Author Archives: Matthew Bettelheim
Matthew Bettelheim is a freelance writer and a wildlife biologist with AECOM.
Presumed Extinct
Mention extinct species, and most people think of long-gone mastodons and saber-toothed tigers. But we know that some Bay Area species have disappeared in just the last 200 years. Or...
Mount Diablo Resources
Organizations Several local nonprofit organizations work to protect open space on and around Mount Diablo and to inform the public about the natural and cultural history of the area. Save...
Fire Ecology Resources
Organizations The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) fosters the creation of local and county Fire Safe councils; they provide information and resources to help protect communities from wildfires. The CFSC...
What a Grand Sight!
Beginning in 1860, botanist William H. Brewer accompanied state geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney on an expedition to perform “an accurate and complete Geological Survey” of California’s rocks, fossils, soils, minerals,...
Gone with the Wind
The old adage says the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, but that’s really just the beginning of the story from the tree’s point of view. The real excitement...
Outdoor Summer Camp Resources
Too much homework? Bully picking on you at school? Perhaps not, but have you stopped to wonder if your children are yearning for a breath of fresh air? Sometimes, even...
California Red-legged Frog Controversy at Sharp Park Golf Course
Some threatened and endangered amphibians and reptiles are content to share habitat with cattle, as we reported in our April 2007 feature Islands in a Sea of Grass. Others, it...
Tafoni Around the Bay
The tafoni weathering formation featured at El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve is a particularly accessible example of an uncommon phenomenon, but there are several other places to see tafoni...
Book Review: California’s Frontier Naturalists
California’s Frontier Naturalists, by Richard G. Beidleman, UC Press, 2006, 484 pages, $39.95 www.ucpress.edu If you’ve ever taken a moment to imagine California’s landscape in its youth, you might have...
