The city of Berkeley plans to purchase a Fourth Street parking lot and transfer the property to the nonprofit Sogorea Te’ Land Trust, as part of a recent settlement agreement over the long-contested shellmound site in West Berkeley.
History
Human settlement in the San Francisco Bay Area dates back 10,000 years to early Native American settlements. Today, the region is a teeming metropolis of 7 million people that collectively challenge the health of the region's ecosystems. How it got this way is a story that prompts a deeper understanding of our place in the landscape.
Scientists Look to a Rare Butterfly’s Next of Kin
March 14, 2024 •
Maybe we can save the Lange’s metalmark. Or maybe there’s a stand-in, waiting in the wings?
Landscapes of Change, at SFMOMA
January 30, 2024 •
They’re secret repositories of history, and places to contest exclusion, forgetting, and destruction.
The Mystery of the Los Gatos Beavers
January 3, 2024 •
Years before beavers famously returned to Martinez, Los Gatos locals were spotting them in their creeks and ponds. How they got there, though—that’s a bit of a rabbit hole.
Oakland’s Urban Tree Dreams Get (Partially) Funded
December 21, 2023 •
The city’s draft urban forest plan has drawn more than 800 comments—many clamoring for more native trees.
How Dirt Biking Shaped the Bay Area—and the West
September 28, 2023 •
Sixty years ago, Bay Area bikers discovered the Panoche Hills, southeast of San José. Public lands management changed forever.
East Bay Parks: The McCosker Property Is A Landscape Transformed
July 25, 2023 •
Following three years of construction, later this year the public will be welcomed back to the EBRPD-managed McCosker property, a landscape transformed.
The Geology of Lake Merritt, Oakland’s Shimmering Tidal Heart
July 17, 2023 •
Our lake is a world-class oddity, an arm of the Bay in the midst of a city. It rises and falls with the daily tides. An inside-out island, a marine habitat surrounded by land, it is truly a mediterranean sea.
The Bird Nest Detectives
March 22, 2023 •
Century-old bird nests help scientists time-travel to San Francisco Bay’s lost plant communities.
Juristac: Proving the Sanctity of a Landscape
January 3, 2023 •
The Amah Mutsun Tribal Band has been barred from Juristac, a place of great cultural importance, for generations. The land has been grazed by cattle and developed for oil production over the years, and now, an investor group wants to build a sand-and-gravel quarry at the site.