New questions about what — and who — public lands are for.
Parks
California's state park system is the largest and most diverse natural and cultural heritage holdings in the nation. Yet the century-and-a-half-old system has been in perpetual crisis mode for several decades, battered about by funding shortfalls and repeated threats of closures.
Uncomfortable Questions and Bay Nature’s New Fall 2021 Issue
September 30, 2021 •
Is it success if local policies triumph at the expense of environments elsewhere?
After the Lightning Fires in the East Bay Parks
June 23, 2021 •
The SCU Lightning Complex fires burned 6,000 acres of East Bay Regional Park District land last year. And already, green ground cover, reptiles, and raptors are returning in Morgan Territory.
Finding Signs of Recovery in Santa Cruz’s Redwood Forest
June 23, 2021 •
Before the CZU Complex fires of 2020, Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park had not seen fire for a hundred years. Signs of recovery in the park are as varied as the redwood forest ecology itself.
The History of Vaccines Through an East Bay Regional Park
May 4, 2021 •
Before it became a park, Sobrante Ridge was home to vaccine testing and the infamous “Cutter Incident”
Home on the Range
April 7, 2021 •
This story originally appeared in bioGraphic, an online magazine about nature and sustainability powered by the California Academy of Sciences. Photographs by Sarah Killingsworth Point Reyes sits at the western edge of Marin County, California, a pick-axe shaped peninsula that juts … Read more
Rebuilding Big Basin
March 24, 2021 •
California’s first State Park burned in the 2020 CZU Lightning Fires. Now conservation groups want it to rebuild as the model of state parks for the future.
Birding the Botanic Garden
January 3, 2021 •
The Botanic Garden Bird Survey Team has recorded all of the birds they’ve observed in this corner of Tilden Regional Park, specifically tracking which species visit and when, what they eat, and the materials they use to build nests.
Reflections on an Era
January 3, 2021 •
Reflecting on an era of East Bay conservation, Bob Doyle recounts his career and looks toward the future of parks and open space.
A New Plan for Ranching at Point Reyes and What it Means for the Future of the Seashore
November 11, 2020 •
Is commercial agriculture part of Point Reyes National Seashore’s essential character?