The city of Oakland just made history by giving over five acres in Joaquin Miller Park to an Indigenous land trust’s stewardship. But the backstory was decades in the making.
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 a ‘Sturgeon Surgeon’ Tracks the Bay’s Giant, Stealthy Living Fossils
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.
The Nearly Unkillable Eucalyptus Meets Its Match
Eucalyptus trees on Albany Hill are wasting away from blight. Some people may cheer—but these trees are also home to endangered monarchs.
Skippers: Between Butterfly and Moth
When butterfly mania took hold of me, decades back, I thought I’d never crack the skippers’ code: the creatures are impish, and maddening to learn.
An Invitation to Imagine Utopia, and See What Sticks
Two murals at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art in Novata are the work of San Francisco painter Elisheva Biernoff. By choosing from a library of magnets, visitors to The Tools Are In Your Hands can decide where to place depictions of native species, agriculture, and the elements of the built environment.
Can We Have More Whales and Fewer Whale Strikes?
Anchovies sparkled and seawater sprayed from the crusty maws of gray whales as they burst through the surface, again and again, off the coast near Pacifica, fifteen miles south of San Francisco. Groups of up to six gray whales devoured … Read more
On the Enigmatic ‘Flying Potato,’ Neither Plant Nor Animal, That Caused the Bay’s Biggest Harmful Algal Bloom in History
Heterosigma akashiwo can photosynthesize like a plant and wiggle like an animal, and it’s here to stay — but it’s still something of an enigma.
A Feather Forecast to Help You Tune Into Fall’s Magnificent Migrations
Up to a half-billion birds migrate across the U.S. each night, cloaked in darkness. BirdCast helps you see what they’re doing.
A Former National Parks Director’s Guide to Not Wasting Your Precious Greywater
Jonathan Jarvis installed his own laundry-to-landscape system, and with a little elbow grease, you can, too.
Soon-to-Open Tunnel Tops Park Supports a More Inclusive Future
This weekend, on Sunday, July 17, the new 14-acre Tunnel Tops park opens to the public in San Francisco’s Presidio, a former military base turned urban national park that hosts around 10 million visitors a year