Mole Crab Decline

July 1, 2008 •  by

On sandy beaches from Alaska to Baja, you’ve likely seen plovers, sanderlings, willets, and other shorebirds foraging for food in the swash zone, where waves perpetually cover and uncover the sand. One of the creatures the shorebirds are hunting is … Read more

Monterey Birding Festival

July 1, 2008 •  by

Summer in the Bay Area can last well into late September, but by then many birds that overwinter here have already arrived after migrating from the north. While walking through the Monarch Butterfly Nature Preserve at Natural Bridges State Beach … Read more

Ocean Noise Pollution

July 1, 2008 •  by

We hadn’t yet reached the Gulf of the Farallones National Marine Sanctuary, but we were far enough outside the Golden Gate that Angel Island looked like an extension of the Marin Headlands, an optical illusion that kept early explorers from … Read more

Warm Springs Unit Expansion

July 1, 2008 •  by

With no April showers, the largest vernal pool in the Warm Springs Unit of the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Fremont was nothing more than a small mud puddle by the first week of May. Curly … Read more

Letter from the Publisher

July 1, 2008 •  by

No one can accuse me of being an early adopter—the kind of person who rushes to embrace new technologies. I didn’t get my first computer until 1991, I don’t have an iPod, and social networking still means meeting colleagues face-to-face. … Read more

Once Stung, Twice Shy

July 1, 2008 •  by

Learn about some of our local stinging insects, from the familiar honeybee to the powerful velvet ant (watch out for that one!).

The Battle of the Bulge

July 1, 2008 •  by

Snakes are famous for the amount of food they can stuff inside their skinny bodies. It’s common for a snake digesting a mouse or other prey to have an unsightly bulge marking the location of the meal. A snake’s lack … Read more

The Saved and the Dammed

July 1, 2008 •  by

For better and worse, the upper reach of the Pilarcitos watershed on the Peninsula was dammed to supply water to San Francisco in the 1860s. The surrounding land has been protected and kept off-limits to the public ever since, allowing rare species to thrive here. That includes the marbled murrelet, which nests only in old-growth conifers, such as Douglas fir. But the dam and other impacts also leave less water in the creek for oceangoing steelhead. Now, a diverse group of stakeholders has come together to chart a brighter future for the fish and the creek.

The Steelhead of Alameda Creek

July 1, 2008 •  by

Across the Bay from Pilarcitos, in the Alameda Creek watershed, SFPUC finds itself involved in another steelhead restoration discussion, centered around the utility’s Calaveras Dam near Sunol Regional Wilderness. The reservoir created by the dam can hold about 97,000 acre-feet … Read more