The purchase includes the fifth-tallest tree on earth, the Stagg Tree, a 250-foot-tall, 3,000-year-old giant.
Conservation
Bay Nature Local Heroes | Environmental Justice | Farming and Ranching | Health | Parks | Policy | Pollution | Stewardship
East Bay Regional Park District Bans Glyphosate
September 16, 2019 •
This past July, the East Bay Regional Park District announced a ban on the controversial herbicide glyphosate, also known by the brand name Roundup. The prohibition was effective immediately in picnic areas. The district said it would discontinue use of … Read more
Want to Prevent California’s Katrina? Grow a Marsh
September 16, 2019 •
Something is amiss on Sherman Island, a whale-shaped swath of farm and grazing land at the confluence of the Sacramento and San Joaquin rivers. If you don’t know what ails the place, it might be hard to pinpoint the problem. … Read more
Eat an Oyster, Restore a Reef
September 16, 2019 •
Linda Hunter pulls up to Bay Natives Nursery in Bayview-Hunters Point and opens the rear hatch of her gray Prius. Inside are several white plastic buckets full of shells. They come from oysters eaten the previous day by customers at … Read more
How Otters Keep Seagrass Healthy
September 16, 2019 •
In California, which has lost an estimated 90 percent of its saltwater marshes, an outstanding question is whether degraded or lost marine wetlands can be easily restored. In Elkhorn Slough, a meandering seven-mile-long inlet in the middle of Monterey Bay, … Read more
Bringing Parks to the People
September 16, 2019 •
America’s national parks are often imagined as faraway destinations for special vacations. We’ve set aside places like Grand Canyon, Yosemite, and Yellowstone as getaways unrivaled in majesty and glory. I worked in many of these parks during my 12 years … Read more
Behind the Name at the East Bay Parks
September 16, 2019 •
How often have you encountered a trail, campsite—or even an entire park—with an odd or mysterious name? Eighty-five years ago, visionary academics, public officials, and hikers, living mostly in Oakland and Berkeley, convinced public agencies to convert hilltop watershed lands … Read more
Restoring a Watershed in the Heart of San Francisco
September 16, 2019 •
Water, naturally, seeps or springs up from the ground and flows downhill until it reaches an outlet. To restore a watershed you would need to protect all of that space—the springs, creek, and estuary mouth. To protect an entire watershed … Read more
Healing the Body, Mind, and Cultural Divide: It’s More than a Walk in the Park
September 16, 2019 •
One Saturday morning late last spring, I pulled into Garin Regional Park in the hills above Hayward. I didn’t have the $5 for parking, but intuiting why I was there, the ranger let me pass anyway. A crowd was amassing. … Read more
Can Better Forestry Jobs Prevent Fires and Restore Rural America?
September 9, 2019 •
On an unseasonably warm November day in a rural neighborhood in the western Sierra Nevada, men with chainsaws patrol a tree thicket that burned three years ago. One man, whose chaps have torn on his right thigh and whose shirt … Read more