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.

Corral Hollow, in Tesla

Tesla Park: Saved at Last

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After 20 years, the state decides not to allow the expansion of an off-road vehicle park in the East Bay hills.

elk and cows in Point Reyes

Home on the Range

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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

sempervirens falls in Big Basin

Rebuilding Big Basin

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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.

Tilden botanic garden

Birding the Botanic Garden

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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.

robert doyle in 1976

Reflections on an Era

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Reflecting on an era of East Bay conservation, Bob Doyle recounts his career and looks toward the future of parks and open space.