South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project
Through the purchase of 16,500 acres of Bay Area salt ponds from Cargill, Inc., the stage is set for the largest tidal wetlands restoration project ever attempted on the Pacific...
Science and Nature
Wildlife Center of Silicon Valley
When development and human infrastructure encroach on the natural territory of wild animals, and human-wildlife interactions increase, the result is often a proliferation of injured and orphaned animals. Located in...
Hidden Treasures of the Harbor
Below the opaque surface of the calm waters of Richmond and Sausalito Harbors lies an unexpected world of curious forms, brilliant colors, and furious competition for a place to hold...
On Sacred Places
Tom Smith. A simple name. Not so the man. My great-great-grand-father. Father and grandfather and great-grandfather to many Coast Miwok and Pomo people. I’ve told stories about him, stories I...
Penetrating the Chaparral
Though it's the most extensive natural habitat in California, chaparral's brambly ways discourage human visitors. Still, plenty of wildlife finds sanctuary in its tangled, brushy universe, as do the dormant...
The Fire Down Below
A shower of magma-heated liquid and steam makes for more than just a pretty Calistoga postcard. It's a 30-million-year-old lesson in California's dynamic underground history of sliding plates, volcanic eruptions,...
Why is manzanita bark so smooth and red?
What a seemingly simple, but deceptively complex question! Ultimately, perhaps, the least speculative—but not completely satisfactory—answer is that manzanitas inherited this trait from their ancestors. There is compelling evidence that...
Between River and Bay
At the intersection of coastal tides and inland rivers there's a place that's rich in history and full of life. The Delta has been greatly altered by human hands, but...
Do Any Bay Area Animals Hibernate in Winter?
Our temperate climate here in the Bay Area means that most inhabitants don’t have to hibernate. Hibernation is a form of adaptive hypothermia, a continuum of responses to climatic variations...
Sonar Testing and Gray Whales
In mid-November, a federal judge gave the U.S. Navy permission to test its Low-Frequency Array (LFA) sonar in the western Pacific Ocean. The system transmits sounds up to 215 decibels,...
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