With the arrival of January, Bay Nature begins its 25th year of publication. Can you believe it? Twenty-five years. That is a mountain of stories, a river of people with ideas, a field of photos, and an ocean of words about San Francisco Bay Area nature. If you guessed we’ll be reminiscing, you are right, and the look back kicks off with magazine covers.
To pitch the inchoate idea of Bay Nature, co-founders David Loeb and Malcolm Margolin chose a photo of a soon-to-bloom, vibrantly orange California poppy to front their eight-page prospectus intended to pique the interest of agencies, organizations, and allies in early 1999. Talk of the new publication bubbled up in regional newsletters and local newspapers, alongside snapshots of the poppy. And by January 2001 a great blue heron cover inaugurating the first full magazine had landed in Bay Area hands.
Victoria Schlesinger, editor-in-chief of Bay Nature (Barbara Butkus)
That metaphorical poppy has since unfurled into 97 issues of Bay Nature. A selection of beloved and poignant covers are gathered above in a photograph by longtime contributor Robert Houser. Among my favorites is the barn owl in the charred tree, for an issue devoted to learning to live with fire. I also love the original painting of ancient riverbeds flowing down from the Sierra Nevada that today can help replenish groundwater. What’s your favorite?
Every Bay Nature cover, and issue, can be perused at BayNature.org/magazine-
archive. And for the Bay Nature superfans out there who have been with us since the great blue heron (or even the poppy!) and who own every issue of the magazine: please send me your name in an email to victoria@baynature.org. We hear of you, occasionally meet you, and we’d like a chance to thank you.
Fun fact about Bay Nature covers: they’re chosen collectively. Our most committed supporters—whether financial or moral—vote on a slate of cover options, often writing us impassioned arguments for this image and not that one. The staff weighs in too and then the editorial team makes a final decision. It’s hive mind all the way.
Throughout this year, we’ll pull down the nature scrapbook, so to speak, for some nostalgia about the local ecosystems and people this community cherishes, and then we’ll launch 2026 with a special 25th anniversary issue of Bay Nature.
Join the celebration. You’re all invited.
Sign up today!
