Cost-effective and quick to install, wind turbines seem to be a leader in the race to develop clean, renewable energy sources. But at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area east of Livermore, the country’s largest and oldest wind farm site … Read more
Art & Design | Botany | Climate Change | El Niño | Fire | Fungi | Geology | History | The Bay | The Ocean | Urban Nature | Water | Weather | Wildlife
Naturalist’s Notebook: Arachnophilia
Take a closer look at a few of our quirkier local spiders.
Coyote Valley Crossings
Students help document how wildlife cross Coyote Valley, a critical link between the Santa Cruz Mountains and the Diablo Range.
Dem Bones, Dem Bones
What can you learn from a skull or other bone you might find along the trail? A few simple tips will help you figure out what those bones have to say.
A Good Big Year
December 31, 2008, marked the end of the 2008 Endangered Species Big Year in the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA). The yearlong event was a call to action for people to observe, and do something to preserve, each of … Read more
Kayaks and Breeding Birds at Alcatraz
The nearly vertical cliffs on the western side of Alcatraz Island serve as a nursery for several species of seabirds. These cliffs are the Bay’s only breeding site for Brandt’s and pelagic cormorants. In 1991, when PRBO Conservation Science began … Read more
Raptor Rapture
The Marin Headlands is justifiably renowned as a great place to see raptors. But did you know that the world’s highest density of breeding golden eagles is found near Altamont Pass? Indeed, the East Bay is a prime location for observing and studying native raptors, from prairie falcons nesting on cliffs near Mount Diablo to bald eagles fishing in local reservoirs and Cooper’s hawks snatching prey out of the air above the streets of Berkeley.
Letter from the Publisher
Our planet is a dynamic place, always changing. That’s a given. Some 100 million years ago, most of the rocks under the Bay Area were beneath the ocean somewhere near the equator. And 12,000 years ago, during the last ice … Read more
Oil Spill CSI
The 2007 oil spill in San Francisco Bay may be bad news for herring.
Perilous Beauty
The beauty, and danger, of Amanita mushrooms.