from the Watershed Nursery in Richmond, CA
We’re currently hiring for two positions: Project Manager and Retail Sales Associate
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 31, 2025
Two Job Announcements from the Watershed Nursery
Posted in Garden | Tags: Job Openings, Watershed Nursery
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 31, 2025
‘The forgotten forest’: how smashing 5.6m urchins saved a California kelp paradise
The Guardian reported
Pollution, warm oceans and hungry urchins devastated Pacific kelp. Now, thanks to divers with hammers, one of the world’s most successful rehabilitation projects has helped it rebound
Read on www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/31/california-pacific-kelp-forest
Posted in Environment | Tags: Kelp, Sea Urchins
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 31, 2025
Australian Geographic nature photographer of the year 2025 winners – in pictures
The Guardian reported
A painterly, macro view of a cauliflower soft coral by Ross Gudgeon has taken out top prize
Read on and see photos at www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2025/aug/31/australian-geographic-nature-photographer-of-the-year-2025-in-pictures
Posted in Photography | Tags: Australian Nature Photographer of the Year
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 31, 2025
Striking new moth species, hidden for a century, named to honor 42 years of marriage
Phys.org reported
A beautiful, colorful moth, previously mistaken for over a century, has been revealed as a new species by entomologist Dr. Peter Huemer of the Tyrolean State Museum Ferdinandeum in Innsbruck, Austria.
Read more Striking new moth species, hidden for a century, named to honor 42 years of marriage
Posted in Butterflies | Tags: Carcina ingridmariae
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 30, 2025
Garnet Fire Impacts to Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks
The National Park Service reported
Park staff are closely monitoring the Garnet Fire, located north of the Kings River and northwest of the Cedar Grove and Grant Grove areas of Kings Canyon National Park. It is unlikely that the fire will spread south of the Kings River and cause any closures or evacuations within the park.
Posted in Park | Tags: Garnet Fire, King’s Canyon and Sequoia National Parks
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 30, 2025
Regreening Milwaukee Schools for Kids and Communities
The Nature Conservancy reported
Reflo is regreening Milwaukee schoolyards and playgrounds with native plants and fun features so kids and communities benefit and thrive.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Regreening
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 30, 2025
Will more roads in national forests help against wildfires?
PR reported
The Trump administration argues that rescinding the 2001 Roadless Rule will help wildland firefighters. Fire researchers warn that more roads could exacerbate the problem.
Posted in Park | Tags: Roads in National Forests
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 30, 2025
A Great Rebound for Great Lakes Piping Plovers
Audubon Magazine reported
After 40 years of dedicated conservation efforts, the growing population of Great Lakes Piping Plovers—a record 88 pairs, up from a low of just 12—is returning to long-abandoned nesting territory. Thanks to a broad coalition of conservation partners, there’s hope yet on the road to delisting the Piping Plover from the Endangered Species list. Keep reading for more on the ongoing recovery efforts to save Great Lakes Piping Plovers.
Update: After this story went to press, conservation team leaders reported that 2025 saw another record breeding season for Great Lakes Piping Plovers with 85 nesting pairs.
Posted in Birds | Tags: Great Lakes Piping Plovers
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 29, 2025
Berkeley’s Official Bird – The Barn Owl
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 29, 2025
272 mysterious plains-wanderers found in Australian desert. Here’s why the discovery is so incredible
Discover Wildlife reported
A population of rare ground-dwelling birds has been discovered in an unexpected corner of South Australia.
Long thought to be entirely dependent on sparse native grasslands, the group of critically endangered plains-wanderers (Pedionomus torquatus) was spotted living in low, open shrubland far from its core range.
Posted in Birds | Tags: Pedionomus torquatus, Plains-wanderers
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 28, 2025
Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Upcoming Events
See all Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Upcoming Events at see all upcoming events
Posted in Park | Tags: Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy Events
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 28, 2025
Relative of Extinct Xerces Butterfly Helps Restore California Habitat Destroyed in its Demise
The Good News Network reported
The coastal dunes of the San Francisco peninsula serve as the natural backdrop to the dramatic curve of the Golden Gate Bridge, but just recently they also became the test bed for an “amazing” experiment in rewilding.
Can an extinct species, which played a key role in its ecosystem, live on through its close relatives? That’s what ecologist at the California Academy of Sciences are trying to figure out.
