Friday, August 13, Saturday, August 14 and Sunday, August 15, 2021 the 13th Annual Mare Faire and Fennel Festival will take place at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve and other locations throughout Mare Island in Vallejo. There is no cost or preregistration required to attend the guided walks and tours and other activities over the weekend. The free event features guided hikes, tours, historic walk and talks, evening gatherings and sampling of Fennel Pollen wild-craft collected on Mare Island and other regional sites and processed in the Fairfield area.
To kickoff the three day event, Fairfield resident Bill George, considered the “unofficial photographer of the Mare Island Preserve”, will guide a photography walk in the Preserve Friday morning, August 13, from 8:30am-10:00am. Another Friday morning outing will be guided by Myrna Hayes, co-founder of the Mare Island Preserve, and its manager for more than a dozen years. Ms. Hayes will lead an exploration of fennel forests and explain their unique role in providing food and forage for native insects and domestic bees and migrating songbirds. She will meet interested public Friday, August 13 at 10:30am at the Mare Island Preserve “Gate Park”, a shady spot in the road, just before the main gate of the Preserve located at Correa Ct. and Azuar Dr.
All of the events will be held outdoors following COVID19 guidelines with the public encouraged to maintain social distance. There will be no live presentations which typically took place in the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve visitor center in the past, because the City of Vallejo locked the nonprofit managing organization for more than a decade, the Mare Island Heritage Trust, out of the building and the land trust no longer manages the Preserve.
To offer the public information about nature and history of Mare Island, a listing of links to Facebook Live programs given at the February 2021 Virtual San Francisco Bay Flyway Festival is provided in the Schedule of Outings and Activities.
A guided birdwatching outing in the Mare Island Preserve will be given Saturday morning, August 14, 9:30am-11am by Wally NeVille, field guide from the local Napa-Solano Audubon Society.
One of the most exciting offerrings of the weekend will be a Bug Bioblitz conducted by local Vallejo resident and entomologist, Marcus Griswold and his team of fellow “bug” enthusiasts and experts. The public will be guided in the field how and where to look for bugs and taught how to use the App, INaturalist.org in documenting the specimens found throughout the Island. These will become part of a permanent documentation of wildlife and historic resources maintained by the land trust.
From 12-noon to 4:00pm on Saturday, Aug 14 and 12noon-3:00pm on Sunday, Aug 15, a sampling of fruits and vegetables dusted with fennel and dill pollens and blends, will be available to the public at the Mare Island Preserve “Gate Park” outside the Preserve entrance gate. The only two agricultural pollens that have flavor, are used in cooking, cheesemaking and other culinary purposes, as well as health and wellness as teas and other remedies. Pollen Ranch has partnered with the Mare Island Heritage Trust at Mare Island for more than a decade, collecting fennel flowers from the Island and transporting the wild-craft collected harvest to the Fairfield area for processing. The sampling will include information about fennel pollen and the retail tins of pollen will be available for sale to the public.
A gathering is scheduled Saturday evening August 14, from 6:00-9:00pm at the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve Entrance Gate Park, Correa Ct at Azuar Dr. on Mare Island in Vallejo. There will be a small BBQ for individuals to prepare their own food on. Cold refreshments will be offered for a requested donation. It is likely that osprey will still be in the area and soar and call overhead the small park area outside the gates of the Preserve. Park Users and Osprey enthusiasts have taken to parking and gathering outside the Preserve gate due to the 5:00pm closure of the main Preserve by the City of Vallejo public works department. Osprey and other wildlife take advantage of the “hunting hour” till dusk, making it an ideal time of day to view wildlife.
Tours on Mare Island include the opportunity to visit the last remaining WWII Landing Craft Gunboat (LCS-102) berthed at Berth 6 at the corner of A St. and Nimitz Ave. It is open for tours Saturday, Aug 14, 9:30am-3:30pm. Donations are appreciated. Saturday and Sunday, 9:00am-12noon the public is invited to visit the Vallejo People’s Garden, behind 1055 Azuar Dr. at the corner of Oscar St. for composting demonstrations and informal tours of the garden by volunteers.
A truly unique stop on the Island, is the chance for the public to see the intricate mosaic pieces that will be installed as colorful images of Vallejo’s history on the 52 risers of the historic Capitol Street Stairs in downtown Vallejo. The hand-created mosaics tell a remarkable story of the town’s history in colorful tiles designed by artists commissioned by the Vallejo Capitol Stairs Mosaic Project which has raised nearly $100, 000 for the mosaic art from individuals and civic groups. The location of the viewing site is Building 207, 875 Nimitz Ave. across the street from the Coal Sheds parking lot.
In addition to the ongoing impacts of the Pandemic for public gatherings, this year continues to be a daunting challenge for the entire team of dedicated scientists, researchers, guides, volunteers and board of the Mare Island Heritage Trust. After a series of fires in September 2019, and after 12 years of trusted and protective care of the Preserve, the nonprofit founder, funder and manager of the Preserve, was dismissed by the Vallejo City Manager as operating managers of the Mare Island Preserve, for no clear reason. Left to the heavy-handed management of the Public Works Dept, the Preserve has been downgraded in the last 18 months to little more than a jogging trail with the closure of the visitor center, destruction of an estimated $45,000 of informational, rattlesnake warning and wayfinding signs and removal of the land trust team who founded and operated it with skilled and gentle care and at no cost to the City of Vallejo. In response to what is perceived as an unfair and disastrous move by the City, more than 8,300 Preserve Users have signed an online petition found on the Preserve website, requesting that the Preserve be returned to the founding non-profit organization’s care. Another 1,000 signatures were collected on paper, prior to the pandemic.
The public is encouraged to visit the Mare Island Shoreline Heritage Preserve Facebook page for a detailed schedule. Dogs are allowed in the Mare Island Preserve on leash.
All photos of Mare Island Preserve except fennel harvesting and fennel flowers are by Bill George. Fennel images and Mare Island San Pablo Bay Trail images, Myrna Hayes
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Download Schedule Here
