Though, faced with freedom, Condor 1139 and his fellow juveniles take their sweet time to step across the threshold. “We’re on condor time,” says a program manager.
Author Archives: Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright
Guananí Gómez-Van Cortright was Bay Nature’s first editorial fellow, from 2022–2023, after graduating from the UC Santa Cruz Science Communication master’s program. She loves to cover living fossils (like sturgeon!), people working toward environmental solutions, and the tiny but mighty microbes that control the world. GuananiGomezVanCortright.com
Fall Issue 2023
Santa Clara County Serpentine Grasslands
“Máyyan ‘Ooyákma – Coyote Ridge Open Space Preserve in Morgan Hill. Trail: 5.3 mi, 971 ft elevation gain, loop
Summer Issue 2023
The Secret Lives of Baby Tidepool Creatures
Imagine if your offspring were unrecognizable as the same species, and lived in a completely different habitat. This is the case for most tidepool creatures: barnacles, sea stars, urchins and more lead secret early lives as zooplankton, microscopic animals drifting out in the open ocean.
The Bay
Can We Prevent Another Algaepocalypse in the Bay?
Researchers and water agencies are searching for ways to lower the risk of another worst-case bloom by reducing the amount of nutrients in the Bay.
Water
Recharge Alone Won’t End California’s Groundwater Drought
Groundwater recharge is a useful way to put surface water back underground, but experts say it is a limited solution.
Summer Issue 2023
The Rewilding of California’s Parched Central Valley
As SGMA deadlines loom, groundwater sustainability agencies, environmental organizations, and farmers in the San Joaquin Valley are scrambling to prepare for a drier future by experimenting with ways to repurpose fallow farmland.
Science and Nature
Time Traveling With Clam Fossils
Ancient clams offer a uniquely detailed fossil record. As they build their shells, layer by layer, they preserve clues to the climate they once lived in.
Climate Change, Farming and Ranching, Nature News, Wildlife
Birds Flock to a Resurrected Tulare Lake, Peaking at Nearly the Size of Lake Tahoe
The resurrected Tulare Lake and thousands of acres of nearby flooded farmland are providing a temporary respite for the millions of migratory birds that pass through California along the Pacific Flyway every year.
Wildlife
Don’t Blame the Bark Beetles
While walking in the woods, you’ve likely encountered a dead log engraved with maze-like squiggles. These natural carvings are known as beetle galleries, and the grooves are munched out by the larvae of bark beetles in the subfamily Scolytinae.
Biodiversity
How the DNA We Leave Behind Can Help Conservation
Bits of DNA linger on the forest floor, in the ocean, and even in the air—and these strands have stories to tell, back at the lab. Here’s how environmental DNA (aka ‘eDNA’) is starting to transform how ecologists work in the Bay Area and beyond.
