2022 Highlights

Valuescience

Val­ue­science is both a prod­uct of Mag­ic and its foun­da­tion. Though we encounter grow­ing signs that oth­ers are increas­ing­ly under­stand­ing that pre­dic­tion is a nexus between value—satisfaction we want—and science—best prac­tices for dis­cern­ing and real­iz­ing val­ue. Yet, to our knowl­edge, Mag­ic remains the sole orga­ni­za­tion explic­it­ly ded­i­cat­ed to devel­op­ing and dis­sem­i­nat­ing this idea, which we do with research, teach­ing, and publishing.

Research

Even though every­one sci­ences to some extent to improve suc­cess in pre­dict­ing out­comes of con­tem­plat­ed choic­es, few iden­ti­fy as sci­en­tists. Any­one who under­stands that all of us sci­ence thinks more read­i­ly as sci­en­tists do about sci­enc­ing bet­ter in every aspect of life. In 2022 we con­tin­ued prepa­ra­tions for a ran­dom­ized con­trolled tri­al of an inter­ven­tion to sup­port peo­ple in iden­ti­fy­ing as sci­en­tists and there­by becom­ing more con­scious, con­sis­tent, and com­pe­tent in sci­enc­ing. We look for­ward to using results to become more effec­tive in dis­sem­i­nat­ing val­ue­science to a wider population.

Teach

We rely heav­i­ly on one-to-one, which we’ve found sin­gu­lar­ly effec­tive in com­mu­ni­cat­ing valuescience—a rad­i­cal idea tied to the very core of per­son­al iden­ti­ty, and about which indi­vid­u­als typ­i­cal­ly hold strong opin­ions tight­ly and change them reluc­tant­ly. In the past year we’ve engaged hun­dreds of inter­locu­tors, includ­ing ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty res­i­dents and guests, and pro­gram vol­un­teers and clients. We also met with elect­ed offi­cials (e.g., Con­gress­woman Anna Eschoo, Coun­ty Super­vi­sor Joe Simit­ian, and Palo Alto City Coun­cil mem­bers-elect Ed Lau­ing, Vic­ki Venker, and Julie Lyth­cott-Haims) to pro­mote val­ue­science-based policy.

We engaged with groups by pre­sent­ing val­ue­science in cor­po­rate (e.g., Bay Area Ama­zon employ­ees in an online Earth Day webi­nar) and edu­ca­tion­al (e.g., Stan­ford Epi­demi­ol­o­gy sem­i­nar) set­tings as well as by offer­ing week­ly in-per­son, online, and hybrid val­ue­science sem­i­nars, each attend­ed by 3–10 participants.

Publish

In 2022 we pub­lished “Mag­ic Ever-Evolv­ing” and “Lan­guage We Live” in Com­mu­ni­ties magazine.

Results

In 2022, we enjoyed emails, let­ters, calls, and per­son­al vis­its from stu­dents, clients, and col­lab­o­ra­tors span­ning every decade of Magic’s his­to­ry. While we’re accus­tomed to hear­ing appre­ci­a­tion for val­ue­science lessons learned, we’ve felt sur­prise at the upsurge in the num­ber and inten­si­ty of recent acknowl­edge­ments. In a relat­ed devel­op­ment, a grow­ing pro­por­tion of those to whom we’re intro­duc­ing val­ue­science are respond­ing with inter­est, open­ness, and offers of and requests for assis­tance and col­lab­o­ra­tion. We’re con­jec­tur­ing that as peo­ple become more cog­nizant of the ris­ing costs and shrink­ing ben­e­fits of busi­ness as usu­al, we’re bet­ter able to rec­og­nize the essen­tial role of val­ue­science as a foun­da­tion for suc­cess­ful adaptation.