Using silvery blue butterflies, the ecologists are attempting to replicate the role and activity of the extinct Xerxes blue butterfly, an important regional pollinator that became the first known invertebrate species to go extinct in North America post-industrialization.
Read more at Relative of Extinct Xerces Butterfly Helps Restore California Habitat Destroyed in its Demise
Posted in Butterflies | Tags: Silvery Blue Butterfly, Xerces Butterfly
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 27, 2025
The West’s disappearing glaciers may soon be gone for good
SF Gate reported
Glaciers around the world are vanishing faster than ever before. Last year, all 58 global reference glaciers across five continents tracked by the American Meteorological Society lost mass for the second year in a row — the greatest average ice loss recorded in the report’s 55-year history.
Read more The West’s disappearing glaciers may soon be gone for good
Posted in Environment | Tags: Glacier Melt
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 27, 2025
Thousands of illegal marijuana plants removed from California national park
The Guardian reported
Park rangers have removed an illegal marijuana cultivation site in California’s Sequoia national park spanning approximately 13 acres (5 hectares).
In a press release on Thursday, the National Park Service said that it had removed a total of 2,377 full-grown marijuana plants and approximately 2,000lbs of trash and infrastructure last week by hand and helicopter sling-load operations.
Posted in Park | Tags: Illegal marijuana cultivation in National Parks, Sequoia National Park
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 27, 2025
East Bay Regional Park District Acquires 82 Acres at Point Molate for Future Regional Park!
from East Bay Regional Parks
82 Acres of Shoreline Protected as Public Parkland and Open Space
Long envisioned as a public park, this milestone ensures the shoreline is protected forever as public parkland and open space — a remarkable achievement for the entire Bay Area.
Posted in Park
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 27, 2025
Court Orders Less Reliance on Pesticide Spraying on Millions of Acres of Western Rangelands
Xerces Society reported
A federal judge in Oregon has confirmed the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service (APHIS) has a legal duty to consider preventative measures — rather than a “spray first, ask questions later” approach — in its program allowing insecticide spraying to kill native grasshoppers and crickets on millions of acres in 17 western states.
Posted in Environment | Tags: Pesticide
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 27, 2025
Why Crater Lake’s only lake access trail must shut for years
SF Gate reported
“This project has been needed for a long time. Decades of erosion, rockfall damage, tree fall, and use have damaged the trail to the point where annual maintenance is unsustainable,” Marsha McCabe, the park’s public information officer, told SFGATE. “Retaining and support walls are failing, can no longer be repaired, and must be completely replaced.”
There are stretches where the trail has noticeably deteriorated, creating real safety concerns for visitors who aren’t as sure-footed. In places, gaps in the tree line reveal the scars of rockslides and tree falls, their debris cleared but not forgotten. Even the sections rebuilt by trail crews this summer, sturdy as they are, stand out as bright reminders of just how fragile and precarious this route has become.
Read full article at Why Crater Lake’s only lake access trail must shut for years
Posted in Park, Walks & Hikes | Tags: Crater Lake
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 26, 2025
Wildflower Watching as a Source of Solace and Diversion
The Nature Conservancy writes about Wildflower Watching as a Source of Solace
Trout lilies and other wildflowers are blooming. A backcountry expert and author reflects on the solace of the season.
Read on blog.nature.org/2020/04/28/wildflower-watching-as-a-source-of-solace-and-diversion/
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 26, 2025
Photos from a Foggy Morning at the Regional Parks Botanic Garden
Photos taken on August 26 on a Foggy Morning at the East Bay Regional Parks Botanic Garden in Tilden Park in Berkeley, CA
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 26, 2025
Crafty curlews: birds eavesdrop on prairie dog calls to evade predators
The Guardian reported
Prairie dogs bark to alert each other to the presence of predators, with different cries depending on whether the threat is airborne or approaching by land.
But their warnings also seem to help a vulnerable grassland bird.
Curlews have figured out that if they eavesdrop on alarms from US prairie dog colonies they may get a jump on predators coming for them, too, according to research published on Thursday in the journal Animal Behavior.
Read more at Crafty curlews: birds eavesdrop on prairie dog calls to evade predators
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 25, 2025
Condor Tour at Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge Saturday, September 6, 2025
Greetings Fellow Condor Lovers,
We are pleased to be able to offer a tour of Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge on September 6, 2025. This refuge was established in 1985 to protect nesting territory of the critically endangered California condor and is closed to the public.
