I. Special Section: People Rescuing Parks, Statewide Coverage

This 16-page editorial supplement will be our first ever to receive statewide distribution, so we're including coverage of parks in other parts of the state. The section will include several components, including an introductory essay and coverage of four specific targeted parks around the state:

1. Introductory Essay: This feature-length essay will set the context by describing the impending park closures statewide and pose the question of what this move means for parks targeted for closure, the surrounding communities, and the system as a whole. And it will look at the varied responses by citizen groups and local agencies to take on operation of some of the parks targeted for closure. For this intro, we'd like achingly beautiful photos from ANY of the parks around the state that have been targeted for closure (for a list, go to http://www.savestateparks.org/parksincrisis.html). And we'd really like to have some photos of people in these parks, enjoying the natural resources protected within them. Finally, if you have any shots of "CLOSED" signs at any of the parks already subjected to partial closures, we might want to work in one of those.

2. McGrath State Beach: We'll be profiling the grassroots effort to save this popular (with both people and birds!) state beach five miles south of Ventura. Photos of both people and birds enjoying the beach and the next-door estuarine wetlands would be great, as would photos of the broken sewer line that has to be fixed in order for the park to reopen.

3. Mono Lake Tufa State Reserve: Again, we're looking for a few great photos of the bizarre yet compelling landscape of this park east of the Sierra Nevada. And of people drinking in the amazing scenery and the wildlife.

4. Samuel P. Taylor State Park: Close to home, we'll be detailing the innovative agreement between State Parks and the National Park Service to dedicate funding from enhanced parking fees at Muir Woods to the running of the this park. For this we would like beautiful photos of/from the main habitats of this West Marin park (redwood forest, riparian corridors, oak woodlands, grasslands); once again, shots with people in them are greatly appreciated. It would also be good to have a shot of the Redwood Creek riparian corridor, which will receive funds for stewardship from this innovative NPS-State Parks agreement.

5. Hendy Woods State Park: We've never been to this park in the Navarro River Watershed in Mendocino. But we know that there are two classic old-growth redwood groves in the park, so compelling shots from those would be grand. And any other nice scenics showcasing the beauty of the park. In addition, the park has a campground that has become somewhat of a focus of controversy in discussions about the park's future, so a shot of this campground (with people in it!) would be most welcome.

II. The Ethics of Foraging

In the local food and cooking scene, foraging for wild foods is a hot topic: From sidewalk plums and invasive wild radish to native mushrooms, pickleweed, seaweed, and shellfish, there's a lot more wild food on the menu than there was just a few short years ago. Of course, not nearly so much as there was a century and more back--but we didn't have 7 million human residents then!

Much of the art for this article was done on assignment, to photograph the specific foragers we talk to and about. However, we'd love a couple of key scene-setting shots:

• Visible chanterelles or other edible mushrooms in an oak woodland scene
• Shoreline with harvestable seaweed/sea palms
• Bayshore marsh with pickleweed

III. On the Trail: Santa Cruz Sand Hills

For our On the Trail section, we're headed south to the Sand Hills in the Santa Cruz mountains. This unique and imperiled ecosystem, remnants of an ancient seabed in and around the town of Scotts Valley, consists of 4,000 acres in several proximate parcels, interspersed with homes and a sand mine, complicating both access and preservation. The area is open to the public only in springtime and only for guided walks. Have you been there in spring and taken photos? Have you been on one of those guided walks and taken photos? Let me know!

We'll want a couple of landscape-level shots showing both the sand hills chaparral (where Bonny Doon manzanita dominates) and "parkland" (where ponderosa pine dominates). Overviews showing intact sand hills habitat and intervening development would also be good. We'd also love some shots of guided walks or habitat restoration in progress--with people!

What makes this area special is the combination of rare plants and unusual soils. The specific rare plants we talk about and want to show are: Santa Cruz wallflower (Erysimum teretifolium), Ben Lomond spineflower (Chorizanthe pungens var. hartwegiana), Ben Lomond buckwheat (Eriogonum nudum var. decurrens), Bonny Doon manzanita (Arctostaphylos silvicola), and the Santa Cruz monkeyflower (Mimulus rattanii ssp. decurtatus). We'd love ID shots with visible blossoms for as many of these as possible.

We also discuss a few rare animals--these are tough to photograph, but if you've got them, who else will publish your Mount Hermon June beetle (Polyphylla barbata) or Santa Cruz kangaroo rat (Dipodomys venustus venustus)? Only Bay Nature!

As always with our place-based articles, we're looking for shots from this area or very nearby.

