Human settlement in the San Francisco Bay Area dates back 10,000 years to early Native American settlements. Today, the region is a teeming metropolis of 7 million people that collectively challenge the health of the region’s ecosystems. How it got this way is a story that prompts a deeper understanding of our place in the landscape.
According to the ranchers and cowboys who ran cattle in the rugged Diablo Range southeast of San Jose, Sada Sutcliffe Coe (1910-1979) could ride a horse as well, if not better, than any of them. Several years of “proper” education … Read more
Daly City's cliffs hold tales of ancient seas and volcanic eruptions. But don't count on them to stand still under your feet, or your home.
At this small, sandy National Wildlife Refuge on the industrial outskirts of Antioch, you'll find great views of the San Joaquin River, and rare plants and insects that don't exist anywhere else.
John Muir National Historic Site in Martinez. Trail: 7.8 mi, 1,505 ft elevation gain, out-and-back
Since immigrating to the United States from Norway in the 1950s, Hallvard Haugnes spent almost every day of his life moving mud around the South Bay salt ponds –all in an effort to keep the Bay waters out and salt … Read more
Imagine a landmark so prominent that anyone looking south from San Francisco or north from San Jose could spot it. Spanish missionary Padre Pedro Font wrote in his diary in March 1776: “I beheld in the distance a tree of … Read more
The hills above Oakland once held some of the largest redwoods ever seen, one estimated at 31 feet in diameter. Ten million years ago, such trees towered over much of North America. Nothing in this long history prepared them for the coming of men, armed with axes and saws, who felled all of Oakland's redwoods in just 15 years. But even second- and third-growth redwood forests hold their charms, not to mention the subtle suggestions of the forests they can once again become. And you don't have to go too far from downtown Oakland to find them.
What do you get when you scoop up 250,000 cubic yards of muck from the Petaluma River? Prime shorebird habitat, of course. Unlikely as it may seem, Shollenberger Park is a place where birders have spotted 150 bird species, from nesting avocets and stilts to harriers and egrets. And a new addition to the park will make it one of the largest publicly accessible stretches of wetlands in the Bay Area.
In 1984, Alameda County approved Oliver de Silva, Inc.’s plans to build a hard rock quarry at Apperson Ridge, east of Sunol Valley. Twenty years later, de Silva has yet to begin construction. Now, though the company denies having a … Read more
When Spanish explorers first saw the San Francisco Bay in 1769, they found a land cloaked largely in perennial grasses. But the extirpation of the native elk herds that grazed the land, the introduction of cattle, and the incursion of European annual grasses abruptly and dramatically transformed the landscape into the familiar green hillside carpets that turn into brown thickets in summer. Today's grasslands, altered as they are, still produce some beautiful wildflowers, lots of wildlife, and if we look closely, remnants of the native bunchgrasses of yore, which can be enhanced with careful management. The parks of the East Bay hills are a good place to start looking for that mix of the grasslands of yesterday and today.
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
