The first thing that is apt to raise your eyesAbove the dove-grey and silvery thicketsOf lupine and coyote bush and artichoke thistleOn the sandy, winding path from the parking lotTo the beach at Abbotts Lagoon is the white flashOf the … Read more
EndangerBus Feature: Mission Blue Butterfly
If you’re lucky some spring day in a few small patches of land near San Francisco, you may catch the glint of a male mission blue butterfly’s iridescent wings. If you are so fortunate, thank the determined conservationists who’ve been working to protect a small butterfly from big threats.
Book Review: The Place that Inhabits Us: Poems of the San Francisco Bay Watershed
This far-reaching anthology of poems is a lovely collection that speaks to what it is to be natural in the Bay Area.
Painted Wings
MaryAnn Nardo’s luminous watercolors capture species’ whole life cycles, from larvae feeding on host plants to winged adults in search of nectar.
The Sounds of the Sea, Performed
A team of artists has collected more than 1,000 recordings of people sharing their thoughts about the oceans. Hear voices from from scientists and schoolchildren, people in the United States, Europe, Asia. A sound collage from the collection premieres at Cal Academy on June 3.
Poem: Morning Orchestrations, Putah Creek
I think the mantis must taste like a high Aas it scalds through an alto sax: tangy, wounding, green.The tamarisk branch sounds her with a single breath. The wasp gall, speckled as a festive egg, andfuchsia stars full of midge … Read more
Tamalpais Walking
Poet Gary Snyder and artist Tom Killion have been walking on and around Marin’s iconic mountain for decades. These prints and text from a new book capture the mountain’s magic and the allure it’s had for generations of artists, poets, and hikers.
Impressions of Tamalpais
We talk with Tom Killion, who grew up in Mill Valley. He has been making woodblock prints of the California landscape since he was a teenager, including about 60 of Mount Tamalpais.
Native Species Put the Art in BART
On a typical walk through a BART station, it’s hard to ignore the advertisements covering the available wall space. But a few ads are most striking in their mystery: A Steller’s jay? A black-tailed deer? Both with nothing but a subtle BART train in the background. No message. No sell. What are these all about?
River of Words, 2008
When teacher Linda Cover walks into a classroom, she steps onto fertile soil, knowing that her students have a cumulative knowledge of their watershed. As a Spectra Arts teacher with the Cultural Council of Santa Cruz, she works with kids … Read more