Olympia oysters, whose native range runs from Baja California to southern Alaska, are being enlisted as ecological engineers ...

Join Bay Nature Magazine and researcher Dr. Jenn Smith for a look at California ground squirrels and the surprises uncovered through long-term monitoring of their populations in the Bay Area (hint: it ...

Photo by Scott Doniger Stewardship After Decades Away, River Otters Make a Triumphant Return to the Bay Area Scientists and volunteers track a remarkable return, and study how to keep it going ...

Where kelp forests used to grow, now legions of purple urchins can blanket the ocean bottom, creating urchin barrens. The barrens will persist until something—disease, predators, starvation, or ...

Geology Capturing the Flood in California’s Ancient Underground Waterways Long buried riverbeds can move and absorb excess stormwater, storing it for future droughts.

When ranchers leave the land, what version of nature takes over? The park and The Nature Conservancy have ambitious restoration plans.

Fire The Burning Question in the East Bay Hills: Eucalyptus Is Flammable Compared to What? Twenty-five years after the Oakland Hills fire, people still disagree about whether blue gum eucalyptus is a ...

To hear Roger Castillo tell it, all of the City of San José—its million inhabitants, its sprawling residential neighborhoods, its glittery glass high-rises and office-park tech campuses—is more or ...

Grasslands managed by the San Francisco International Airport are important habitat for the imperiled San Francisco garter snake. (Photo by Anton Sorokin) Urban Nature The Wild Things Live at the ...

Just a century ago, foraging for wild foods would have been unremarkable--part of daily life for many people. That's not true today, but foraging is making a comeback, with ever more people interested ...

Inspired by the science of beaver wetlands, activists tackle a long-held belief that beavers aren't native to much of California.

Fog means survival for many Bay Area plants and animals. What will happen to this life-giving airborne moisture in an era of global warming?