The city of Berkeley plans to purchase a Fourth Street parking lot and transfer the property to the nonprofit Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, as part of a recent settlement agreement over the long-contested shellmound site in West Berkeley.
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.
Scientists Look to a Rare Butterfly’s Next of Kin
Maybe we can save the Lange’s metalmark. Or maybe there’s a stand-in, waiting in the wings?
Landscapes of Change, at SFMOMA
They’re secret repositories of history, and places to contest exclusion, forgetting, and destruction.
The Mystery of the Los Gatos Beavers
Years before beavers famously returned to Martinez, Los Gatos locals were spotting them in their creeks and ponds. How they got there, though—that’s a bit of a rabbit hole.
Oakland’s Urban Tree Dreams Get (Partially) Funded
The city’s draft urban forest plan has drawn more than 800 comments—many clamoring for more native trees.
How Dirt Biking Shaped the Bay Area—and the West
Sixty years ago, Bay Area bikers discovered the Panoche Hills, southeast of San José. Public lands management changed forever.
East Bay Parks: The McCosker Property Is A Landscape Transformed
Following three years of construction, later this year the public will be welcomed back to the EBRPD-managed McCosker property, a landscape transformed.
The Geology of Lake Merritt, Oakland’s Shimmering Tidal Heart
Our lake is a world-class oddity, an arm of the Bay in the midst of a city. It rises and falls with the daily tides. An inside-out island, a marine habitat surrounded by land, it is truly a mediterranean sea.
The Bird Nest Detectives
Century-old bird nests help scientists time-travel to San Francisco Bay’s lost plant communities.
Juristac: Proving the Sanctity of a Landscape
The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has been barred from Juristac, a place of great cultural importance, for generations. The land has been grazed by cattle and developed for oil production over the years, and now, an investor group wants to build a sand-and-gravel quarry at the site.