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California’s Wild Gardens: A Guide to Favorite Botanical Sites, edited by Phyllis M. Faber, University of California Press, 2005, 248 pages, $34.95 Recent years have seen the increasing use of native plants to create water-wise gardens in our cities and … Read more
Firescaping: Creating Fire-Resistant Landscapes, Gardens, and Properties in California’s Diverse Environments, by Douglas Kent, Wilderness Press, 2005, 149 pages, $18.95 Given the propensity for California’s wildlands to ignite, Douglas Kent’s Firescaping is a much-needed addition to the libraries of home … Read more
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Think of the western scrub jay: screeching, assertive, a bully and glutton at backyard bird feeders. But also, as Judith Larner Lowry has noticed in her West Marin yard, caching acorns, bay nuts, and other seeds, many more than the birds could ever hope to recover. Given that these seeds can’t move uphill on their own, we owe our oak-studded hillsides in part to the forethought, and forgetfulness, of this very familiar bird. Lowry’s advice? Sit back and let a few of our local jays’ missed meals take root.
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Field Guide to Plant Galls of California and Other Western States, by Ron Russo, UC Press, 2007, 400 pages, $24.95 www.ucpress.edu Many authors would be hard-pressed to write a guide to plant galls that is not also an industrial-strength sleeping … Read more
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Wildflowers of Northern California’s Wine Country and North Coast Ranges, by Reny Parker, New Creek Ranch Press, 2007, 282 pages, $24.95 www.renyswildflowers.com Reny Parker is passionate about wildflowers. For 17 years, she has found and photographed them in their wild … Read more
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Most people know to watch out for mistletoe at holiday parties, but there’s a lot more to this plant than that one-note holiday refrain.
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Mention extinct species, and most people think of long-gone mastodons and saber-toothed tigers. But we know that some Bay Area species have disappeared in just the last 200 years. Or have they? Prompted by rediscoveries of lost species in Solano and Contra Costa counties, we decided to see what other missing flora and fauna might still be out there, awaiting a patient observer.
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Thanks to the efforts of dozens of volunteers, a biologically rich watershed on the Russian River has become one of the newest additions to our state park system.
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A field guide to help Bay Area naturalists in their search for local, lost species that are presumed extinct.
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Mount Diablo is such a towering icon of our landscape that it is sometimes easy to forget how much complexity lies within its familiar outline. Indeed, the mountain holds many stories: from the drama of its birth under the ocean, to its (mis)naming by early American settlers, to last year’s rediscovery of the rare Mount Diablo buckwheat. Today the story continues, with the mountain and its surrounding ridges and canyons anchoring a bold vision for a broad swath of protected open space and wildlife corridors stretching from Concord to Livermore.
