Dear Bay Nature reader,
Like all of you, we at Bay Nature are struggling to adapt and understand our new world of COVID-19. First of all, we hope everyone is doing OK and staying healthy.
Our next thoughts are of how we can contribute to and serve communities. We think that’s by continuing to bring you current information about open spaces and parks, ideas for hikes, and uplifting reading. Over the coming weeks we will keep you updated on shelter-in-place orders as they pertain to time in the outdoors and any park closures (please email editorial@baynature.org if you have information to share or questions), and we’ll post ideas for less frequented trails and parks to visit. We know many readers will be staying home for some time, and we hope you’ll enjoy some suggested reading of entertaining nature stories and ways to connect with nature from home. Reading is one of the great pleasures available to us now—and we have plenty of stories for you!
Best of all, our Spring issue stories go online next week, and your print magazine is scheduled to arrive in your mailbox before the end of the month. This issue includes some amazing stories ranging from the Diablo Range that no one knows about to the impact of biodiversity on Lyme disease in California and how it’s different on the West Coast than the East. (You can subscribe here now, and your order will include this issue.)
Internally at Bay Nature, we’ve changed our working habits. The nine of us are working at home. We are learning about things like group video options for communicating and how to manage a nonprofit business remotely, including such simple things as keeping our physical mailbox from getting too full.
The hardest thing we’ve had to do so far was to decide last week to postpone our annual Local Hero Awards (our 10th annual). This event is always so joyful and rewarding, and it ripped us up to postpone it. (New date yet to be determined.) As you probably know, this celebration is also our biggest fundraiser of the year so the postponement provides us with significant financial challenges.
But out of hard times can come new ideas. We’re pleased to announce that we are launching an online auction this Sunday, March 22, which was the date of our Local Hero Awards. You’ll have a week to review and bid on items, which we think will be a wonderful, fun distraction. We have some exceptional items this year, mostly local nature-oriented, with places to stay and outdoor activities to enjoy over the next year.
Please know that we are here for you. We are working to support your health and good spirits by helping you connect with the abundant nature around us.
Be well,
Victoria Schlesinger, Editor in Chief
Regina Starr Ridley, Executive Director & Publisher
