How five proposed Trump Administration changes threaten protections for struggling species in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Each palm-size owl caught is a rush, not only because it is an encounter in the dark with pure wildness. Saw-whets are one of our most mysterious local birds, because they are so secretive and so ...

State Route 12 cut to the horizon line of Solano County. Somewhere out of sight lay the small town of Rio Vista and the Delta. But about an hour northeast of San Francisco, midway through southern ...

A long belt of high marsh called Strip Marsh East protects troubled SR 37 from erosion and flooding. If the highway is raised, restored marsh can also protect its fellow marshes to the north. It’s ...

Later this year, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band—Indigenous people whose ancestors lived throughout the river valleys that stretch inland from Monterey Bay—will reclaim land within the tribe’s historical ...

A money spider (Tenuiphantes sp.) balloons, under controlled conditions, from its daisy perch. You can see the trichobothria (leg hairs) and dragline silk in this picture. (Michael Hutchinson via ...

Monarchs roost on a eucalyptus tree at Moran Lake in Santa Cruz. (Stuart Weiss, Ph.D.) Audrey Fusco can’t help getting excited at the sight of one monarch butterfly these days. In the spring sun in ...

Examining the human-engineered oyster substrate at Giant Marsh during a low tide in May 2025. (Sonya Bennett Brandt) This piece was originally published in KneeDeep Times, a digital magazine featuring ...

Pastures are visible from a derelict milking barn at the historic D Ranch, founded in 1870 and abandoned after the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore. There’s an ambitious plan to restore these ...

The eponymous trees of Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park, giving Rivendell vibes in the fog. Redwoods emit terpenes, chemicals that account for the trees' scent and also help seed fog. (Kate Golden) ...

Here to stay? Mats of Eurasian watermilfoil clog waterways in the Tahoe Keys, on Lake Tahoe’s south side. It can regrow from a wisp. (Sonya Bennett-Brandt) In the shallows of south Lake Tahoe, diver ...

California Sea Otter (Bureau of Land Management via Flickr, CC By 2.0) A San Francisco crabber for 15 years, Nick Krieger arrived at the Bay Model Visitor Center in Sausalito a bit late after a ...