Ted Sommer is the retired Lead Scientist for California Department of Water Resources. He is currently an Adjunct Fellow with Public Policy Institute of California. My most inspiring bike ride this ...

We’re surrounded by a world of insects that we barely notice. Put on your goggles and get immersed in the riot of colors and ...

Tiny by volcano standards. The Sutter Buttes are 10 miles wide and poke up 2,000 feet. In classic butte fashion, they are steep on the sides. Nearly all of the rocks out here (and a considerable ...

Spiders — and their webs — hold a special place in our cultural mythology. Tattered webbing is a feature of any horror flick, an icon of the evil that is lurking about with the spiders themselves ...

The Pan American Highway runs through the Sechura Desert in Peru, one of the driest places on Earth -- except when El Niño arrives. (Photo by A. Duarte, Flickr Creative Commons) A low-hanging, densely ...

From creeping slime molds to brain-eating ciliates to kelp, protists may be the strangest and most misunderstood group of creatures in the tree of life. Haeckel pointed out the troublesome task of ...

Pastures are visible from a derelict milking barn at the historic D Ranch, founded in 1870 and abandoned after the creation of Point Reyes National Seashore. There’s an ambitious plan to restore these ...

A crow funeral can happen at any time. Farmers bear witness after shooting unwanted crows in their fields. Powerline workers see them should an unlucky bird zap itself and drop. Occasionally, the ...

Rocky outcroppings and serpentine barrens in the southern Diablo Range, near San Benito Mountain. Joaquín Murieta, both literary hero and historical figure, thrived in California’s rugged Inner Coast ...

State Route 12 cut to the horizon line of Solano County. Somewhere out of sight lay the small town of Rio Vista and the Delta. But about an hour northeast of San Francisco, midway through southern ...

A mom and pup in the wild. Southern sea otters were hunted out for their furs, and are making a comeback in central California with human help. (Photo by Erin Underwood) In a small kitchen inside the ...

» Access the McCosker property and its five miles of trails that weave around the creeks from the Eastport Staging Area (formerly the Wilcox Staging Area) off Pinehurst Road. » When the first phase of ...