A 250-foot stretch of Sausal Creek would see the light of day. But Oakland’s plans to remove 84 trees, many of them coast redwoods, has raised an uproar among Dimond Park users.
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.
Year of the Bay sets sail
On November 1, the historic ship the Alma set sail from the San Francisco Maritime National Historic Park on the north end of the city, bound for its birthplace, Hunter’s Point, which it hadn’t visited for several decades. The Alma … Read more
Right On Course with John Wade, Farallon Islands Patrol Skipper
John Wade is one of about 20 skippers who make up the Farallon Patrol for PRBO Conservation Science. Skippers offer their boats and volunteer their time to sail to the Farallon Islands, a shuttle and resupply the scientists who live … Read more
From the Redwoods to the Sea at Purisima Open Space Preserve
A new trail will connect the redwood forests of the Santa Cruz Mountains to the Pacific Ocean.
The Napa River Through Time
There’s a lot more to the Napa Valley than wineries and fancy food. Look closely and the landscape reveals clues to a past full of greater ecological complexity, from beaver ponds to vast freshwater marshes. New research into that history may point the way to a more biodiverse future.
Ernest Callenbach’s Ecotopian Life
As we prepared this article in April 2012, we were saddened to learn that environmental pioneer Ernest Callenbach passed away at home in Berkeley with his family at his side. We’re honored to publish this interview with the author of “Ecoptia” and other seminal books.
Point Reyes: Fidel’s Place
Three days after the Indian–I’ll call him Fidel–avenged the assault on his wife and slayed the young rancher who’d committed the horrible deed, the posse of vigilantes pursuing him found him, not near the small settlement of Marshall, but across Tomales Bay on a ridge; and not in a thicket of coyote bush and low-growing fir where he might’ve hidden, but in the middle of an open grassland.
Top 10 Bay Area nature apps
If you plan on getting outdoors this summer, you’ll probably be bringing your smart phone with you. Forgo the hefty guidebooks and consider tapping into some of the great mobile apps out there. We reviewed our Top 10 for the Bay Area so you’ll be ready to identify that flash of wing through the trees, ramble around Golden Gate Park without getting lost, or kayak the San Francisco Bay with real-time current updates.
Bird watching — there’s an app for that!
It used to be that you needed guidebooks and an experienced friend to get up to speed on identifying a flash of wing through the trees. These days, however, newbie birders can become instant experts with technological tools like mobile apps. But how does technology change the nature of bird-watching? And what are the ethics pitfalls when finding a bird is so easy?
Berkeley as edible city: A new guide to urban foraging
The Bucharest native says that right now there is a great variety of trees and shrubs growing in Berkeley, and even some “bottled water” crops like lemons and rosemary that you should never, ever, buy at the store. They are so plentiful, it simply makes no sense. Ionescu-Zanetti create Edible Cities, a crowd-sourced site that maps food for foraging.