Conservation often focuses on losses, but rewilding is an exercise in imagination—and optimism. In this issue, we follow California condors into East Bay skies, and consider the apex of reintroductions: grizzly bears. In the package Fire Land, we look at new wildfire adaptations: mapping every tree, planting firesafe gardens, healing land with Ohlone good fire. Elsewhere, we watch the sewing-machine-like jabs of dowitchers, explore wild Golden Gate Park, prep for El Niño, and go horseback riding.
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Should California’s Rewilding Include Grizzly Bears?
Although the Legislature just shot down a bill to assess the possibility of reintroduction, the idea and debate persist. And everyone’s got an opinion.
Fire Land
From our gardens and homes, to data collection and traditional ecological knowledge: below, five stories on how the Bay Area and California are adapting to wildfire.
Editor’s Letter: Adapting to Fire
Fire has upended worlds and seeped into our collective peripheral vision.
Life in a Burn Scar
Five years after the Dixie Fire, a writer takes stock of her community and the forest around it.
Mapping All the Trees in California
Astonishingly detailed new LiDAR maps are meant to help us prepare for wildfires.
Fire Walk with Me
A defensible space inspector is always looking for fire trails.
Wildlife Gardens in the Fire Zone
Planting habitat gardens is more important than ever in the megafire era.
Ohlone Fire Returns to the East Bay Hills
The founders of Cafe Ohlone are reviving Indigenous stewardship on ancestral lands.
EXPLORE
The Surprising Biodiversity in Golden Gate Park
The city park is home to an old-growth forest, plus abundant birds and a growing number of native plants.
California Condors Return to the East Bay
As the population recovers, they’ve been making test flights northward. Here’s where to (possibly) see them.
Pitch In Around the Bay This Fall
Reporting whale sightings and supporting native oyster reefs are among the ways you can give back this season.
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