“I’m so grate­ful for all the things I learned at Mag­ic and how it’s shaped my ideas and aspi­ra­tions. I’m return­ing dur­ing my sab­bat­i­cal to explore how I may bet­ter align my career and my values.”
—Vic­ki, 2015 res­i­dent, return­ing April, 2023

Residential Service Learning Community

As we’ve adapt­ed to the recent course of the COVID pan­dem­ic, we’ve cau­tious­ly regrown the res­i­den­tial com­mu­ni­ty. Dur­ing 2022 we guid­ed 26 res­i­dents from nine coun­tries and sev­en US states in cre­at­ing val­ue­science-based ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty; host­ed twen­ty guests for a night or more each; and orga­nized month­ly hikes and sev­en camp­ing trips for residents. 

We also pro­vid­ed reg­u­lar in-house hatha yoga, phys­i­cal fit­ness, val­ue­science, and social dance instruction.

Mammoth

In 2022 we launched a long-con­tem­plat­ed ini­tia­tive to estab­lish a Mag­ic out­post with ready access to wild nature, pur­chas­ing a res­i­dence and adja­cent emp­ty lot in Mam­moth Lakes. We estab­lished there a satel­lite ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty with four res­i­dents hail­ing from two coun­tries and two US states led by new Mag­ic Affil­i­ate Brooke Rogers. She ini­ti­at­ed Mag­ic Mam­moth ser­vice to extend our long tra­di­tion of reusing and recy­cling by vol­un­teer­ing with Sec­ond Chance Thrift Store. 

The com­mu­ni­ty is locat­ed in a part of Mam­moth zoned for year-round res­i­dents and sea­son­al employ­ees. We look for­ward to evolv­ing a val­ue­science-based com­mu­ni­ty with peo­ple from this pop­u­la­tion and exert­ing influ­ence for sci­ence-based liv­ing in Mam­moth as we have in Palo Alto.

Outreach

The res­i­den­tial ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty is both exper­i­ment and demon­stra­tion. We field dozens of inquiries each year from com­mu­ni­ty seek­ers and show­case the com­mu­ni­ty to hun­dreds of vis­i­tors, many of whom we host for din­ner and con­ver­sa­tion. In 2022, we con­tin­ued our long stand­ing tra­di­tion of host­ing a Thanks­giv­ing cel­e­bra­tion by using rapid tests to allow 26 of us to safe­ly gath­er dur­ing the ongo­ing COVID pandemic.

In 2010, Mag­ic edit­ed and pub­lished a 20th anniver­sary edi­tion of The Art and Prac­tice of Lov­ing, a val­ue­science approach to a foun­da­tion­al ele­ment of the Mag­ic ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty. In 2022, as in each of the twelve pri­or years, we dis­trib­uted dozens of copies to seek­ers and builders of lov­ing com­mu­ni­ty in its many forms.

Planting for the Second Hundred Years

Soon after we began plant­i­ng and car­ing for Cal­i­for­nia native oaks on Stan­ford lands in the 1970’s, we real­ized that our influ­ence upon volunteers—now num­ber­ing more than 20,000—who par­tic­i­pate in these activ­i­ties may well be far more impor­tant than any changes we make to the landscape. 

We receive from cur­rent and pri­or par­tic­i­pants a steady stream of com­mu­ni­ca­tions affirm­ing this judgment.

“I am so priv­i­leged to be part of such an amaz­ing com­mu­ni­ty. .. .You have inspired me to pur­sue my pas­sion and be self aware. You have expand­ed my world­view and are fun­da­men­tal in my growth as a per­son. I am so grate­ful, thank you!”
—May, UCLA con­ser­va­tion biol­o­gy major, vol­un­teer since mid­dle school

In 2022 we super­vised 300 vol­un­teers in more than 1,000 hours of oak habi­tat stew­ard­ship field­work, which includ­ed trans­plant­i­ng 20 oaks from Magic’s nurs­ery into near­by open space used by 600,000 vis­i­tors annu­al­ly and irri­gat­ing 400 oaks and oth­er­wise main­tain­ing 2,000 oaks we pre­vi­ous­ly planted. 

When for­mer Plant­i­ng for the Sec­ond Hun­dred Years project man­ag­er Dave Muffly, now a con­sult­ing arborist, assured us ready access to high-qual­i­ty oak seedlings of any taxa we want­ed, we closed Magic’s oak nurs­ery, dis­trib­ut­ing its remain­ing stock to local res­i­dents for plant­i­ng on pub­lic and pri­vate lands.

