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With Rain Comes Life, and Death

December 2, 2009 •  by

After three years of drought, the forecast for a wet El Nino winter this year is welcome news indeed. Unless you’re an oak or tanoak tree. Researchers fear a wet year could mean an epidemic spread of sudden oak death (SOD). But a new preventive treatment and easy precautions could help contain the disease.

GGRO’s 25 Years Getting to Know Raptors

October 19, 2009 •  by

2009 marks the 25th anniversary of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, the Marin-based organization that tracks the movements of birds of prey over the Marin Headlands. Since 1984, more than 1,500 volunteers have logged 40,000 hours alongside staff and scientists to monitor raptors along one of West Coast’s most trafficked migratory routes.

Planning for the Pond Turtle’s Protection

October 1, 2009 •  by

Scientists are working on the first draft of a conservation strategy for California’s only native freshwater turtle, the western pond turtle. The state Department of Fish and Game (DFG) commissioned the U.S. Forest Service’s Redwood Sciences Laboratory to write the … Read more

Cattails: A Wetlands Supermarket

October 1, 2009 •  by

Cattails are hard to miss, yet often dismissed. Whether in solitary clumps in a ditch or spread out in marshy fields, the burnt umber rockets hovering above dark-green blades add texture and familiarity to the landscape. They also turn out to be quite useful, with pollen that can be used as flour and roots that might help wetlands cope with sea level rise.

Coe’s Fire Followers

October 1, 2009 •  by

The 2007 Lick Fire was a firestorm that consumed 47,000 acres, most of it in Henry W. Coe State Park, east of Gilroy. Just days after the fire, park volunteers were on the scene. Two years later the “fire followers” of Coe Park are still at it, and even in the face of park budget cuts, they hope to keep their research going for years to come.

No Normal for Coastal Waters

October 1, 2009 •  by

Nesting failures for cormorants on the Farallones and Alcatraz are just the most obvious expression of unprecedented, and confusing, conditions faced by wildlife in the waters off our shores.

Big Sur fire

Forged by Fire

October 1, 2009 •  by

We know that wildfire is a key part of the ecology of the Bay Area and has played a major role in shaping our landscapes. Yet it’s simply not possible to let fires burn naturally in an urban region such as ours. But just to the south, the 240,000-acre Ventana Wilderness near Big Sur is large and remote enough to allow for the return of a natural fire regime. That’s what has happened over the past 30 years as a series of lightning-ignited wildfires has helped shape both a living laboratory of fire ecology and an increasingly diverse landscape.