The View from the Can Club
On a fall day in duck hunting season, the sound of shotgun fire echoes across the Napa-Sonoma Marshes. It will continue to do so. Here as elsewhere, hunters have paid...
Science and Nature
What a Grand Sight!
Beginning in 1860, botanist William H. Brewer accompanied state geologist Josiah Dwight Whitney on an expedition to perform “an accurate and complete Geological Survey” of California’s rocks, fossils, soils, minerals,...
Mount Sutro’s Untold Understory
It’s almost impossible to miss Sutro Tower, the lanky broadcast antenna that looms 977 feet above the summit of one of San Francisco’s tallest hills, itself over 900 feet tall....
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...
At Home off the Range
Once home to California's largest landowner, Mount Madonna near Gilroy showcases an impressive range of habitats, from redwood forests to open oak woodlands, serpentine barrens, and chaparral.
Nature at the Table
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...
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...
Do local breeding birds mate for life?
Q: Do any local breeding birds mate for life? Why? [Leo, San Francisco] A: Some local birds do form long-lasting pair bonds of several different kinds. Ravens and scrub jay...
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...
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...
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