If you were on the Palo Alto City Council in the 1960s and 1970s, God help you, then “Baylands Lucy” was a reliable pain in your life.
Elementary school teacher Lucy Evans, who packed her curriculum with immersed-in-nature field trips, was the self-appointed guardian of the Palo Alto marshlands, filling her home with legal papers and meeting minutes related to Bay Area conservation. She once surprised the council with proof that land around San Francisquito Creek in Palo Alto, set for development, had been deeded for exclusive parkland use by Leland Stanford’s right-hand man Timothy Hopkins.
The park is still there. Named after Hopkins, of course.
So, be sure to quietly thank Evans as you walk around the Baylands Nature Preserve, 1,940 acres of tidal marsh and open space, and one of the elite bird watching spots on the West Coast. The Palo Alto shoreline park is a collage of wildlife, alien-looking flora and texturized mudflats that change like an Etch A Sketch with the shifting tides…