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
Timely news, art, ideas and science from the natural world of Northern California.
Find Bay Area Swimming Spots Free of Harmful Algal Blooms
Harmful algal blooms are increasing in incidence, duration, and toxicity statewide and so are their health impacts on humans, domestic animals, and wildlife.
How Your Beach Photos Are Helping CA Scientists: Snapshot Cal Coast 2022
This year’s Snapshot Cal Coast featured 4,083 people logging 46,683 observations of almost 4,000 species into the iNaturalist app from June 13 to July 4.
Modeling the uncertain future of Northern California’s bull kelp forests
For two years, scientists at UC Davis have been modeling a “Field of Dreams” hypothesis about bull kelp to understand what approaches could best help the recovery of the kelp forest ecosystem in Northern California.
The Fight Over Sustainable Transportation in Santa Cruz County
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
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
Soon-to-Open Tunnel Tops Park Supports a More Inclusive Future
This weekend, on Sunday, July 17, the new 14-acre Tunnel Tops park opens to the public in San Francisco’s Presidio, a former military base turned urban national park that hosts around 10 million visitors a year
A New Satellite Monitors Lightning Strikes and Fog to Map Weather Risks Faster
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
If Oprah Were an Oak Tree
The tree’s survival, not to mention our own as a species, depends on our living connectedness with the world.
Bay Nature Summer 2022 Editor’s Letter: Summer Reading
An introduction to Bay Nature magazine’s summer 2022 print issue.