Invitation to a Restoration
Planners designing a strategy for one of the biggest wetlands recovery projects ever undertaken in this country—the South Bay salt pond restoration—want to hear what folks like you and your...
Post Type Archives: Articles
Refuge Volunteer: Eileen McLaughlin
The baylands’ swampy smells and power lines are distasteful to many. But to Eileen McLaughlin, Don Edwards National Wildlife Refuge was unknown territory to be explored. This energetic woman started...
Scientist: Howard Shellhammer
Howard Shellhammer is known as the champion of a very rare mouse. A world expert on the endangered salt marsh harvest mouse, the former San Jose State biology professor has...
Shrimper: Tom Laine
Tom Laine knew the salt ponds long before they were making salt. “I was born here in 1937, and I’ve been on the Bay since I was five,” the Alviso...
Still Hanging On
Nearly forgotten today, the native oysters of San Francisco Bay once formed large shallow-water reefs, providing critical habitat for other creatures and a major food source for Native Americans. Now,...
Peninsula Open Space Trust Acquires Rancho Canada Del Oro
Hikers and equestrians can find a new swath of accessible open space in the bucolic eastern foothills of the Santa Cruz Mountains. The 2,428-acre Rancho Cañada del Oro was the...
Quail Ridge Wilderness Conservancy
Purple needlegrass may soon gain recognition as one of California’s official state symbols, like the golden poppy, our state flower since 1903. For native grass advocates, “the hope is that...
Fruits of the Forest
The classic image of a redwood forest is one of stately tall trees, dense shade, and lots of green. The columnar trunks of the giant trees draw our gaze up...
In the Shadow of Giants
The hills above Oakland once held some of the largest redwoods ever seen, one estimated at 31 feet in diameter. Ten million years ago, such trees towered over much of...
Dredging up an Avian Oasis
What do you get when you scoop up 250,000 cubic yards of muck from the Petaluma River? Prime shorebird habitat, of course. Unlikely as it may seem, Shollenberger Park is...
