When other plants start hunkering down, clarkias send up a dazzling array of purples and pinks.
These Fabulous Flowers Are Spring’s Final Encore
May 17, 2023 •
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.
How the DNA We Leave Behind Can Help Conservation
May 3, 2023 •
Bits of DNA linger on the forest floor, in the ocean, and even in the air—and these strands have stories to tell, back at the lab. Here’s how environmental DNA (aka ‘eDNA’) is starting to transform how ecologists work in the Bay Area and beyond.
Here Comes the 2023 City Nature Challenge, A Global Competition You Can Join This Weekend
April 25, 2023 •
What’s your plan for this year’s City Nature Challenge, April 28-May 1? Here’s what it’s all about, plus a map of Bay Area bioblitzes you can join.
Why State Wildlife Officials Took a Mountain Lion Cub From the Wild … Then Put It Back
March 29, 2023 •
It’s the first time a cub has ever been successfully reunited with its mom. But some local residents say it shouldn’t have been taken in the first place.
An Artist Goes Bird-Swatching
March 22, 2023 •
Artist Christopher Reiger’s “field guides” are on view at the Laguna Environmental Center in Santa Rosa until April 28.
How a ‘Sturgeon Surgeon’ Tracks the Bay’s Giant, Stealthy Living Fossils
March 22, 2023 •
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.
A Nasty Salmon-Killing Tire Chemical Is in Bay Waterways. Can It Be Cleaned Up?
March 2, 2023 •
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.
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