6PPD-quinone comes from a long-used chemical that will be hard to replace in tires. But green infrastructure like “living levees” may help trap it.
Urban Nature
In the San Francisco Bay Area, slices of nature pop up in the most unexpected places, a testament to the region's wealth in biodiversity and the resilience of its natural systems. Bringing nature to urban areas is not just about ensuring the survival of species, but enhancing people's quality of life through a fulfillment of our innate need to be with nature.
After ‘Heartbreaking’ Vandalism, Sausal Creek Plant Nursery Volunteers Pick Up the Pieces
February 6, 2023 •
Over 4,000 native plant seedlings were knocked over in broad daylight at the Friends of Sausal Creek’s native plant nursery in Joaquin Miller Park, Oakland. At least 600 seedlings were lost, and the creek restoration organization estimates material damages as high as $8,000.
A Slime of One’s Own
January 3, 2023 •
To find slime molds, look for the damp places. Your quarry will be visible to the naked eye when it joins forces by the thousands to coalesce into blobby shapes—like undercooked pancakes, left on logs at Tilden Park, or a lattice of high-gloss mustard, in the hills near Mount Tam.
After 2022’s Fatal Algal Bloom, Scientists Fear the Bay’s Sturgeon Could Go Extinct
December 21, 2022 •
At Point Pinole, 21 sturgeon carcasses––some more than seven feet long––lay strewn along a mile-long stretch of beach in late August 2022, baking in the relentless heat. It was the peak of the largest harmful algal bloom on record in … Read more
How Indigenous People Got Some Land Back in Oakland
December 13, 2022 •
The city of Oakland just made history by giving over five acres in Joaquin Miller Park to an Indigenous land trust’s stewardship. But the backstory was decades in the making.
How a ‘Sturgeon Surgeon’ Tracks the Bay’s Giant, Stealthy Living Fossils
December 8, 2022 •
Researchers are investigating the secrets of our two resident sturgeon species, which have razor-sharp armor and shlorp up clams with their vacuum-shaped mouths.
The Nearly Unkillable Eucalyptus Meets Its Match
October 20, 2022 •
Eucalyptus trees on Albany Hill are wasting away from blight. Some people may cheer—but these trees are also home to endangered monarchs.
Skippers: Between Butterfly and Moth
October 19, 2022 •
When butterfly mania took hold of me, decades back, I thought I’d never crack the skippers’ code: the creatures are impish, and maddening to learn.
An Invitation to Imagine Utopia, and See What Sticks
October 17, 2022 •
Two murals at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novata are the work of San Francisco painter Elisheva Biernoff. By choosing from a library of magnets, visitors to The Tools Are In Your Hands can decide where to place depictions of native species, agriculture, and the elements of the built environment.
Can We Have More Whales and Fewer Whale Strikes?
September 23, 2022 •
Anchovies sparkled and seawater sprayed from the crusty maws of gray whales as they burst through the surface, again and again, off the coast near Pacifica, fifteen miles south of San Francisco. Groups of up to six gray whales devoured … Read more