993 on the tiny, tiny island by the boathouse. Now, for some reason, in 2015 they came over here [to the island between the Chinese Pagoda and the northeast shore]. We don’t know why. We didn’t see any disturbance.
[During the interview, several passersby stopped to ask questions. One family had a teenage daughter, and DeStefanis handed the parents the keys to her car to retrieve materials, and encouraged the girl to join SF Nature Education. The father noted that the tree in which the herons currently nest is dead. He asked: What will happen when the tree falls?]
You know what? These birds, they’ll find another spot. We can’t do anything. We’re just going to have to wait and see. They’ve done very well here for five years. So we’re going to hope for the best, and then I’ll have to let them figure it out.
Aside from canceling everything this year, how else has the pandemic affected your organization?
It’s hurt us financially because we used to have a major fundraising campaign during the spring, during Heron Watch. People are out of work, they can’t give. And also people contributed when they were here. So we’ve taken a big hit, and we have to just be patient. It’s a very hard situation.
What plans do you have?
Starting in October, we’re hoping that things will have improved. We’re gonna go for our annual fundraising campaign. We’ll also go to foundations like we always do. But for now, in terms of contacting our members, it’s very difficult.
Do you foresee the pandemic affecting what you can offer in the fall?
Well, I’m hoping that if things are safe enough, a field trip leader could have people walking along behind him or her safely. Because, let’s face it, it’s kind of an intimate setting. You’re walking around, trying to hear what the field trip leader is talking about.
Is there anything you’re particularly concerned about?
I’d like to get people excited again about nature in their own backyards, and get the kids and interns out. I think it’s so important to get the young people out, and that’s the thing we missed the most. A lot of my student interns will do not only one year, but they’ll do two or three. And then they’ve gone on to careers in wildlife biology and ecology.
How does the pandemic make you feel about San Francisco’s future?
San Francisco’s handling of the pandemic makes me optimistic about moving forward. The mayor has been bold in issuing the earliest shelter in place in the country. Between her and Governor Newsom, I am hopeful that they will proceed with caution and do their best to safeguard our citizens. Gradually the city’s economy will reopen with changes.
Kristi Coale (@unazurda) is a San Francisco-based freelance writer and radio producer for various outlets, including KALW’s Crosscurrents and the National Radio Project’s Making Contact.