Tours are limited to a maximum of 24 people, so applicants will be accepted on a first come basis and preference will be given to those persons who have NOT attended a tour in the past 2 years. Due to the nature of the tour, no children under 10 please.
To apply for a spot, click the button and complete all of the information in the online form.
| Yes, I would like to be considered to attend |
Posted in Birds | Tags: Bitter Creek National Wildlife Refuge, Condor Bird Tour
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 25, 2025
Los Padres ForestWatch Upcoming Events
See Upcoming Los Padres ForestWatch Upcoming Events at Home | Los Padres ForestWatch
Posted in Birds, Talks | Tags: Los Padres ForestWatch Upcoming Events
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 24, 2025
Monterey beach closes as sea lion colony takes over the shoreline
SF Gate reported
A beach off Monterey’s Cannery Row is closed indefinitely after a colony of sea lions moved in for its annual summer vacation.
Read on www.sfgate.com/centralcoast/article/cannery-row-beach-closes-sea-lion-20994643.php
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 24, 2025
Wily coyotes thrive in Central Park as animals adapt to urban life across US
The Guardian reported
Romeo and Juliet among at least 20 coyotes in New York City as animals gradually expand eastward into cities
Read on www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/aug/24/coyotes-central-park-us-cities
Posted in Animals | Tags: Coyotes in New York Ciy
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 24, 2025
Seabirds only poop while flying, researchers observe
Phys.org reported
On Japan’s desert islands, researchers uncovered a peculiar bathroom ritual among seabirds. Reporting in Current Biology, the team found that streaked shearwaters (Calonectris leucomelas) poop while flying—not while floating on water—and they do so every 4 to 10 minutes. This habit may help the birds stay clean and fertilize the ocean below.
Posted in Birds | Tags: Shearwaters
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 24, 2025
The West’s Megadrought Might Not Let Up for Decades, Study Suggests
The New York Times reported
A megadrought has sapped water supplies, ravaged farms and ranches, and fueled wildfires across the American Southwest for going on 25 years. Not in 12 centuries has the region been so dry for so long.
Now comes worse news: Relief might still be decades away.
According to new findings published in the journal Nature Geoscience, the dry spell is no mere bout of bad luck, no rough patch that could end anytime soon.
Read more at The West’s Megadrought Might Not Let Up for Decades, Study Suggests
Posted in Environment | Tags: West’s Megadrought
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 23, 2025
Study examines impact of logging on wildfire risk
NBC Bay Area reported
A new study is offering fuel for the increasingly political debate over fire risk and fire prevention.
President Donald Trump recently called for more logging on federal lands, both to promote timber production and reduce fire risk. But researchers say their research now shows logging is far from the best solution for cutting fire risk.
Read on www.nbcbayarea.com/news/local/logging-wildfire-risk-study/3936070/
Posted in Environment | Tags: Forest Fire Prevention, Logging
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 23, 2025
The Health Benefits of Gardening
The New York Time reported
Digging holes can be a workout and mood booster all rolled into one.
Shoveling mulch, pulling weeds and lugging around a watering can all qualify as moderate-intensity physical activities. And gardeners tend to report higher levels of physical activity overall, compared with non-gardeners.
Read more at Why Gardening Is So Good for You
Posted in Garden | Tags: Health Benefits of Gardening
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 22, 2025
Grand jury charges Wyoming man in wolf snowmobile animal cruelty case
AP reported
A Wyoming man who allegedly hit a wolf with a snowmobile, taped the wounded animal’s mouth shut and showed it off in a rural bar before killing it has been indicted on an animal cruelty charge by a grand jury nearly a year and a half after the incident.
Read on apnews.com/article/wyoming-wolf-killed-snowmobile-run-over-bar-3b0fbb9c39a5257854e9aa88290666e8
Posted in Animals | Tags: Wolf Killing
Posted by: Sandy Steinman | August 22, 2025
Scientists reclassify giraffes into four distinct species, up from one
MSN reported
Scientists have reclassified giraffes into four distinct species, up from one. Conservationists say this greater understanding of giraffe taxonomy will allow for targeted conservation efforts, specific to each species’ needs, prioritizing those that are critically endangered.
Posted in Animals | Tags: New Giraffe Species
Natural History Wanderings 