Nature and the Environment

Reptile Rally to Make Snakes, Alligators Seem Not So Abhorrent After All

Since it's rattlesnake season and all, we'd thought we'd try to put a positive spin on reptiles, especially those who are looking for someone to love, not to eat. This coming Saturday, Petco is hosting a reptile fete of sorts throughout San Francisco where you can learn all about why these cold-bl ... More >>

Shuck and Jive: Drakes Bay Oyster Company Forces a Redefinition of Environmentalism

Marine Biologist Pleads Guilty to Illegally Feeding Whales

When orcas kill and eat a gray whale, they often don't finish the whole thing in a single serving. For up to three days after the feast, chunks of blubber float around the area, drawing hungry orcas like leftovers in the fridge. Marine biologist Nancy Black and her assistant encountered such a scen ... More >>

Put a Bug in Your Ear

Fracking In Monterey County Blocked -- Temporarily

The land of Steinbeck has more to it than fertile soil from which the nation's spinach and strawberries sprout: The country's biggest supply of shale oil lies below the central California turf.The Monterey Shale extends through most of central California and has as much as 15.4 million barrels of oi ... More >>

"Promised Land": The Message Is the Message

Boom or Doom: This Environmental Disaster Is No Gold Rush

Carbon Tax Funds: S.F. Monies Are Sitting Around Unused

Off-Leash Dogs: Owners Fight Increased Ticketing at Glen Canyon Park

Massive Blue Whale to March at Crissy Field This Weekend

Are you one of those Shark Week and Free Willy fans who always wondered what it would be like to fill the shoes, or rather, fins, of these sea creatures? Well, here's your chance.On Sunday, Blue Whale Tatzoo is holding a march at Crissy Field, where participants will be able to create an imitat ... More >>

Starved Pelicans Are Now Crowding San Mateo's Shelter

Those sad and starved Brown Pelicans that have packed into nearby shelters this past month have wormed their way into the Peninsula Humane Society's Wild Life Center where they are getting 'round the clock care. The Peninsula Humane Society has taken in some 30 emaciated and really cold Pelicans, su ... More >>

Big Old Botany

San Francisco Bay-Delta Longfin Smelt Could Become Extinct

​The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service needs you and conservation partners to help save the dwindling San Francisco Bay-Delta longfin smelt population. Once the most abundant fish population in the San Francisco Bay-Delta, the state says the 4-to-6-inch estuarine fish are at a record low for the f ... More >>

"Big Miracle": Saving the Whales Doesn't Save Any Laughs

It's Too Late to Stop Wild Horse Round Ups in California

flickr/David Reese​Horse-lovers were disappointed this week when the Ninth Circuit in San Francisco rejected a motion for a restraining order and injunction to halt the round-up of over 2,000 wild horses and wild burros along the California-Nevada border. The court said that the motion was moot as ... More >>

Environmental Groups Fight to Put Gray Wolf Back on Endangered Species List

Gary Kramer, US Fish and Wildlife Service​Environmental groups appealed to the Ninth Circuit to reinstate the northern rocky mountain gray wolf on the Endangered Species List, after Montana judge Donald Molley reluctantly upheld Congress' move directing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to delist ... More >>

Sea Lions Found in S.F. With Wires Wrapped Around Their Necks

Inquiring minds​Marine rescuers are attempting to save the lives of two young sea lions who were found on San Francisco's Pier 39 with wires draped around their necks -- which could easily kill them. The wired mammals first came to the attention of rescuers after tourists spotted the two sea anima ... More >>

Spotting Birds at a Record Pace, with a Camera and a Bike

Go Fish: S.F.'s Coastal Foraging King Shows How to Fish (and Eat) Locally

Junk Food Ban Weighed -- For Seagulls

Gross​Since seagulls are mysteriously dying by the dozens at Pier 94 rendering plant after feasting on offal, the Board of Supervisors has been urged to enforce a larine version of a junk food ban.At its Feb. 10 meeting, the city's Animal Care & Control Commission introduced a drafted letter t ... More >>

Man Busted For Smuggling Whale Teeth

What a smile​Here is a story that involve both sperm and teeth -- and it's still G rated.James Saunders was convicted yesterday in a San Francisco courtroom for scheming to illegally buy, sell, and smuggle sperm whale teeth from the far away country of Ukraine. The conviction was a crack in an nat ... More >>