Monkeyflower Microbiome Research

Though few might imag­ine it, the com­mu­ni­ty of microbes inhab­it­ing nec­tar in indi­vid­ual blos­soms on mon­keyflow­ers can dis­play many char­ac­ter­is­tics of island ecosys­tems and can yield sim­i­lar insights. 

For three years Mag­ic has part­nered with Stan­ford Biol­o­gy Depart­ment Pro­fes­sor Tadashi Fuka­mi to return a native species, sticky mon­keyflower (Dipla­cus auran­ti­a­cus), to a local ecosys­tem in sup­port of his nec­tar micro­bio­me stud­ies and his cur­ricu­lum improve­ments to allow under­grad­u­ate stu­dents to engage authen­ti­cal­ly in pio­neer­ing research.

In 2022, we recruit­ed 100+ vol­un­teers; super­vised 400+ vol­un­teer hours, main­tained 512 plants at 16 sites in the Stan­ford Aca­d­e­m­ic Reserve, replaced 100 failed plants, trans­plant­ed and nur­tured more than 400+ addi­tion­al plants in Magic’s nurs­ery to pro­vide addi­tion­al replace­ments for future failures—most often as a result of gopher pre­da­tion; and shield­ed the root balls of replace­ments with gopher-resis­tant wire netting. 

We also host­ed Pro­fes­sor Fuka­mi at Mag­ic for pre­sen­ta­tion of his and his stu­dents’ recent­ly pub­lished research using these plants. In addi­tion, we designed, con­struct­ed, and installed infor­ma­tion­al signs at three sites.

As with Plant­i­ng for the Sec­ond Hun­dred Years, a major ben­e­fit of this project is the chang­ing of hearts and minds we observe in vol­un­teers and inter­est­ed passers-by who ask what we’re doing. Each of their “Aha!” moments is a con­fir­ma­tion of suc­cess in widen­ing the cir­cle of eco­log­i­cal sensibility.

Silicon Valley Barcode of Life

Five years ago we ini­ti­at­ed Sil­i­con Val­ley Bar­code of Life to cat­a­log local bio­di­ver­si­ty and teach about its import, threats to it, and ways to pro­tect it. 

Though a much greater adverse impact upon human well-being than cli­mate desta­bi­liza­tion, bioan­ni­hi­la­tion has gar­nered far less attention. 

“If all mankind were to dis­ap­pear, the world would regen­er­ate back to the rich state of equi­lib­ri­um that exist­ed ten thou­sand years ago. If insects were to van­ish, the envi­ron­ment would col­lapse into chaos.”
—E. O. Wil­son (1929–2021), emi­nent Har­vard biologist

SVBOL received a wel­come boost late in 2022 when COP-15 inter­na­tion­al bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion meet­ings in Mon­tre­al briefly gen­er­at­ed head­lines (exam­ple from New York Times below) prim­ing peo­ple to heed more care­ful­ly our mes­sage and act on it.

Global Malaise Program

A large com­po­nent of our work was as one of ~150 sci­en­tif­ic part­ners in the Glob­al Malaise Pro­gram, through which we com­plet­ed year-long Malaise trap col­lec­tions at Hid­den Vil­la Organ­ic Farm and Wilder­ness Cen­ter, Palo Alto Foothills Nature Pre­serve, and the Stan­ford Uni­ver­si­ty Aca­d­e­m­ic Reserve as well as sum­mer col­lec­tions at the Tama­rack Lodge in Mam­moth Lakes. 

We cleared traps week­ly, pre­served the more than 20,000 spec­i­mens we cap­tured by immers­ing them in ethanol and stor­ing them in a Mag­ic freez­er, and sent them at year-end for sequenc­ing by the Cana­di­an Cen­ter for DNA Bar­cod­ing (CCDB).

Hand Collection

We also hand-col­lect­ed more than 100 unique arthro­pod spec­i­mens in the Mono Basin and sur­rounds, a locale where we began work­ing in 2020. 

