Latest from wetlands

The Laguna Gets Its Due

April 01, 2011 by Aleta George

On this year’s World Wetlands Day 2011, Sonoma County’s Laguna de Santa Rosa officially became a Wetland of International Importance according to the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands.

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Keeping an Eye on Egrets

December 28, 2010 by Ingrid Hawkinson

For John Kelly, who’s worked for Audubon Canyon Ranch since 1988, develops and oversees conservation research, egrets and other wetland birds hold the key to monitoring and understanding how our wetlands are doing. And he knows a lot about that — he tracks more than 100 egret and heron rookeries all over the region, studies waterbirds on Tomales Bay, and more.

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Cattails: A Wetlands Supermarket

October 01, 2009 by Aleta George

Cattails are hard to miss, yet often dismissed. Whether in solitary clumps in a ditch or spread out in marshy fields, the burnt umber rockets hovering above dark-green blades add texture and familiarity to the landscape. They also turn out to be quite useful, with pollen that can be used as flour and roots that might help wetlands cope with sea level rise.

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A Good Big Year

January 01, 2009 by Aleta George

December 31, 2008, marked the end of the 2008 Endangered Species Big Year in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area

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Shifting Sands

April 01, 2008 by Jules Evens

At the mouth of Tomales Bay, sand dunes and seasonal wetlands coexist uneasily with California’s largest coastal campground. The dunes at Lawson’s Landing, home to rare butterflies and plants like the dune tansy, are among the few left of a once-common coastal habitat that could be restored and maintained as a healthy, functioning ecosystem. But can that be accomplished without driving out the family-run camping operation at the dunes that, since 1957, has been an affordable summer getaway for thousands of visitors?

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Patience Rewarded

January 01, 2008 by Joe Eaton

You might be taken by surprise at this marshland wildlife area, with its plethora of wandering elk, playful otters, acrobatic owls, and diverse waterfowl. Just be sure it’s not hunting season when you go.

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Nature Podcasts

July 01, 2007 by Aleta George

Those of us behind the technological times may bristle at the convergence of computers and nature. What, you might ask,

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A Force To Be Reckoned With

July 01, 2007 by Cindy Spring

Barbara Salzman was “hooked on nature” after taking her young son on field trips with Elizabeth Terwilliger, Marin’s legendary environmental

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Highway to the Flyway

July 01, 2007 by John Hart

Along the gentle arc of the northern San Pablo Bay shoreline, one of the region’s least loved highways, Highway 37, traverses one of its most fascinating landscapes. Best to be in the passenger seat, for the country you are traversing deserves far more than a stolen glance…

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Marsh Gumplant

July 01, 2007 by John Hart

Defining the edge of a shifting body of water like San Francisco Bay, whose exact extent changes with every tide,

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