Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
Humans may be the only animals who celebrate Mother’s Day. But there’s no doubt that babies of other species are just as attached to their mamas, at least until they grow up. I like to think they also get a warm, fuzzy feeling when they think of the female who risked life and limb to…
Over the course of two short months, great horned owls hatched and raised an owlet on a trail in Claremont Canyon in Berkeley. A “bird’s eye” view of the nest made it possible for passersby to get an intimate look at the owlet’s transformation from hatchling to fledgling. But as the popularity of the nesting…
How do you develop a booming Oakland when there’s a big creek in your way? Bury it underground, cement it over, channel it with culverts, and turn it into a gravel quarry. Sounds like a plan, right?Sausal Creek has undoubtedly taken a lot of abuse. But one thing must be said: Oakland owes much of…
On a typical spring day in early May at the Gill Tract, UC Berkeley agriculture researchers would be busy preparing for the summer research season.But this year, in a fenced-off field that usually grows experimental crops, a temporary encampment has sprung up. A group of students and others associated with the Occupy movement have rototilled…
For the past 35 years, Valley of the Moon Natural History Association has been helping greet and educate visitors at the Jack London State Historic Park in Sonoma County.As of May 1, however, it’s taken charge of the whole park: 1,400 acres, 10,000 artifacts, and more than a dozen historic buildings.
It’s easy to get depressed about the loss of biodiversity when every day, it seems, some new species pops up on a watch list like a death toll. But there are success stories that offer rays of hope in a world beset by climate change and habitat destruction. A new art exhibit opening on May…
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
