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.

The Ascent of Mount Burdell

January 1, 2011 •  by

Author Rebecca Solnit celebrates the quotidian landscape of oaks and grasses of her childhood ramblings on Mount Burdell in Marin County. Has anyone, she asks, written a poem about bunchgrass? Or buckeyes? If no one has yet, someone should.

The Once and Future Delta

April 1, 2010 •  by

About the only thing people agree on about the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta–the subject of countless white papers, editorials, and political debates–is that it’s in a heap of trouble. But this 1,000-square-mile patchwork of islands, sloughs, wetlands, and farmlands is also a rich and complex–if highly altered–ecosystem at the core of the San Francisco Estuary. Here we take a look behind today’s news to understand what the Delta once was, how it has been changed, and what it might become . . . with a lot of help from its friends.

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.