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Read about parks, Bay Area wildlife, hiking, and other natural attractions near you. Take some time to browse through our recent articles or use the search function to find a specific topic or place. You can also use our interactive map to find articles by location.
Photo by Cris Benton.
text and photos by Cris Benton and Wayne Lanier
Using kite-mounted cameras and field microscopes, an architecture professor and a retired microbiologist have uncovered surprising diversity in an unassuming ditch next to a railroad grade that cuts across the South Bay salt ponds near Alviso. From vivid oranges laced with bird tracks to bright greens bubbling with oxygen exhaled by cyanobacteria, there's complexity and wonder waiting at the Weep, from several hundred feet in the air down to the microscopic level.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Ron Russo
Standing sentinel near the highest point in the East Bay Regional Park District, an ancient blue oak is our window into a spectrum of life in the orbit of one grand tree. From passing raptors and nesting acorn woodpeckers and browsing deer, we zoom in to the strange and colorful world of the gall wasps. These tiny insects are first-rate engineers, manipulating their host trees into creating peculiar shelters for the wasps' larvae, in often-fanciful shapes reminiscent of sea urchins, dunce caps, and more.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Stream, Forest, and Shadow, pastel, 10" x 25", painting by Connie Smith Siegel
essay by Darla Hillard
Memories of the 1930s in what is now Samuel P. Taylor State Park.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Sarah Sweedler
Put your boat or raft in the river above Healdsburg and follow a wild, green thread flowing through an altered landscape.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo by Dan Hill
by Ann Sieck
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo courtesy NPS.
by David Loeb
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Judith Larner Lowry
Wake up and smell the tarweeds, the scent of summer.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo by Cynthia Vanderlip.
by Sue Rosenthal
An innovative program uses albatrosses as “winged ambassadors” to help middle school students learn about the distant consequences of plastics that end up in our ocean.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo (c) Merlin D. Tuttle, Bat Conservation International, www.batcon.org.
by Cat Taylor
Spend a night out as a bat and you'll be amazed by these critters' abilities to "see" in the dark and fly nimbly as they catch fast-flying bugs.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Michael Ellis
Which bird that migrates to or through the Bay Area travels the farthest to get here from its breeding grounds?
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo courtesy GGNRA.
by Aleta George
In May 2009, the Bay Area--and the nation--lost one of its most eloquent and effective advocates for open space preservation and access. Brian O'Neill, superintendent of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area (GGNRA) since 1986, died of complications from heart surgery...
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo by Aleta George.
by Aleta George
On a hot July afternoon last year, UC Davis graduate students Alpa Wintzer and Mariah Meek dipped glass jars and nets into Suisun Slough at Suisun City's public dock in Solano County. They were capturing small gelatinous creatures that look and act like jellyfish. These jelly look-alikes seemed to be everywhere and are beautiful to watch. But they're also a problem...
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Aleta George
Kids take the Creek Seeker Express to Martinez to learn about the creeks that run through our neighborhoods, while a new juried exhibit shows off designers' ideas for confronting sea level rise.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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by Aleta George
Clad in bike helmets and ratty clothes, staff and volunteers with the San Francisco Bird Observatory brave the South Bay's raucous seagull nesting colonies, where the explosion of breeding gulls threatens to push aside less aggressive species.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo courtesy Marie DeStefanis.
by Aleta George
The Marine Mammal Center, one of the foremost wildlife rescue organizations on the West Coast, has a new home where you can see a lot more of what the center's staff and volunteers do to care for and study injured and ill seals, sea lions, and other marine mammals.
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo by Daniel McGlynn
by Daniel McGlynn
From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Photo by Jeff Miller.
by Laura Hautala
A long-running battle over a quarry proposed for Apperson Ridge adjacent to Sunol Regional Wilderness reached a new chapter last month when two environmental groups struck a deal with the quarry operator. The deal includes major funding for habitat protection and other concessions, but also clears the way for quarrying in an area that's important habitat for tule elk and other species.
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