Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Bobcat by Cleve Nash

Snowy Egrets by Alan Schmierer

Goats and Dogs at Point Buchon
by Jeanie Greensfelder

Peregrine Falcon image on banner by Cleve Nash

A Bird's Eye View by Mike Stiles

Who doesn't like hummingbirds, those little nuggets of color and quickness, visiting our flowers and our feeders? They are a fascinating group of birds, the only bird able to fly backwards—and even upside down for a short time—and, on a cold night can actually enter a state of hibernation called torpor, and can reduce their body temperature by half, and their heart rate to 50 beats a minute, down from 1,250 beats a minute while flying.  Read More

Coastland Contemplations by Michele Oksen

Rooted in the richness of earth wild strawberry plants grow all over our SLO coast forest floors. The plants are easy to recognize. Look for a low growing clump of three-parted leaves with small white five-petaled flowers that grow on hairy stalks. Long runners take off in every direction from a mother plant. While still attached to these runners new wild strawberry plants root themselves, often creating thick beds of ground cover. Read More

Elfin Forest by Jean Wheeler

Join Evan Albright, an animal track expert, in learning who is "tracking up" the Elfin Forest. Evan will demonstrate how to tell the front feet from the back feet of a raccoon, and what the difference is between coyote and dog tracks. Visitors will learn to look for other signs that a wild resident of the Elfin Forest has passed that way, such as hairs on a fence or "scoot" marks where the animal squeezed through a fence hole. This walk will open up a complex world of the Elfin Forest's inhabitants, one that we would never suspect while walking along the boardwalk.  Read More

Marine Sanctuaries by Carol Georgi & Karl Kempton

Wetlands are the most biologically productive of any habitat. They are critical to the survival of local and regional ecosystems because of the diversity of species they support. Coastal wetlands form a vital link between land and sea, exporting nutrients and organic material to ocean waters. Read More

One Cool Earth by Greg Ellis (New Column)

A list of people with a common symptom:

Johnny Appleseed
The Man Who Planted Trees
L.A. Treepeople's founder Andy Lipkis
Nobel Laureate and Greenbelt Movement founder, Wangari Maathai. 

These are the names of people united across time and continents by the one feature  —  an extreme compulsion to plant trees.  I do not use the word 'compulsion' here carelessly.  I make tree planting sound like a psychological disorder.  And it is. Read More

Sweet Springs Reflections by Holly Sletteland

This week I had the incredibly heartwarming experience of releasing a Screech Owl with Pacific Wildlife Care (PWC).  I had found it on the road on my way to Sweet Springs a couple of months earlier.  It was just a tiny, little ball of feathers, but it was upright, so I knew it was still alive.  I stopped and gently scooped it up and drove it straight to the PWC Center in Morro Bay.   Read More

Female Elephant Seals in
Dispute Over Space by Kevin Cole

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