State Route 12 cut to the horizon line of Solano County. Somewhere out of sight lay the small town of Rio Vista and the Delta. But about an hour northeast of San Francisco, midway through southern Solano, grasses swayed, wicked dry and golden by months of sun, shimmering in the day’s warmth. Al Medvitz and Jeanne McCormack—a few years married, on summer break from their studies at Harvard University in the late ’70s—drove down the road. 

For McCormack, it was a homecoming to the Rio Vista ranch where she grew up, like her father before her, and her grandfather before him. For Medvitz, this was an inaugural visit to his wife’s family’s roots. Looking out the car window, he took in the uniform landscape and thought: It’s kind of barren.

To read this Bay Nature magazine story ...

Access to the current issue of Bay Nature magazine is a benefit of Bay Nature Membership. Get Bay Nature magazine in print and online, plus live educational talks and naturalist-led hikes, by becoming a Member.

Join / Renew

Tanvi is a senior reporting fellow with Bay Nature. Her writing and reporting has appeared across High Country News, Science Magazine, and Atlas Obscura, in addition to underground murals and her mother's Facebook page. She grew up across Singapore, Hong Kong, London, and India before moving to California, where she studied ecology at Stanford University. She is a big fan of long runs and food.