Exploring Nature in the San Francisco Bay Area
WEBSITES California Oak Mortality Task Force www.suddenoakdeath.org or http://nature.berkeley.edu/comtf This is the most comprehensive source of information for the general public about sudden oak death and the pathogen that causes it. Useful pages on the site include: History and Background http://nature.berkeley.edu/comtf/html/history___background.html Chronology of disease discovery, research, and regulation Affected habitats Ecological threats posed by the…
Suggestions for how gardeners can help prevent the spread of the pathogen that causes Sudden Oak Death.
At the turn of the 20th Century, the California Academy of Sciences was the oldest scientific society in the western United States. From its humble beginnings in 1853 as California’s de facto cabinet of curiosities stemming from “the systematic survey of every portion of the State,” the Academy had matured to a respected position at…
Botanists and nature lovers celebrated good news this spring as the Mount Diablo buckwheat (Eriogonum truncatum)—presumed extinct until its rediscovery in 2005—germinated and bloomed for a second year in the wild for and for the first time in carefully-tended greenhouse pots. Prior to its rediscovery in May 2005 by UC Berkeley graduate student Michael Park,…
With our strong state Coastal Commission, major public support for ocean protection, and thousands of square miles protected in marine reserves, California’s bountiful coastal waters might seem amply protected from major industrial uses like offshore oil drilling. But a bill that would allow individual states to opt out of a ban on drilling on the…
This story was updated on March 1, 2017. Fitzgerald Marine Reserve is home to some of the most diverse and accessible tidepools in the state, but there are many other good tidepooling destinations along California’s more than 1,000 miles of coastline. As a rule, tidepools are most exposed and best explored at low tide. Consult…
Independent, nonprofit environmental journalism connecting people with nature in the San Francisco Bay Area.