IV. East Bay Parks: Breuner Marsh

This marsh in Richmond is the newest addition to Point Pinole Regional Shoreline--and also the first major Bayshore wetland restoration project where sea level rise has been part of the planning from the get-go.

We'll want to show marsh overviews at low and high tide--if you happened to be out there for a king tide, even better! Part of what makes this marsh special is the presence of both low-lying pickleweed marshes and undeveloped upland. We'd like to show both the low (especially with lots of birds in the frame) and the high. We'd also like views out toward the Bay and toward nearby Parchester Village. As always, shots with people in them would be nice, though most of this marsh is not yet accessible to the public.

The protected species we'll refer to in the article are California clapper rail, salt marsh harvest mouse, western burrowing owl, and soft bird's-beak (Cordylanthus mollis ssp. mollis). Any other wildlife photos from this location are also welcome, no matter the species! As always with our place-based articles, we're looking for shots from this area or very nearby.

V. Climate Change: Marin Carbon Project

This second article in our climate change series focuses on a project researching the possibility of sequestering atmospheric carbon in ranchland soils and the practices that would promote it. We'll probably get some photos from the project sponsors, but we'd love to have one or two great scenic shots of cows grazing on lush green grasses on dairy ranches in West Marin. (It does not have to be of any particular ranch in this area.)

VI. Short Departments

For Signs of the Season, we're focusing on bat rays. Since they love murky water and darkness, this would be a great spot for an illustration, especially if we can show a ray leaving visible pits in the muddy bottom. Perhaps an artist on our list has already done a bat ray painting? Or if you have a photo that shows the surface of the water when several bat rays are swimming and displaying the tips of their "wings" above the water, that could work as well.

Our Families Afield is about birding with kids -- and tempting them with the fact that birds really are modern-day dinosaurs! If any of the artists on the list have any spot illustrations of a feathered dinosaur (or velociraptor or T. rex), we'd love one of those. And then we're looking for one good shot of a kid (or kids) with binoculars looking at birds.

VII. Magazine Cover

All stories I through V are candidates for cover treatment. As always, cover candidates need to have a portrait orientation, with room at the top of the image (about 1.5" to 2") to put the "BAY NATURE". The resolution has to be high enough to withstand blowing up to 8 1/2 x 11 inches (and remember, in blowing up a 35mm slide to 8.5 x 11, we have to lose image from the top and/or bottom to get the width to fill the frame). Of course, there should be good color and contrast and depth.

VIII. Deadlines, Formats, Shipping, etc.

We will be starting layout in February, so I would like to receive submissions by the end of the day on Tuesday, January 31. After that date, check to see if we are still accepting submissions.

Format: All electronic submissions should be low-resolution JPEGs (1 MB or less per file), sent to me at dan@baynature.org. Links to online image galleries are also perfectly fine; ideally online galleries should allow download of a low-res comp (640 by 480 pixels or larger). All slides and transparencies should be sent to: Attn: Dan Rademacher, Bay Nature, 1328 - 6th Street, #2, Berkeley, CA 94710. Please do not send slides or CDs via FedEx using our account number without first getting our permission to do so! If possible, label all slides with your name and a brief caption.

If your image is selected for publication, we will need to get either an original slide or a high resolution scan (300-350 dpi at full size). We'll want to receive final slides or high-res files by the end of the day on Monday, February 27, at the latest. (Issue publication date will be April 1, 2012.)

Payment: For those of you new to submitting to us, I like to say from the get-go that our art use rates are not high -- from $50 for one-time inside use at a quarter page or less, up to $300 for the cover. The inside rates are negotiable for a photo that we really need with an article, but I always have to balance subject matter and image quality against cost. If that changes your feelings about submitting to us, I certainly understand. If not, I'll be excited to see your work!

Shipment: A note on sending original artwork and transparencies: We do our utmost to secure all original artwork sent to us, and we are careful to send all such artwork by trackable FedEx or UPS. However, if such a trackable shipment should be lost or seriously damaged through no fault of ours -- as has happened just once since we began publishing in 2001 -- we cannot be held liable beyond any agreed-upon permission fee and the physical value of the media, or an additional amount agreed upon in advance. In certain cases, that may affect our ability to accept submissions.

Some photographers send us First Class postage-paid envelopes with submissions of original transparencies. We certainly appreciate the consideration and will use that postage if it is included. However, we don't have the capacity to add insurance/trackability to stamped USPS mail. So such art will be returned via the supplied postage, without tracking. For all other submissions, we ship via trackable UPS Ground.

We know you put a lot of work into selecting images for the magazine and we really appreciate your willingness to do that; it is such an important part of the overall quality of Bay Nature. So thanks in advance for your submissions.