News & Events

Snakes, Frogs, History and Golf at Sharp Park

Jan 31, 2026

As reported by Pepper St. Clair in the Mercury News, the beautiful and endangered San Francisco Garter Snake is back in the news - “Stunning California snake endangered since the 1960s prepares to make a comeback”:

“Listed as endangered since 1967, San Francisco garter snakes are found only on the Peninsula and in northern Santa Cruz County. They have been in trouble for decades, threatened by urban development, which has fragmented their remaining habitat. But 2026 could mark a turnaround, as the zoo-born snakes are released into the wild as part of a “head-start” program run by multiple federal and local agencies.”

“One of those smaller populations depends on a small patch of wetland wedged between the Sharp Point Golf Course and the headland at Mori Point in Pacifica. “We’re undergoing both habitat restoration as well as extra efforts to bring in snakes from other places, to increase the genetic diversity,” said Darren Fong, an aquatic ecologist with the National Park Service (NPS), who is leading the effort to improve conditions for the snake in Pacifica.”

"Those destined for Pacifica will be released into a habitat that has been upgraded for their arrival. The project included creating a new pond for snakes and red-legged frogs to thrive, and removing invasive Monterey Cypress and Monterey Pine trees. If we didn’t do any type of tree removal, those scrub and grassland areas would be converted into forested habitats,” said Fong. “For sun-loving reptiles like snakes, converting open grasslands and scrub to forested habitats is not great.”

The new National Park Service pond – built on federally-owned land on the slope of Mori Point just south of the San Francisco-owned Sharp Park property – will augment SF Rec & Park’s own frog and snake ponds and wetland habitat recovery project, which has been ongoing since 2015, following approvals by the San Francisco Supervisors, the US Department of the Interior, the Courts, and the California Coastal Commission.

Work on enhanced frog & snake habitat at Mori Point with Sharp Park in the background. [Photo credit San Jose Mercury-News]

The San Francisco Public Golf Alliance supports, and has always supported, efforts to enhance habitat for the SF Garter Snake and California Red-legged Frog in and about Sharp Park. As environmentalists, historic conservationists, and golfers we welcome preserving and enhancing the golf and frog and snake friendly landscape that existed when the creatures moved in after the course was built in 1932.

Sharp Park had to survive an 8-year effort by anti-golf zealots to close the golf course, based on an argument that golf harmed the frogs and snakes - an argument ultimately rejected by San Francisco, State and Federal environmental regulatory agencies, and the Courts, including: the California Coastal Commission; the Superior Courts of San Francisco and San Mateo County ; the US District Court for Northern California; and the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

The simple scientific fact is that the San Francisco Garter Snakes (SFGS) eat the California Red-legged Frogs (CRLF) and the frogs must have a freshwater environment to survive. Neither species could live on the landscape that existed before MacKenzie turned Laguna Salada (Salt Lagoon) into a freshwater pond and built the golf course around it. Both species moved in and thrived at the course despite being endangered elsewhere. They thrived because the golf course was there, not in spite of it.

All of this came out after years of political and legal wrangling, with the defense led by the San Francisco Rec and Park Department and City Attorney's Office, the San Francisco Public Golf Alliance, joined by conservationists, environmentalists, historic preservationists and Bay Area golfers. Among the findings:

Biologist Karen Swaim's testimony at the December 2009 SF Board of Supervisors Audit and Oversight Committee:

"Golf is not what is responsible for the decline of the San Francisco garter snake."

"This is a photograph from 1928. There is no golf here. The land surrounding Laguna Salada to the East, to the South, to the North, everywhere except the ocean, was agricultural fields... not pristine upland coastal prairie that would've been high quality upland for the San Francisco garter snake. You can see that there is a major channel up here [points to Laguna Salada] that illustrates there was connection to the ocean."

"1946 is the very first year the San Francisco garter snake and the California red-legged frog were documented [at Sharp Park]... golf has already been here for 16 years."

"In 1978 Sean Berry did his studies and he observed 37 San Francisco garter snakes along this area... and again golf has been in place for 46 years"

"1989 - This [photo] is not long after the the El Nino storms and the big storms of the eighties that resulted in a lot of sea water intrusion into the lagoon. By now, the sea wall is mostly constructed... From 1986 to 1988 some studies were done and no San Francisco garter snakes were found in this area after all the salt water intrusion. That was to a large part because the red legged frog was wiped out by the salt water."

"We're back to present day conditions... the frogs are prolific west of Highway One, they are not in any trouble at all west of Highway One. San Francisco garter snakes are concentrating again at Mori Point pond and Horse Stable Pond."

"You need to protect the sea wall. You need to have a fresh water managed habitat currently for this species to recover it, and that is all there is to it."

Dr. Mark Jennings PHD testimony at the 2015 California Coastal Commission hearing:

"In my 30 years of professional experience working with amphibians and reptiles, and in my 21 years of conducting observational surveys at Sharp Park, it is my professional opinion that the golf course has provided the type of freshwater and terrestrial habitats that have allowed the Frog populations to flourish, and, in turn, also benefit the Snake. The on-the-ground biological reality of optimal habitat conditions, robust and increasing Frog populations (and, therefore, abundant food supply for Snakes), typical Frog and Snake behavioral characteristics, and the numerous benefits of active golf course management are wholly inconsistent with claims that golf course activities are placing the Frog and Snake populations in peril."

Federal Judge Susan lliston 2012 ruling against WEI lawsuit:

"Experts for both sides agree that the overall Frog population has increased over the last 20 years... the number of egg masses found last winter in Sharp Park was the highest ever recorded... Plaintiffs have failed to meet their burden of showing irreparable harm to the California Red Legged Frog or the San Francisco Garter Snake."

As San Francisco public golfers we love that frog, we love that snake, and we love Sharp Park Golf Course. And we'll continue to work to protect all three.