We're off and rolling on another issue of Bay Nature, and, as always, excited to ask our community of photographers and artists for help creating the region's only locally focused nature magazine. This time out, we have feature articles on the rugged Palisades Trail in Napa County, the tenacious survival of mountain lions in the East Bay, and the history of the West Coast's only native turtle. We'll also have shorter pieces on cavity-nesting birds, the mysteries of pollen, paintings of native butterflies and their host plants, and the effort to save and propagate a last-of-its-kind manzanita recently discovered in San Francisco. Finally, we'll have a 16-page special section all about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, but this will be treated in a supplemental needs bulletin sent out in the next week or so.

I. On the Trail at the Palisades, Robert Louis Stevenson State Park

The Palisades stand sentinel over the northern end of the Napa Valley, forming a geologic marvel that also marks a borderline between the domesticated world of vineyards and spas to the south and the wild ridges and woodlands that stretch north into Lake County. The imposing massif of Mount St. Helena looms just to the northwest.

The stars of this hike are the long views, the towering rocks, and the diverse wildflowers. We'll want some panoramic views both from below up to the Palisades and from the Palisades down toward Calistoga and the rest of Napa Valley. We'd also welcome closer landscape shots of Table Rock, other rock formations, and some of the more picturesque nooks and crannies--especially the spring-fed oases that provide shade here and there along the trail.

The story will be "live" from April through June, and we'd like to see good wildflower shots, from this area at approximately that time in previous years. We mention lots of species, but any impressive stand of native color will do nicely--we'd love to show that this is still a place where you can see carpets of wildflowers. here's the working list from the story: blue-eyed gilia, milkmaids, buttercups, golden poppies, hounds tongue, fiddleneck, sticky monkeyflowers, bunches of normally sparse shooting stars and carpets of goldfields; later in May, fairy lanterns (globe lilies) and scarlet larkspur, elegant brodiaea and bitterroot, sprays of lupine and penstemon.

Obviously some of those names are more specific than others. We're not concerned about getting this or that species of lupine, etc., as long as the photos were taken somewhere between the Table Rock trailhead on Highway 29 through to the junction with the Oat Hill Mine Trail at the Holmes' Place, and then on Oat Hill back down to 29.

We'll also want hikers on the trail, especially if we can show some of the ruggedness of the route with hikers in the frame. Finally, if you've been lucky enough to shoot any charismatic wildlife--raptors, coyotes, bobcats, the rumored black bears and mountain lions--along this stretch, we'd love to see those!

II. Through the Eyes of the Lion, East Bay Parks Series

No large animal in our region is more elusive, or more alluring, than the puma, so if you have any East Bay photos of mountain lions, we want to see them! Or good shots of tracks, a kill site, any visible evidence of wild pumas in Alameda and Contra Costa counties. We'd also be interested in especially good shots of pumas in other parts of the Bay Area, particularly if there's evidence of human activity nearby, such as a road or houses in the background. If you have images of captive animals, we might be interested in the best of the best of those as portraits of the species, but we're not looking for obvious zoo shots with fake rocks and fences, etc.

Aside from the cats themselves, two other key parts of this story are supply of prey and availability of open space.

In this case, prey means deer, so we'll want one or two good shots of deer, perhaps multiple animals in a larger landscape, so the focus is on the animals in the ecosystem, rather than just a deer headshot. Deer in a landscape at Las Trampas Wilderness would be especially nice, since we single that park out as excellent mountain lion habitat.

For open space, we'd like to see two opposing things, most likely as aerials: corridors cutting through developed areas and freeways cutting through open space. For the former, we're thinking especially of the Gateway Valley wildlife corridor above the Caldecott Tunnel, as well as Niles Canyon and the Alameda Creek corridor through Fremont. For the highways, the best bet is 580 cutting across the vast open stretches of the East Bay hills between Castro Valley and Dublin. Parts of Highways 4 and 24, or Interstate 680 would also work. The idea is to show the highway bisecting relatively wild lands, as opposed to a highway with development on either side.

Finally, if anyone has been out shooting with working mountain lion researchers in the area, let me know. We'll also be going directly to them for photos.

III. Gone Turtling

If mountain lions are among our most elusive fauna, turtles might be among the most familiar. But for every turtle spotted Stowe Lake or some other urban pond, there's a better than even chance it's not the turtle it should be. Escaped pet turtles of several species are only too common, but there's just one native turtle in the Bay Area, or indeed along the entire West Coast: the western pond turtle. Turns out these cute critters were once so plentiful they supported an industrial-scale fishery that supplied the makings of turtle soup and other dishes to the big hotels and markets of San Francisco. Today, they're on the decline and scientists are trying to figure out why.

