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This very special tenth-anniversary issue features original work from many of our favorite authors, including Robert Hass, Rebecca Solnit, Greg Sarris, Jon Carroll, Wendy Tokuda, Linda Watanabe McFerrin, and others. We bring you winning photos from our People in Nature photo contest and interview Harold Gilliam, Bay Nature award winner and dean of local environmental journalism. Cover illustration by Kathleen Lipinsky, emerylipinski.com.
Not all print articles and images appear online immediately.
Feature
In spring 2010, Bay Nature teamed up with Sarber's Cameras on a photo contest featuring images of people in the natural places they love. Dozens of local photographers submitted hundreds of photos. Check out the winners!
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Feature
by Rebecca Solnit
Author Rebecca Solnit celebrates the quotidian landscape of oaks and grasses of her childhood ramblings on Mount Burdell in Marin County. Has anyone, she asks, written a poem about bunchgrass? Or buckeyes? If no one has yet, someone should.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Feature
by Jon Carroll
For San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jon Carroll, it all happened at Limantour.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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by Wendy Tokuda
Longtime television anchorwoman Wendy Tokuda now spends many days in the East Bay hills, finding endangered manzanitas and communing with pileated woodpeckers. All because of her obsession with an invasive weed called French broom. And her years of effort are paying off.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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by Greg Sarris
Greg Sarris, currently Chairman of the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria, grew up in Santa Rosa, left for many years, and has now resettled on Sonoma Mountain. The bluebellies were there in his childhood and are still there now, woven into the landscape and the history of Sarris's people.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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by Linda Watanabe McFerrin
Linda Watanabe-McFerrin goes in search of rare butterflies on San Bruno Mountain, an island of native habitat besieged by subdivisions, roads, and invasive weeds.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Poem by Robert Hass
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Poem by Brenda Hillman
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Poem by John Hart
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Poem by William Keener
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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First Person
interview by David Kupfer
Before Harold Gilliam began his weekly newspaper column in 1960, the category of environmental journalism simply did not exist. For the next 35 years, Gilliam pioneered and perfected the craft of environmental reporting. We talk to him about his career, biggest stories, and how things are different for today's environmental journalists.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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East Bay Parks Feature
by Joan Hamilton
The East Bay Regional Park District is not just the nation's largest and oldest regional park district. It also has what’s likely the largest corps of professional naturalists of any local park agency. For generations of kids, that's meant accessible opportunities for hiking, camping, getting dirty, and--most important--discovering the outdoors and getting to know our plant and animal neighbors.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Signs of the Season
by Sue Rosenthal
While transplanted New Englanders may complain about the Bay Area's inconspicuous seasons, true Californians prefer February flowers to snow shovels. What we lack in extremes we make up in subtle and unexpected beauty. On your winter walks, keep an eye out for the early bloomers, plants that brave winter weather for an early shot at pollination.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Conservation in Action
by Diana Jou
Just a thousand yards off the San Mateo coast sits one of the most densely populated places in the Bay Area, with hundreds of residents sharing nine rocky acres, all with great views. But there are no people living here. This is Ano Nuevo Island, a wildlife reserve where four species of seals and sea lions coexist with seven species of seabirds. The only human presence is an occasional visit from a remarkable team of biologists, botanists, and ceramicists.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Families Afield
by Cat Taylor
"Home"--the word evokes many images: memories of your childhood abode or the smell of a home-cooked meal. Animals, too, have different ideas of home--nursery, fortress, or merely a place to rest. Here's a few fun homes you might see in the woods, if you know where to look.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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by Aleta George
As windmills spread, researchers struggle to reduce raptor deaths. In the windmill-dotted Montezuma Hills, we go looking for threatened mountain plovers. Meanwhile, restorations in San Francisco help out some sparrows in need in Golden Gate Park, activists battle Caltrans over Niles Canyon, and poets, authors, and artists return to Point Reyes for a new Geography of Hope conference.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Ask the Naturalist
by Michael Ellis
Michael Ellis declares that ringtails register a 9.9 on the cuteness scale, and they were reputed to shack up with miners during the Gold Rush. Yet longtime field biologist Wendy has yet to see one of these small mammals. They are elusive, but not as uncommon as you might think.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Ask the Naturalist
by John Muir Laws
Grebes are always fun to watch. Jack Laws helps you tell one from another. If you're especially lucky, you'll see their amazing synchronized courtship dances, where male and female zoom like speedboats across the surface of ponds or lakes.
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Letter from the Publisher
by David Loeb
Bay Nature turns ten!
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Letter From a Reader
by Malcolm Margolin
From the Jan-Mar 2011 issue
Published January 01, 2011
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Amongst marshes, a salty past, A walk along the Hayward shoreline
Berkeleyans closer to selling backyard produce , Residents want local food sustainability
Solar spectacle on horizon, Sunday's partial solar eclipse first in 18 years