Superhighways stay out of the Delta, mostly. But if you have ever driven on Interstate 5 south of Stockton, you have just grazed one of the southernmost Delta islands, Stewart Tract. Filling the angle between the San Joaquin River and Paradise Cut, one of that river’s lesser branches, it is also at the intersection of two specifically South Delta concerns: urbanization and flood control.
The San Francisco Bay is our region's dominant geographic feature.
Sherman Island
The Delta’s westernmost island, which shields major water-export pumps from incoming saltwater, is a testing ground for several efforts to prepare this fragile region for the threats of sea level rise and levee degradation.
Letter from the Publisher
Telling the story of the Delta, beyond farmers vs. fish.
Rafting Time for Diving Ducks
The great rafts of ducks on San Francisco and Tomales bays, mostly surf scoter, greater and lesser scaup, and canvasback, are a wintertime spectacle. Scoter flocks can range from many hundreds to a few thousand birds. Why do they form these aggregations?
California’s Big Kahuna
Winter might not be beach season for most of us, but for big wave surfers, now is the time to be out on the water. What makes winter the time for big waves? And why do a few spots, like Mavericks, get such tall waves?
Exotic Jellies in the Bay
On a hot July afternoon last year, UC Davis graduate students Alpa Wintzer and Mariah Meek dipped glass jars and nets into Suisun Slough at Suisun City’s public dock in Solano County. They were capturing small gelatinous creatures that look and act like jellyfish. These jelly look-alikes seemed to be everywhere and are beautiful to watch. But they’re also a problem…
Seeking Creeks, Confronting Sea Level Rise
Kids take the Creek Seeker Express to Martinez to learn about the creeks that run through our neighborhoods, while a new juried exhibit shows off designers’ ideas for confronting sea level rise.
Out at the Weep
Using kite-mounted cameras and field microscopes, an architecture professor and a retired microbiologist have uncovered surprising diversity in an unassuming ditch next to a railroad grade that cuts across the South Bay salt ponds near Alviso. From vivid oranges laced with bird tracks to bright greens bubbling with oxygen exhaled by cyanobacteria, there’s complexity and wonder waiting at the Weep, from several hundred feet in the air down to the microscopic level.
Plastic Pollution in the Ocean and What You Can Do About It
An extensive resource list and tips on how to minimize your plastic use and how to keep what plastic you do use from ending up in the ocean.
A Refuge in the Harbor
Within view of Richmond, Brooks Island today is a haven for nesting terns. That’s just its latest incarnation. A short paddle across the harbor to this island refuge takes you back centuries and “away from it all.”