We mention a couple of specific sites--Alameda Creek in Sunol Regional Wilderness and Stowe Lake in San Francisco--and we'd like a couple of shots that show those landscapes, with some turtles if we can. We'll also want your best portraits of turtles: turtles on rocks or logs, turtles filling the frame, wider shots that with surrounding habitat (preferably some of both creeks and ponds), perhaps turtles with waterfowl or other wildlife in view. Close-ups showing the intricate skin coloring and shell patterns would also be great. We'd love a shot showing western pond turtles and nonnatives like red-eared sliders side by side. If you have images of baby turtles or eggs, we'd like to see those. And if any artists on the list have existing western pond turtle paintings – we'd prefer in a landscape – we'd be interested in those.

IV. Special Supplement: The Once and Future Delta

Look out for a supplemental image needs bulletin in the next 7-10 days with details of our Delta supplement.

V. Short Departments

We have a short "Sign of the Season" piece about cavity nesting birds, running the gamut from woodpeckers in holes they excavate themselves in standing trees to Bewick's wrens nesting in old boots. The piece will include at most two photos, so we can't show everything, but it would be great to have one good local woodpecker (any species) at its nest hole and one well-composed shot of an unlikely nest cavity in some man-made structure. We also have a short Families Afield piece on pollen. We'll be looking for otherworldly microscope images of pollen, though if any illustrators have done versions of these, I'd love to see them. We'd also like to show one close-up of a local grass species with flowers showing pollen. We're still figuring out species coverage, so if you have taken photos like these, let me know and we can correspond about what you have and what we're looking for. Finally, a couple of flowers with prominent and pretty pollen: Calochortus tolmiei (kitten's ears, from Point Reyes) showing blue pollen, and Lilium pardalinum (leopard lily) with rust-orange pollen.

VI. Magazine Cover

The first three stories above are all possible subjects for the cover, as is, of course, the Delta special supplement (details to come). As always, cover candidates need to have a portrait orientation, with room at the top of the image (about 1.5" to 2") to put the "BAY NATURE". The resolution has to be high enough to withstand blowing up to 8 1/2 x 11 inches (and remember, in blowing up a 35mm slide to 8.5 x 11, we have to lose image from the top and/or bottom to get the width to fill the frame). Of course, there should be good color and contrast and depth. While in no way a requirement, we are very interested in seeing great shots of people enjoying or otherwise interacting with the places and species we feature for possible cover (as well as inside) use, so keep that in mind.

VII. Deadlines, Formats, Shipping, etc.

We will be starting layout in early February, so I would like to receive art submissions by the end of the day on Monday, February 1. After that date, check to see if we are still accepting submissions.

All electronic submissions should be low-resolution JPEGs (1 MB or less per file), sent to me at dan@baynature.org. All slides and transparencies should be sent to: Attn: Dan Rademacher, Bay Nature, 1328 - 6th Street, #2, Berkeley, CA 94710. Please do not send slides or CDs via FedEx using our account number without first getting our permission to do so! If possible, label all slides with your name and a brief caption.

If your image is selected for publication, we will need to get either an original slide or a high resolution scan (300-350 dpi at full size). We are aiming to send artwork to the printer on Tuesday, March 2, so we'll want to receive final slides or files by the end of the day on Monday, March 1, at the latest. (Issue publication date will be April 1, 2010.)

A note on sending original artwork and transparencies: We do our utmost to secure all original artwork sent to us, and we are careful to send all such artwork by trackable FedEx or UPS. However, if such a trackable shipment should be lost or seriously damaged through no fault of ours -- as has happened just once since we began publishing in 2001 -- we cannot be held liable beyond any agreed-upon permission fee and the physical value of the media, or an additional amount agreed upon in advance. In certain cases, that may affect our ability to accept submissions.

Some photographers send us First Class postage-paid envelopes with submissions of original transparencies. We certainly appreciate the consideration and will use that postage if it is included. However, we don't have the capacity to add insurance/trackability to stamped USPS mail. So such art will be returned via the supplied postage, without tracking. For all other submissions, we ship via trackable UPS Ground.

We know you put a lot of work into selecting images for the magazine and we really appreciate your willingness to do that; it is such an important part of the overall quality of Bay Nature. So thanks in advance for your submissions. I look forward to seeing them!