Like San Mateo County, Sonoma County has both a private nonprofit land trust and a government body working to protect the landscape, though here the trust came first. The Sonoma Land Trust set up shop in 1976 and acquired some … Read more
Tag: development
Winter Issue 2006
West Marin
Driving out to the coast among the seemingly endless ranks of Marin County hills, studded with rock outcrops and spotted with grazing cows, you can feel the calmness that flows from a stable landscape. It has always been this way, … Read more
Spring Issue 2005
Casino Proposal at Arrowhead Marsh
The 1,220-acre Martin Luther King Jr. Regional Shoreline Park, near the Oakland Airport, includes 72 acres of restored wetlands and the distinctively shaped Arrowhead Marsh, which reaches out into the waters of San Leandro Bay. These wetlands, in the midst … Read more
Spring Issue 2004
Altamont Pass Wind Debate
In the January-March 2004 issue of Bay Nature, Ear to the Ground covered the deaths of hundreds of raptors each year at the Altamont Pass Wind Resource Area in Livermore. In response to the large numbers of bird kills in … Read more
Spring Issue 2004
Apperson Ridge Quarry
In 1984, Alameda County approved Oliver de Silva, Inc.’s plans to build a hard rock quarry at Apperson Ridge, east of Sunol Valley. Twenty years later, de Silva has yet to begin construction. Now, though the company denies having a … Read more
Spring Issue 2004
Magna Albany Mall Plan
In May of 2002, Magna Entertainment Corporation, owner of the Golden Gate Fields racetrack, adjacent to Berkeley and Albany, proposed a development project totaling more than 1 million square feet, in place of the existing racetrack. In February of 2004, … Read more
Winter Issue 2004
Contra Costa Transit Vote
Have you noticed that it takes longer to get to the mountain these days? Traffic congestion has become a big issue in Contra Costa County, and soon residents there will have a chance to do something about it. In early … Read more
Winter Issue 2004
Marin Development on San Geronimo Blocked
In another recent victory for wetland habitat, Marin Superior Court Judge Lynn Duryee ruled in early November that the County of Marin had failed to meet the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) when it issued a development … Read more
Summer Issue 2003
Letter from the Publisher
A landscape can hold many stories not immediately apparent to the casual visitor, even a thoroughly enchanted one. In January 1973, I came to the Bay Area from back East to visit a friend who had recently moved here. On … Read more
Summer Issue 2002
Patterson Ranch in Fremont
Many of us think of the flatland stretch between Hayward and San Jose as mall-and-sprawl wasteland, but actually, some valuable open spaces still exist. Bordering Coyote Hills Regional Park, 429-acre Patterson Ranch in northern Fremont is being considered for rezoning … Read more
