In this issue (Jan-Mar 2006)

Painting by Ralph Borge.

Private Land, Public Good

How do you preserve significant parcels of open space in an era of rising land prices and shrinking public budgets? In the 1990s, more Bay Area land was protected using conservation easements, where the owner can stay on the land but gives up development rights, than by outright purchase. Though not without their critics, easements are reshaping the way we go about saving our local landscapes.

From the Jan-Mar 2006 issue
Published January 01, 2006

Illustration by Gordon Miller, www.gordonmiller.ca.

First Encounters
The Bay Area Through the Eyes of the Early Naturalists

by David Rains Wallace

When European explorers and naturalists began coming to California a few centuries ago, most sailed right past the fog-shrouded Golden Gate. But those few who did stop here, including the botanist-poet who first described the California poppy, left tantalizing clues to the world they saw before the Gold Rush transformed the Bay Area from backwater to boomtown.

From the Jan-Mar 2006 issue
Published January 01, 2006
Length: moderately-short

Illustration by Laura Cunningham.

Wild Gardens
How Native Americans Shaped Local Landscapes

by Beverly R. Ortiz

A visit to remnant native grasslands in Richmond or diverse oak woodlands in eastern Alameda County gives a taste of our region’s native habitats. But few of us are aware of an important element that helped shape those habitats: the regimes of burning, pruning, and digging carried out over centuries by the East Bay’s indigenous inhabitants, some of whom still carry on those traditions today.

From the Jan-Mar 2006 issue
Published January 01, 2006
Length: moderately-short

Photo by Rick Lewis.

Dance of the Cranes
Winter Revels along the Cosumnes

by Mike Faden

The Cosumnes Preserve near I-5 in the Central Valley is a surprising mosaic of flooded rice fields teeming with birds, breached levees creating new forests, and a river reclaiming a landscape.

From the Jan-Mar 2006 issue
Published January 01, 2006
Length: moderately-short