We vouch­er pho­tographed each of these, extract­ed tis­sue sam­ples, loaded them into microplates required for sequenc­ing, processed and uploaded asso­ci­at­ed data, and sent the microplates to CCDB.

Contribution to Barcode of Life Database

To date SVBOL has con­tributed 500+ pre­vi­ous­ly absent unique sequences to the Bar­code of Life Data­base (BOLD). Once we’ve suf­fi­cient funds to sequence the remain­ing half of our col­lec­tion, we esti­mate that we’ll con­tribute hun­dreds more. 

In recog­ni­tion of our work we were invit­ed to the Cen­ter for Genom­ic Research at the Uni­ver­si­ty of Guelph in Ontario, Cana­da, to meet with leadership—including Direc­tor Paul Hebert, PhD, inven­tor of DNA barcoding—and staff.

Teach

Through­out the year we pre­sent­ed “Con­serv­ing Bio­di­ver­si­ty to Fore­stall Col­lec­tive Impov­er­ish­ment,” our call to bio­di­ver­si­ty con­ser­va­tion, to civic and busi­ness groups (e.g., Ana­heim Rotary Club) and infor­mal gath­er­ings. Our pur­pos­es were to inform and to inspire action, includ­ing giv­ing to fur­ther SVBOL’s cat­a­loging and teach­ing by defray­ing costs of sequenc­ing, our largest cash expense and some­thing beyond what we can accom­plish with our and our vol­un­teers’ skills and equipment.

Publish

We sub­stan­tial­ly broad­ened our audi­ence with two pub­li­ca­tions. “From Con­cern to Action: Sil­i­con Val­ley Bar­code of Life” appeared in the Inter­na­tion­al Bar­code of Life Bul­letin read by bio­di­ver­si­ty researchers worldwide. 

Bio­di­ver­si­ty at Hid­den Vil­la, avail­able in print and online, a 150-page—with 200+ full-col­or graph­ics and photos—description of our inau­gur­al project has reached read­ers in sev­er­al states. We’re dis­cussing with Hid­den Vil­la staff its sale through their vis­i­tor cen­ter and its use in their edu­ca­tion­al pro­grams enrolling thou­sands of school­child­ren each year.

Reduce Waste. Feed People.

Like much else that Mag­ic has done for decades, reduc­tion of food waste has elicit­ed grow­ing atten­tion local­ly, nation­al­ly, and glob­al­ly. We take plea­sure in hav­ing led in divert­ing sur­plus from the sol­id waste stream and in hav­ing had a hand in afford­ing access to health­ful food.

On more than 300 days last year we col­lect­ed a total of 25 tons of sur­plus from two dozen Cal­i­for­nia Avenue Farm­ers’ Mar­ket ven­dors and from Coun­try Sun Nat­ur­al Foods, processed it, deliv­ered accept­able items to local char­i­ty Com­mu­ni­ty Ser­vices Agency to thou­sands of hun­gry clients, and sal­vaged as we were able from what remained for use at Magic.

To increase under­stand­ing of Magic’s ser­vice, we reg­u­lar­ly dis­trib­ute infor­ma­tion about the pro­gram to all mar­ket ven­dors, includ­ing those yet to par­tic­i­pate, and strength­en both their and mar­ket patrons’ aware­ness with an explana­to­ry sand­wich board sign, vol­un­teer name tag lan­yards promi­nent­ly dis­play­ing Magic’s logo, and as of this year, mag­net­ic Mag­ic logos on the truck and van with which vol­un­teers trans­port food.

Liveable City

Since the mid-1970’s, we at Mag­ic have active­ly advo­cat­ed and orga­nized oth­ers to sup­port eco­log­i­cal­ly informed land use and trans­porta­tion plan­ning. We’ve researched, pub­lished, lob­bied, and tes­ti­fied, and we’ve achieved nation­al recog­ni­tion for our successes.

