The parrots of San Francisco have ancestors from two species that hail from two completely separate parts of South America. Amir Aziz / Bay Nature This San Francisco story begins somewhere along the ...

POST has purchased more than 6,000 acres of oak woodlands near Gilroy, saving it from becoming a sand and gravel mine. It’s ...

Britta Shoot is a San Francisco–based writer covering everything from culture and travel to the environment. Estero Americano Coast Preserve is home to migrating birds, rare grasses, and in the spring ...

At some point during my decades of watching and researching hawks in the Marin Headlands, I began to notice insects. At first it was butterflies: migrating monarchs, local pipe-vine swallowtails, ...

After the Buttes erupted, from about 1.4 million to 630,000 years ago, a vast freshwater lake filled the Central Valley. Cleo Vilett In the vast flatness of the Sacramento Valley, encircled by a ...

Perhaps this spring you’ll make it to the coast and find yourself calmed by the waves cresting and crashing ashore, a drama that repeats and repeats. But consider the sea star: relentless pounding as ...

With a little luck we have all found that person, or group of persons, who are regularly game to join, or plan, our outdoor adventures. For me, that friend of almost 30 years, Kristina, is thankfully ...

Editor’s note: Due to the popularity of the new preserve, parking at Estero Americano can be difficult. We recommend visiting during the week and carpooling if possible. From a ridge overlooking ...

Among life’s small, durable joys is the discovery of a bird’s nest: perhaps in the shape of a bowl, woven from grasses and stems with a skill that seems inexplicable. How could a creature with such a ...

My most inspiring bike ride this past year was not on a mountain or in some exotic destination. It was sixteen flat and muddy valley miles under overcast skies.

When I plunge into San Francisco Bay in spring, I’m swimming through a cool green fish stew. This is the season when microscopic diatoms are proliferating. Masses of these jewel-like, silica-walled ...