Out at the Weep
A Curious Search for Life in a Ditch

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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Call of the Galls
The Lively Universe of an Ancient Oak

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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Hard Time to Be an Oak

by Daniel McGlynn

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Return to Devil's Gulch

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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Morning Orchestrations, Putah Creek

poem by Rachel Dilworth

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Around the Bend
Paddling the Russian River's Middle Reach

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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Cowell Ranch State Beach

by Linnea Williams

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Forest of Nisene Marks State Park

by Daniel McGlynn

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Valle Vista, King Canyon Loop Trail

by Ann Sieck

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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The Scent of Summer

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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Turning Back the Plastic Tide

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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A Night Out with the Bats

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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The Longest Haul of Them All

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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Letter from the Publisher
In Memory of Brian O’Neill

by David Loeb

From the Jul-Sep 2009 issue
Published July 01, 2009
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Ear to the Ground
News from the conservation community and the natural world

by Aleta George

Remembering parks visionary Brian O’Neill, studying exotic jellies in the bay, seeking creeks, counting gulls, and touring the new home of the Marine Mammal Center...