Evergreen Park Neighborhood Association

A key ele­ment of these has been the Ever­green Park Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion, which we found­ed in 1980 and have led for most of the past 42 years. In 2022 we took great sat­is­fac­tion in con­tribut­ing to draft­ing a revised asso­ci­a­tion char­ter and to entrust­ing lead­er­ship of the asso­ci­a­tion to offi­cers elect­ed from a group of neigh­bors eager to accept it.

We con­tin­ued to serve the asso­ci­a­tion by join­ing with oth­ers to orga­nize an end-of-school block par­ty and by co-host­ing the 42nd annu­al Ever­green Park Neigh­bor­hood Asso­ci­a­tion autumn pic­nic. Each of these events was attend­ed by over 100 neigh­bors, and the lat­ter includ­ed appear­ances from city coun­cil and school board can­di­dates cam­paign­ing for the elec­tion to be held a month later.

Advocacy

Over the years we’ve won restric­tions on short-cut­ting through neigh­bor­hoods, use of gas-pow­ered debris blow­ers, and office con­struc­tion in a com­mu­ni­ty already long on jobs. 

In 2022 we advo­cat­ed an eco­log­i­cal approach to land­scape design and main­te­nance by cre­at­ing and dis­trib­ut­ing edu­ca­tion­al posters and brochures about fur­ther reg­u­lat­ing debris blow­ers. We backed a tran­si­tion to a steady-state soci­ety at meet­ings of the umbrel­la group, Palo Alto Neigh­bor­hoods (PAN), and in let­ters and tes­ti­mo­ny to local gov­ern­ment bodies. 

We sup­port­ed the Palo Alto bicy­cle advi­so­ry com­mit­tee in secur­ing city coun­cil endorse­ment for Safe Streets Palo Alto. We also joined part­ner orga­ni­za­tions includ­ing the Com­mit­tee for Green Foothills, the Tuolumne Riv­er Trust, and the Amer­i­can Bird Con­ser­van­cy in advo­cat­ing for pro­tec­tion of bio­di­ver­si­ty and wildlife habi­tat, and for design of arti­fact to reduce risks to wildlife. Final­ly, we joined in a let­ter-writ­ing cam­paign encour­ag­ing reg­is­tered vot­ers in swing states to cast bal­lots in the mid-term elections.

Healthful Living

Inspired, encour­aged, and instruct­ed by fel­lows and oth­ers in the res­i­den­tial ser­vice learn­ing com­mu­ni­ty who apply a large and rapid­ly accu­mu­lat­ing body of sci­en­tif­ic evi­dence to cul­ti­vate health­ful lifestyles, peo­ple often become health­i­er through their inter­ac­tions with Mag­ic. In 2022, we guid­ed res­i­dents and clients in 200+ hours of life-plan­ning, hatha yoga, weight-train­ing, swim­ming, run­ning, and indoor row­ing, and pro­vid­ed 100+ hours of coun­sel about form­ing sound sleep, dietary, med­i­ta­tion, and grat­i­tude habits.

Res­i­dent Marieke proud­ly dis­plays gains made with Fel­low Harper’s coach­ing between Jan­u­ary and June, her six-month tenure at Magic. 

Escondido Outings Club

To enable oth­er small pub­lic ser­vice ven­tures aligned with Magic’s mis­sion to reap ben­e­fits of tax-exempt sta­tus and reduce trans­ac­tion costs of estab­lish­ing a sep­a­rate enti­ty that detract from their capac­i­ty to achieve their char­i­ta­ble objec­tives, Mag­ic some­times serves as fis­cal fidu­cia­ry. For sev­er­al years, we’ve per­formed this func­tion for the Escon­di­do Out­ings Club, a local orga­ni­za­tion which con­ducts riv­er raft­ing and back­pack­ing trips to pro­vide expe­ri­ences in wild nature for peo­ple of all ages.

In 2022, Out­ings Club lead­ers orga­nized nine riv­er raft­ing trips for a total of 50 par­tic­i­pants, four camp­ing trips for a total of 85 peo­ple who enjoyed a total of 115 per­son-nights under the stars, and four ski trips for adults 50+ on eight ski days.