Seagrass beds are important to consider when regarding climate change not only because they can sequester carbon in soils, but also because seagrass may buffer against ocean acidity.
How Otters Keep Seagrass Healthy
September 16, 2019 •
Science & Nature
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Behind the Name at the East Bay Parks
September 16, 2019 •
How often have you encountered a trail, campsite—or even an entire park—with an odd or mysterious name? Eighty-five years ago, visionary academics, public officials, and hikers, living mostly in Oakland and Berkeley, convinced public agencies to convert hilltop watershed lands … Read more
Review of The Pacific Warm Blob Sequel: Not Yet a Phenomena like the Original
September 12, 2019 •
The Pacific is warmer than usual, again.
Can Better Forestry Jobs Prevent Fires and Restore Rural America?
September 9, 2019 •
On an unseasonably warm November day in a rural neighborhood in the western Sierra Nevada, men with chainsaws patrol a tree thicket that burned three years ago. One man, whose chaps have torn on his right thigh and whose shirt … Read more
Fasciated Plants and Where to Find Them in the Wild
September 4, 2019 •
What is this weird belt-like growth on poison oak? Fasciated plants have fascinated humans for thousands of years due to their gnarled and belt-like growth patterns on stems or bizarrely elongated flowers. Fasciation has been documented in over 107 plant … Read more
Open Space Park or Hotel? The Future of the Burlingame Shoreline Could Set a Precedent for Climate Adaptation
September 3, 2019 •
For perhaps the first time in 80 years the California State Lands Commission, which negotiates and hands out leases for state-owned shoreline property, faced a decision this summer between competing ideas for the same parcel. The commission staff announced at … Read more
An Artist Finds the Life Lessons of Seaweed
August 29, 2019 •
If you’ve ever stepped into a certain kind of beach town gift shop on the Northern California coast, you are likely familiar with Josie Iselin’s work: an artist, Iselin creates slim coffee table books filled with detailed, dramatically lit photographs … Read more
A New Plan for Saving the Bay’s Recently Thriving Herring
August 27, 2019 •
As recently as five years ago, it was great to be a herring in the San Francisco Bay. Populations of the small silver fish had declined up and down the West Coast but boomed in the Bay at levels not … Read more
How Do I Start Out Tidepooling?
August 20, 2019 •
Which species am I most likely to see in a Northern California tidepool, and how can I try to identify them? There is something fascinating about tidepools. They are places of liminality, an in-between world that is neither fully land … Read more
Voracious Flowers of the Tidepool
August 13, 2019 •
Some of the most conspicuous animals in Northern California tidepools don’t look like animals at all. They resemble flowers more than any animal you’re probably familiar with.