At Point Pinole, 21 sturgeon carcasses––some more than seven feet long––lay strewn along a mile-long stretch of beach in late August 2022, baking in the relentless heat. It was the peak of the largest harmful algal bloom on record in … Read more
Nature News
News from around the conservation world of the San Francisco Bay Area.
The Sea Otter That Stole a Surfboard in Santa Cruz Remains Free … For Now
November 3, 2022 •
She was born in captivity, it turns out. And she’ll only get to stay free and wild if she behaves—so humans should definitely not feed her, take selfies with her, or try to be her friend.
The Nearly Unkillable Eucalyptus Meets Its Match
October 20, 2022 •
Eucalyptus trees on Albany Hill are wasting away from blight. Some people may cheer—but these trees are also home to endangered monarchs.
On the Enigmatic ‘Flying Potato,’ Neither Plant Nor Animal, That Caused the Bay’s Biggest Harmful Algal Bloom in History
September 21, 2022 •
Heterosigma akashiwo can photosynthesize like a plant and wiggle like an animal, and it’s here to stay — but it’s still something of an enigma.
Largest Tidal Restoration Project in California Will Make Way for Wildlife & Mitigate Floods
August 16, 2022 •
Two landscapes stand divided by the hundred-year-old Yolo Bypass West Levee in Solano County. To the south of the levee’s U shape, canals tangle toward the sprawling Sacramento–San Joaquin River Delta, which teems with wildlife. North of the levee, former … Read more
The Fight Over Sustainable Transportation in Santa Cruz County
July 26, 2022 •
As urban wildlife stakes its claim on the green corridor running through town, the human residents of the county have spent the past two decades arguing over what to do with this 32-mile stretch of train tracks
In the Wake of Wildfire, Big Basin Redwoods State Park Partially Reopens to the Public
July 21, 2022 •
Big Basin State Park is not the lush, shady ancient forest it once was. In August 2020, 97 percent of the old-growth forest nestled in the heart of the Santa Cruz Mountains burned in the devastating CZU Lightning Complex fire. … Read more
A New Satellite Monitors Lightning Strikes and Fog to Map Weather Risks Faster
July 6, 2022 •
Nine of the 20 largest wildfires in California in the last 110 years were started by lightning strikes, including the devastating Lightning Complex fires in August 2020 that burned more than 750,000 acres in and around the Bay Area. Between … Read more
What’s the Secret of Strawberry Hill, a Butterfly Haven in a City That’s Rough on Butterflies?
June 21, 2022 •
For urban butterfly habitats, more is more.
The Reintroduction Odyssey of the Yurok Condors
June 9, 2022 •
It took decades of work to prepare for this spring’s Northern California condor restoration on Yurok Tribal land.