Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
In our January-March 2007 feature, “Valley of Water and Wine,” we highlight the innovative work of landowners along the Napa River who are initiating restoration projects on the upper reaches of the river. The Rutherford Dust Society, a group of mid-valley growers, is poised to start moving dirt this year to enhance salmon and steelhead…
The tafoni weathering formation featured at El Corte de Madera Creek Preserve is a particularly accessible example of an uncommon phenomenon, but there are several other places to see tafoni in the Bay Area. At Castle Rock State Park west of San Jose, similar Vaqueros Sandstone outcrops line the steep canyons that gird the crest…
There’s a lot more to the western sand dollar (Dendraster excentricus) than meets the eye. Most people who spend any time at the beach are familiar with the sand dollar’s skeleton, or test—the rigid, white flattened disk that commonly washes up on local beaches after the animal has died. But a living sand dollar leads…
The Regional Parks Botanic Garden, in Tilden Regional Park, is a 10-acre landscape of plants native to California. The garden includes ten sections corresponding to ten geographic regions of the state, all woven into a beautiful naturalistic landscape of trees, shrubs, perennials, ferns, grasses, and wildflowers. Location, Hours, and Contact Information The Regional Parks Botanic…
January-March 2007 WEB EXTRA: Rare and Endangered Mosses Many of us go through life barely noticing mosses and their cousins, liverworts and hornworts. It’s easy to miss bryophytes—the collective name for mosses, liverworts, and hornworts—painted on a tree trunk, growing on a rock, poking out of almost any spot that gets occasional moisture. Dan Norris,…
Since their listing as endangered in 1997, wild coho salmon have begun a slow but steady comeback to their native Central California streams.
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
