Row crops were introduced to the areas around Elkhorn Slough in the late 1800s. The majority of these crops were strawberries because the slough’s perimeter has ideal gro...
What habitat is deeper than the Grand Canyon, requires a submarine to properly explore, and is home to bioluminescent invertebrates? None other than the Monterey Submarin...
In the early 1900s, Natural Bridges was briefly at risk of becoming the site of a grand hotel in line with the vision of Fred W. Swanton. He was fortunate enough to acqui...
Brandt’s cormorants (Phalacrocorax penicillatus) are back on the sea cliff just west of Natural Bridges State Beach in Santa Cruz. They started using this ledge in...
Have you ever ridden a sand wave? Chances are you probably didn’t ride this one. It’s not at Mavericks, and it’s 200 million years old. Originally a sand dune up to...
South of San Francisco, about 20 miles north of Santa Cruz along Highway 1, lies a beach hidden behind sand dunes covered in an undulating meadow of native grasses. From...
Ancient peoples might have managed the landscape around Santa Cruz, California through fire, but we can also see current small-scale land management practices along Pilki...
California’s Bonny Doon Beach is home to wide-open sands, a creek that runs through it, and even a clothing-optional section to the right of the chunk of Santa Cruz...
What will people hundreds of years from now think of American culture when they rummage through our trash? Especially in the absence of written records, a culture’s trash...
The waters of California’s Monterey Bay, particularly around the Santa Cruz Wharf, are home to the cute and quite fuzzy harbor seal (Phoca vitulina). The smaller of...
