Bay Nature Magazine

Bay Nature links the residents of the San Francisco Bay Area to the environment around them and inspires individuals to address challenges while considering nature.

International

English

Magazine

Outlet metrics

Domain Authority

Ranking

Global

#737254

United States

#190878

News and Media

#6214

Traffic sources

Monthly visitors

Articles

How Trump Is Destroying Historic Environmental Regulation—And How Marin Audubon’s Name Got (Arbitrarily) Caught Up In It - Bay Nature

3 weeks ago | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

Marin Audubon Society v. FAA seemed “fairly unremarkable,” says environmental lawyer Susan Jane Brown. At stake lay an issue as straightforward as environmental litigation gets: Before flying recreational aircraft over national parks, the plaintiffs said, the agencies had to review the impacts on wildlife and park visitors as dictated by federal law.
Local Heroes 2025: Avroh Shah, Young Leader

4 weeks ago | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

An American avocet dives into the silt and emerges beak open: “I think it got something!” Avroh Shah says. Out at the Baylands Nature Preserve, the sweep of sky over these shimmering mudflats opens a view to the horizon. “Every time I come here, there’s a smile on my face,” Shah says. Now a sophomore at Palo Alto High School, Shah has explored these nearly 2,000 acres in Santa Clara County since childhood: boating at Shoreline Lake, biking along Coyote Creek, walking on the Bay Trail with friends.
A New Story for Sperm Whales

4 weeks ago | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

The more sediment obscures the cameras, the clearer it becomes to everyone in the cramped control room: this mission at MARS isn’t going smoothly. All the operators are trying to do today is plug a cord into an outlet. But the mundane becomes complex when you’re doing it with a remotely operated vehicle (ROV) 3,000 feet underwater in Monterey Canyon at the Monterey Accelerated Research System ocean observatory—more commonly shortened to MARS.
Editor's Letter: Nature as Remedy

1 month ago | baynature.org | Victoria Schlesinger

Now is the time for heroes. And this year, as in the previous 14, Bay Nature will honor a handful of individuals who inspire us and others through their exceptional environmental work in the Bay Area. The point of our Local Hero Awards has long been to remind and reinforce that the neighbors, colleagues, and people we pass on the trail may all be heroes.
With Trump’s War on DEI, Local Environmental Organizations Rethink Diversity Commitments

1 month ago | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

On February 13 in a quiet auditorium in Oakland, the California State Coastal Conservancy’s executive officer, Amy Hutzel, took the podium at the agency’s board meeting to propose a resolution that, three weeks earlier, would have been “self-evident”: She asked the board to reaffirm the Conservancy’s commitment to justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion. “These don’t seem to be normal times,” she said.
How to Read the Wind Like a Sailor

1 month ago | baynature.org | Kate Golden

On land, we can usually afford to ignore the wind. It comes in and out of our chests without fail, it tears shirts from the clothesline, and that’s about it. Not so in a small sailboat on, say, San Francisco Bay, where the wind is your boss. You require it to get anywhere. Heavy winds test mettle; light winds, patience. And the wind’s strength dictates how much of your sail to raise—more in light airs to catch every gust, and less in higher winds, to avoid being overpowered.
Fighting the political currents, local groups sue the Trump administration to protect the white sturgeon

2 months ago | baynature.org | Callie Rhoades

This story was originally published in Oaklandside, an independent, nonprofit news site. The white sturgeon of the San Francisco Estuary resembles something out of a Jurassic Park film. The prehistoric fish, the largest freshwater fish in California, looks like a steel-colored mix between a dinosaur and a catfish. Historical records show that they can grow up to 20 feet long and live over 100 years, bearing their age handsomely with a set of prominent whiskers.
Trump Turmoil Is Already Affecting Bay Area Conservation Work

2 months ago | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

A scientist loses sight of recovery for an endangered butterfly he’s spent his career protecting. An environmental justice nonprofit director anticipates possible layoffs. A forest expert watches wildfire risks grow as critical work gets delayed. A fish passage barrier that has blocked steelhead trout migrations for years was set to be removed this summer; now it might stand for years more.
Paddling the Cosumnes River Preserve, a Lush Refuge in the Central Valley

Jan 23, 2025 | baynature.org | Tanvi Dutta Gupta

At midday, the surface of the Cosumnes River mirrors a bluebird sky. The oak forest hoods the water on either side. Though it’s quiet, life is in motion: a belted kingfisher flashes past in search of fish. A white-tailed kite surveys for prey from a lofty perch. On the river, the current is so gentle you can forget how far this water has come: all the way from the western Sierra foothills to here, the Cosumnes River Preserve, a hour and a half’s drive from Berkeley.
What Lies Beneath

Jan 14, 2025 | baynature.org | Sonya Bennett-Brandt

In the shallows of south Lake Tahoe, diver Brandon Berry is slurping up clouds of algae with an underwater vacuum cleaner. Snorkeling above, I can hear his Darth Vader breaths better than I can see him—both researcher and lake bed are shrouded in a green muzz of metaphyton. The filamentous, cotton-candy-like algae is a persistent affliction here, where it intermittently grows, dies, washes up on the shoreline, and rots in unsightly, smelly piles.