12 | March 29, 2017 | Malibu surfside news Malibu malibusurfsidenews.com April 2 - July 28 Opening Reception April 2 | Sunday | 1 PM - 4 PM The Kites of Tyrus Wong With photographs by Sara Jane Boyers The City of Malibu is honored to exhibit the whimsical handmade kites of artist Tyrus Wong along with photographs from Sara Jane Boyers’ project Go Fly a Kite: Saturdays at the Beach with Tyrus Wong Painting the sky Malibuartsandculture.org/kites Malibu City Hall 23825 Stuart Ranch Rd Malibu, CA 90265
malibusurfsidenews.com school Malibu surfside news | March 29, 2017 | 13 SMMEF concert raises $88K for SMMUSD art programs Submitted by SMMEF Five-time Grammy winner Michael McDonald (formerly of the Doobie Brothers and Steely Dan) and four-time Grammy winner “Weird Al” Yankovic headlined the 12th staging of the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation’s annual benefit concert on March 11, with student musicians who helped bring down the house. Also featuring special guest Amy Holland, Richard Page (of Mr. Mister) and Venice, the Greg Coote Concert For The Arts raised more than $88,000 for arts programs in the Santa- Monica Malibu public schools. “What a thrilling evening,” said Linda Greenberg, the executive director of the Education Foundation. “It is amazing to see the skill of our student musicians as they put on an incredible show alongside our headliners. Their talent and this show are testaments to our community’s dedication to ensuring excellent arts education. We are so grateful to the generous artists, crew, volunteers, students and each attendee who made this concert such a success.” Inside Santa Monica High School’s historic Barnum Hall, student choir, orchestra and band members from Samohi, Malibu High School and Olympic High School, sang and played along with the pros. Highlights of the evening included Richard Page’s “Broken Wings” and “Kyrie,” “Weird Al” Yankovic’s “Tacky” and “The Saga Begins,” and Michael McDonald’s “Minute by Minute” and “What a Fool Believes.” All the artists joined McDonald on stage, and brought the crowd to their feet, during the show’s rousing final numbers, “Takin’ It to the Streets” and “With a Little Help From My Friends.” Emceed by longtime radio personality Cynthia Fox of 100.3 The Sound, the concert also featured an exciting live auction that included signed guitars, the drum set from the stage, tickets to “The Voice,” and other unique items, all supporting the cause. This year, the concert was renamed the Greg Coote Concert For The Arts, in memory of entertainment executive and school district parent Greg Coote. Coote led the creation of the Ed Foundation’s For The Arts endowment campaign to ensure the continuity of arts programming for students in the Santa Monica-Malibu public schools. The community lost an extraordinary champion of the arts when Coote sadly passed away in 2014. At the start of the show, Famed artists and students perform in the finale of the Santa Monica-Malibu Education Foundation’s annual benefit concert on March 11. TourBusLive.com Coote’s daughters, Diane and Suzanne, made a moving speech in honor of their father and his dedication to arts education in public schools. Proceeds from the show will support arts programs in SMMUSD schools next year and the Education Foundation’s For The Arts Endowment. These concerts have now raised nearly $1 million for arts programs in Santa Monica and Malibu public schools. Featuring Venice every year as the house band, past concerts have included Jackson Browne, David Crosby, Billy Idol, America, Heart, and many other icons, all of whom have donated their time and talents to perform with musicians and singers from SMMUSD high schools. Species From Page 5 Biologist Lee Kats is vice provost for research and strategic initiatives at Pepperdine University, and an authority on the California newt, Malibu’s largest salamander, and a California species of special concern. He and his students have collected data on the local population of the species for nearly three decades. “I expect this will be the best year for amphibians in many, many years,” Kats told the Surfside News. “Both stream and temporary pond habitats look great. The invasive crayfish do not fare well in our streams when there is high flow and fast current.” Kats said he anticipates his surveys of local amphibians this year will be comparable to surveys prior to the drought. “One reason that newts may be able to bounce back quickly is that the adults are very long-lived — we think they may live to 30- 40 years,” Kats explained. “Best-case scenario is that the drought was not severe enough to dramatically impact the adult newts and now with streams primed with spring rains, they will migrate back to the streams for breeding and egg laying.” Things are also looking up for the Western pond turtle. This species is the only turtle native to the Malibu area, but like the newt, it is extirpated from much of its historic range. Just a couple of isolated populations remain, and the drought has had a major impact on the turtle’s survival. In recent years, volunteers carried hundreds of gallons of water over half a mile to keep one turtle population alive. In 2015, the situation became so dire that 48 of the last remaining turtles were collected and temporarily relocated to a sanctuary to ensure that the species didn’t become locally extinct. Things are different this year. “The turtles have a pond full of water,” Dagit said. “And we have a few juveniles in our handicapped turtle pool that will be released soon.” The stellar success of another local amphibian this year has made national news. The threatened California red-legged frog, immortalized by Mark Twain in his 1865 story “The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,” was once common in the Malibu area, but has been locally extinct since the 1970s. The species was reintroduced in 2015 in a special recovery program that translocated eggs from a small population discovered in the Simi Hills to several locations in the Santa Monica Mountains. The transplanted frogs survived despite the drought, and appear to be successfully reproducing. New egg clusters were identified at an undisclosed location earlier this month, confirming the project’s success. “I was literally crying when the stream team showed me the photos of egg masses,” National Park Service Ecologist Katy Delaney stated in a press release. “There’s still plenty of work to be done, but this is a major moment for the project.” Like the California newt and the Western pond turtle, the California redlegged frog requires clean year-round water that isn’t infested with predatory non-natives like crawfish. For the first time in years, all three amphibians have everything they need for survival, at least for now. “It’s super fantastic that we’ve had all this rain, but it’s still not enough,” Dagit told the Surfside News. “Creeks are already drying up. It’s a big problem for populations on the brink.” Malibu residents can help protect rare and special aquatic species by making sure stream setback requirements for development are met and by keeping runoff and yard waste out of creeks and drainages. Park visitors can help, too, by treading lightly around aquatic habitat.
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