Bay Nature’s October-December issue highlights both recent successes in the return of wildlife and opening up of new lands in the Bay Area, as well as ongoing challenges in managing our urban landscape. Reporter Kat McGowan writes about the quiet return of river otters to the Bay Area as she tags along with Megan Isadore, co-founder of the River Otter Ecology Project whose citizen scientists are carefully documenting the otter’s comeback. Visiting the newly opened Eden Landing, our On the Trail story explores the restored salt ponds along the Hayward shoreline that provide peaceful hiking, biking, bird watching, and boating opportunities. In our Conservation in Action department, Bay Nature contributing editor Alison Hawkes reviews the slow and precarious return of California condors from the brink of extinction in Pinnacles National Park. We also recognize the 25-year anniversary of the devastating Tunnel Fire this October with an examination of the flammability of eucalyptus trees and the ongoing controversy around them in the East Bay hills. The issue also features: An interview about “tipping points” in nature with Stanford University paleoecologist Elizabeth Hadly; a fishing expedition in the East Bay parks; and an ode to California bay laurel trees and their tasty fruits, which are ripe for picking this fall.

Cover photo by Daniel Dietrich, pointreyessafaris.com.