Erosion at Ocean Beach could send sewage into the sea

San Francisco Environmentalists Sue EPA Over Clean Air Act

Sparing Polluters​It's Spare the Air Day, and here is why we should refrain from air-polluting behaviors. The San Francisco-based Sierra Club has joined WildEarth Guardians in a legal battle to force the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to hold more than two dozen states accountable for protec ... More >>

Owl Kick Your Ass

Watching the Act of Watching

Mount Sutro battle pits tree lovers against native-plant lovers

The Narwhal, Commonwealth's Liquid Nitrogen Slushie

Tamara Palmer​Molecular gastronomy pops up sparingly at Commonwealth, like in a light cocktail frozen with the assistance of liquid nitrogen. The Narwhal is a lovely slushie made with ambrosia melon and lime, filtered sake, mint, and Floc de Gascogne, a French aperitif fortified with Armagnac. ... More >>

SF Weekly Letters

Returning sea lions could be in for a shock

Military Dolphins, Sea Lions Save San Francisco From Terror

Brien Aho/U.S. NavySmile! You're on Dolphin Camera.​Trained journalists cover trained beasts The opportunity to watch Gavin Newsom watch Navy sea lions and dolphins in a terror-fighting exercise was just too good. Scores of creatures, meticulously trained via rote exercises, were on display in Mis ... More >>

New City Program Helps Homeowners Slash PG&E Bill

Look! Green! Green!​But Some Consumers May Be Better Off Looking Elsewhere To Fund Green Home Improvements, Program's Architect AcknowledgesMayor Gavin Newsom this evening will hold an "Internet town hall" to tout a new program helping property owners pay for energy-saving improvements. Dubbed Gre ... More >>

Have the Sea Lions of Pier 39 Left Earth for Space?

Few local news stories in recent memory have attracted as much international attention as the abrupt vanishing act pulled by the popular sea lions of Pier 39, who this fall deserted the docks where for decades they were wont to haul out and bask in the attention of tourists.Yearning for yet more dis ... More >>

Cirque du Soleil: Ovo

How Hyde Street Pier eliminated its sea lion problem

SF Weekly Letters

Penguins Defy Arranged Couplings at the California Academy of Sciences

The illicit love of Howard and Safara​Last night at the California Academy of Sciences, a group of spectators gathered around the African penguin exhibit squealed and cooed as twenty blackfoot penguins bopped around their rocky enclosure like so many wind-up toys. These parti ... More >>

The Cove expertly exposes the horrific treatment of dolphins

Suit Alleges Environmental Protection Agency Not Doing Enough Environmental Protecting

Smoke 'em if you got 'em...It was the Roman satirist Juvenal who pondered quis custodiet ipsos custodes? -- Who watches the watchmen? If we gave him the answer "The WildEarth Guardians" we don't think it'd satisfy his query (and, honestly, the man's been dead 1,800 years) -- but it wouldn't be wrong ... More >>

Urban Cat Hunting: Out Trapping Feral Felines For the SPCA

Joe EskenaziThe trap is baited...The sun was starting to dip beneath the horizon when the call came in. It was supposed to be a relatively easy job -- we were to finish cleaning up a colony out by Ocean Beach. Four kitties had already been bagged and, tonight, our mission was to snare the lone holdo ... More >>

The Big 4's Wild Game Week, May 12-16 (or DIY)

Hoisin- and Scotch-glazed wild boar crispy tacos, anyone?

The Urban Jungle: City Offers Tips for Harmonious Coexistence with Skunks, Raccoons, and Squirrels

Just walk away, manIf you're anything like the inhabitants of most American cities, there's a question that has probably not been on your mind as you try to make sense of the national economy's death spiral, and that is this: How do I coexist with local wildlife? But if you live in San Francisco, ... More >>

Ant Farm at the Tavern

Who Would Possibly Complain About San Francisco's Lovely Weather? Our Plants -- If They Could

"If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason." -- Jack HandeyNo, Virginia, plants cannot talk. But, if they could, San Francisco's would ape our human population -- and protest. The unseasonably hot weather induc ... More >>

Environmental reports waste tons of paper

SF Weekly Birdwatching: Today on Mission Creek

SF Weekly Birdwatching: Blue Heron Sighting at Mission Creek

SF Weekly Celebrates Sea Otter Week!

Last Night: Cal Academy of Sciences Press Preview

Give me Liberty or give me Compost!

In Defense of Creepy Crawlies