Planned Wilderness
In eastern Contra Costa and Alameda counties, an ambitious vision for protecting big pieces of remaining open space is taking shape: From Black Diamond Mines and Mount Diablo to Brushy...
Conservation
Cultivating Community in Santa Rosa
Bayer Farm brings open space and food security to a section of Santa Rosa that needs more of both. With help from the nonprofit Landpaths, people in the Roseland neighborhood...
Getting to Market in Sunol
In the Sunol Valley, beyond the subdivisions of Pleasanton, Fred Hempel grows tomatoes alongside other farmers growing figs, strawberries, and more. It’s all part of an unusual experiment in micro-farming...
Urban Farms to Open Range
Even though foodie culture is an ever-growing phenomenon in the Bay Area, it's still surprising to many that nearly half the land in our region is dedicated to ranching or...
Big Solar Coming to East Bay?
Alameda County is facing tough decisions that have until now been mostly debated in distant desert landscapes. The county is developing new regulations covering large-scale solar. Native plant advocates and...
Keeping it in the Family in Rio Vista
For more than a century, Jeanne McCormack’s family has grown grain and raised livestock on a few thousand acres near Rio Vista. But she and her husband Al Medvitz didn’t...
Endangered Antioch Butterfly Needs a Hand
On a 55-acre lot in Antioch, a few biologists and a crew of volunteers are waging a battle to protect a vanishing bit of the natural world. The cause isn't...
Get in on National Public Lands Day, this Saturday
Even before Woodie Guthrie sang "This land is your land...," Americans had a solid history of maintaining and sharing public lands. September 24 brings this value into sharp focus: The...
Reconnecting People with Nature: Rue Mapp, Outdoor Afro
Inspired by a childhood divided between urban Oakland and a Lake County working ranch, Rue Mapp founded Outdoor Afro, an online community and organization that reconnects African-Americans with natural spaces...
Coastal Cleanup, This Saturday!
This Saturday from 9 a.m. to noon, more than 80,000 people will hit the California coast for a not-so-typical day at the beach. Coastal Cleanup Day is right around the...
