Matthew Bettelheim is a freelance writer and a wildlife biologist with AECOM.
Firescaping: Creating Fire-Resistant Landscapes, Gardens, and Properties in California’s Diverse Environments, by Douglas Kent, Wilderness Press, 2005, 149 pages, $18.95 Given the propensity for California’s wildlands to ignite, Douglas Kent’s Firescaping is a much-needed addition to the libraries of home … Read more
Introduction to California Birdlife, by Jules Evens and Ian Tait, University of California Press, 2005, 382 pages, $16.95 paperback, $45.00 hardcover Don’t reach for this book hoping to immediately identify birds at the bird feeder. Think of it as a … Read more
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 Mount Diablo Save Mount Diablo (SMD) was founded in 1971 … Read more
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 also maintains a comprehensive website (www.firesafecouncil.org) that serves as a … Read more
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, and botanical and zoological specimens. Brewer’s accounts of his travels, … Read more
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 starts when animals&mdashbirds, deer, people—come along and carry the apples … Read more
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 the ol’ backyard isn’t enough backcountry for a cooped-up kid, … Read more
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 seems, have been willing to coexist with another introduced species: … Read more
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 in the Bay Area. At Castle Rock State Park west … Read more
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 some inkling of the world you’ll enter when you pick … Read more
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
