Based on his reading of “The Tortoise and the Hare,” Bay Area artist Nathan Lynch is betting that a footrace with the western pond turtle will lure the black-tailed jackrabbit back into its Presidio habitat after decades of absence. To that end, he has constructed a fanciful track, complete with racing gates, cloth banners reading “Start” and “Finish”, and old-fashioned handbills advertising the event.

Lynch is one of 11 artists and de­signers chosen by the San Francisco–based For-Site Foundation to participate in its Presidio Habitats, the country’s first site-based art exhibition in a national park. Building on public enthusiasm for environmental artist Andy Goldsworthy’s superb 2008 For-Site Foundation project in the park—a 90-foot spire of felled cypress trees—the nonprofit came up with this exhibit in the hopes of raising awareness of species diversity (or the lack thereof) in the Presidio. Joining Lynch is a bevy of international talents, including Ai Weiwei, codesigner of the so-called Bird’s Nest stadium for the recent Olym­­pics in his native China. Birds also inspired the artist here: Ai built treetop houses for western screech owls by modifying traditional Chinese porcelain vessels. The exhibit will be up for a full year, but it’s too exciting to put off for long.