On summer weekends, the nearly 4,000 picnic tables of the East Bay Regional Park District are packed with families from many of the Bay Area’s diverse communities, returning year after year to their favorite spots, along with great blue herons hunting gophers, crows and ravens pillaging trash cans, and raccoons swiping meat right off the grill. All just part of the curious ecology of our local picnic areas.
Art & Design | Botany | Climate Change | El Niño | Fire | Fungi | Geology | History | The Bay | The Ocean | Urban Nature | Water | Weather | Wildlife
Paddling on the Wild Side
Few craft can match a kayak for allowing you to immerse yourself in the watery universe of bay or ocean, moving silently through the world of seals, otters, dolphins, and seabirds. Two of our region’s most experienced sea kayakers take us out on the water for up-close and personal encounters with some of the bountiful and charismatic marine life plying our local marine habitats.
Water Walkers and Bottom Feeders
Discover the world of water striders and water boatmen.
Fire Ecology Resources
Organizations The California Fire Safe Council (CFSC) fosters the creation of local and county Fire Safe councils; they provide information and resources to help protect communities from wildfires. The CFSC also maintains a comprehensive website (www.firesafecouncil.org) that serves as a … Read more
The Cattle Baron and the Elk
The 19th-century cattle baron Henry Miller (not the noted California author of the same name), who once had an estate on Mount Madonna (the subject of our July-September 2007 On the Trail feature) is not generally remembered for his conservation … Read more
The Gopher Underground
Years ago, in my mother’s garden, an ominous mound appeared: a volcano- or horseshoe-shaped pile of earth with an off-center hole, plugged with loose dirt. Her response, echoing the response of generations of frustrated gardeners, was to reach for a … Read more
April Fooling!
Would you believe a twig is watching you? That some leaves can walk? And that if you brush against a piece of bark, it just might fly away? Insects play “April Fools’” tricks on their would-be predators all the time, … Read more
Farallon Island Fur Seals
Two hundred years ago, the captain of a 280-ton whaling vessel reported seeing a bounty of fur seals on the Farallon Islands, 28 miles west of San Francisco. Subsequently, the captain and a small group of Boston-based whalers returned to … Read more
Heron and Egret Atlas for the Bay Area
No matter where you live in the Bay Area, you’ve likely noticed the sinewy, graceful forms of great blue herons and great and snowy egrets. These sylphlike birds are mostly solitary, whether flying overhead or braced in stillness for the … Read more
Native Plant Garden Tours
It’s no longer a secret to readers of this magazine that native plant gardens can look as beautiful as those stocked with showy exotics, while at the same time providing habitat for native insects and birds and conserving water and … Read more