Habitat

Thumbnail image for Part 3: Flaunting Our Economic Potential As Birders & Wildlife Watchers

Part 3: Flaunting Our Economic Potential As Birders & Wildlife Watchers

November 14, 2011 Fishing & Hunting

This is Part 3 (of 3) in a series on non-hunting revenue streams for our National Wildlife Refuge system. In Part 1 I talk about the issues surrounding the current funding system. In Part 2, I interview Marlin Greene who’s been producing an alternative refuge stamp since 2006, to draw attention to this subject. Edited [...]

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Part 2: The Non Hunters’ Stamp

November 6, 2011 Fishing & Hunting

In the first part of this three-part series, I posted about the funding issues that shape land-use decisions on National Wildlife Refuges.You can read that post here: Part 1: Non-Hunters and National Wildlife Refuges.In Part 3 I discuss how birders, photographers and wildlife watchers can capitalize on their economic power. Here, I interview photographer Marlin [...]

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Part 1: Non-Hunters and National Wildlife Refuges

November 4, 2011 Fishing & Hunting

This is a three part series about National Wildlife Refuge funding and how the current system affects land-use privileges for non-hunters and non-consumptive users. In Part 2 I interview photographer Marlin Greene who has created a No Hunting Stamp to promote awareness about hunting on National Wildlife Refuges. And in Part 3 I discuss how [...]

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Low Tide Driving

February 26, 2011 Habitat

I was surprised to see this Mercedes SUV navigating over sensitive tidelands habitat in the Des Moines area of Washington. I looked it up and found that it is, in fact, legal for residents of this area. As a transplanted Californian, I’ve been told a few times now to stay off the tidelands, low or [...]

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Learning to Not Trespass

October 1, 2010 Habitat

It shouldn’t be that tough, right? My first beach 2010 experience up in the PNW was during a minus-point-one low tide. That foggy Seattle morning, I ventured from a public beach into the way-out low tide. Normally, I wouldn’t go that far since I’m hesitant to mess with fragile sea things under my boots. But [...]

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Never Underestimate a Cattail

April 14, 2010 Bay Area

Today, I watched a Marsh Wren collect soft fibers from the head of a cattail — and dive into the abyss of cattail leaves to build up a hidden nest.

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One Tree, Many Lives

April 9, 2010 Bay Area Faves

Every spring, the wood chipper shows up. One morning, Fargo-like, it just appears . . . always while I’m in my bathrobe, never after I’ve quaffed my caffeine . . .

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City On (and Behind) Hills

April 3, 2010 California

“I don’t know of any other city where you can walk through so many culturally diverse neighborhoods, and you’re never out of sight of the wild hills. Nature is very close here.”

~ Gary Snyder (poet)

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Stormy Beach People

January 11, 2010 California

I’m a perfect fit with Northern California, loving the storm-whipped ocean as I do. From the shoreline, that is. Keeping my eye on that 7th wave. Wrapped in layers. Wishing I could still operate my camera while wearing gloves. Keeping the UV filter on for the saline mist. Loving every second of this El-Niño-driven swell. [...]

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Ahimsa at the Tidepools

November 16, 2009 Bay Area Faves

I swear, if I have to ask one more kid to stop throwing rocks at animals . . . It was an imperfect plan to begin with: super-low tide on a Sunday at the gorgeous but hardly-secret Fitzgerald Marine Reserve. I’ve been waiting for a daylight minus (-) tide for a few months. I’d even [...]

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The Unheralded Hulet Hornbeck

November 14, 2009 Bay Area

Until this week, I didn’t know how much gratitude I owed Mr. Hulet Hornbeck. The sign below marks the head of a commemorative trail at Carquinez Strait Regional Shoreline — a park in the vast and lovely East Bay Regional Park District (EBRPD). When Hornbeck began his tenure as Chief of Land Acquisition for EBRPD [...]

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The Ghostliness of Black Diamond Mines

October 17, 2009 Bay Area

Black Diamond Mines Regional Preserve isn’t haunted, but it’s a park grown upon the ghosts of California’s history. In terms of our earliest history, the spirit of the Ohlone and Miwok people still permeates the land. When I stand on our remaining wild hilltops, I look to the expanse of tract development over what, by [...]

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Reclaimed: Las Gallinas Wildlife Ponds

October 9, 2009 Bay Area

Reclamation is among my favorite themes — especially as it pertains to nature. I root for the vines overtaking fire hydrants and windblown seeds germinating new habitat in former refuse sites…

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The Mud Cracks of Coyote Hills

July 21, 2009 Bay Area

The Mud Cracks of Coyote Hills could be a family of mutants, living under the floor boards. But they’re not. They should be. This would be a better post.

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The Imperfect Lawn

July 6, 2009 Habitat

Years ago, I wrote a bit of satire for Flak Magazine entitled The Perfect Lawn: There’s nothing like waking up to the roar of a Shindaiwa EB250 leaf blower pumping lawn detritus through your bedroom window at 166 mph. Every Monday it’s my urban reveille, followed by a tear-jerking plume of fuel exhaust from a [...]

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The Art in Bull Kelp

July 4, 2009 Bay Area

I never appreciated kelp until, 1) I first saw this particular monster of a kelp, and 2) I saw close-ups of kelp shot by better nature photographers than I — capturing the golden palette of this gargantuan plant.

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Splendor in the Low Tide

June 17, 2009 California

An homage to Warren and Natalie — in title alone. There’s photographic magic in the sun rising over a super-low tide. At the point where dawn meets a -2.0, the strange, the stunning, the predictable and the chaotic all converge on that plane of tide pools, mudflats, and beach flea burrows. One of my favorite [...]

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Walking the Bay Trail at San Leandro Marina

March 25, 2009 Bay Area

** Photo usage and restrictions The East Bay leg of the San Francisco Bay Trail has an extraordinary, long stretch from San Leandro Marina southward to the Hayward Shoreline. Where some of the Bay Trail jogs inland on paved roads, this particular portion runs alongside the Bay and through the heart of the marina itself. [...]

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Homage to Cesar Chavez in Berkeley

February 24, 2009 Bay Area

** Photo usage and restrictions If you venture into the off-leash area atop the hills of Cesar Chavez Park in the Berkeley Marina, you’ll come upon a place of remembrance along with a worshipful look north, south, east and west. The solar calendar built on this site pays homage to Cesar Chavez, his legacy commemorated [...]

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