Mothers’ Nature: Meet the Women Who Fought To Keep the Bay Area Wild

The San Francisco Standard

April 29, 2023

Imagine the Bay reduced to a trickle of water, Glen Canyon filled with ribbons of concrete highway, Mt. Davidson covered with private homes and closed to the public.   It can be easy to take the awe-inducing natural beauty of the Bay Area for granted, presuming it will always be there: the sparkly waters of the…

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MALT director focused on 30×30 environmental goals

Marin IJ

April 26, 2023

I’m lucky. My job as the director of a community-based land trust gives me the opportunity to stand on top of some of the tallest mountains in Marin and to take in breathtaking vistas – rolling farmland, protected forests, the baylands and the wild Pacific Ocean.

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Buy local plants and help beautify Novato

Marin IJ

April 7, 2023

The Novato Garden Club will once again offer its long-running annual Spring Bloom Sale from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. April 15 at two Novato locations, 7 Estates Drive and 6 Equestrian Court. The sale will feature a variety of annuals, perennials and shrubs such as roses, small orchids, fuchsia, hydrangeas, lavender, aloe and seeds;…

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Western Innovator: Laying chickens, dairy go together

Capital Press

March 30, 2023

They strut, scratch and mingle knowing they won’t be cooped up as they produce eggs for her. “I grew up in agriculture and raised cattle and hogs in my youth and active in 4-H and FFA,” she said. “I began operating my organic pasture raised egg farm in 2011.”

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Harvesting the rain: California farmers weather drought by collecting water

Capital Press

March 23, 2023

The marine fog that rolls across Marin County, Calif., north of San Francisco, relieves drought, even on days when no rain falls. Moisture collects on the roofs of the barns at Jessica and Neil McIsaac’s dairy and trickles into gutters and two 5,000-gallon tanks. Pumps then push the water through pipes from the tanks to…

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The Straus family legacy

Petaluma Argus-Courier

March 22, 2023

Few families have had as great an impact on our modern coastal lands as the Straus family. Ellen and Bill Straus fled Nazi Europe during WWII and settled in Marshall, on the Tomales Bay, to begin a life of ranching. Along the way, Ellen and Bill were at the heart of the effort to save West…

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In California, a Race to Capture the Water Before It Escapes

Wall Street Journal

March 9, 2023

PETALUMA, Calif.—Neil McIsaac has something many other dairy farmers here don’t: a storm-runoff capture system that can provide backup water for his herd when local reservoirs go dry, as they did last year. Already, he and others involved in the project say it has proven its worth. It has captured 670,000 gallons so far this winter,…

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Remembering Phyllis Faber: 1928-2023

Bay Nature

January 19, 2023

The Marin County conservationist passed away on January 15, at her home. This article was first published on Nov. 23, 2015. Veteran environmental activist, writer, editor, publisher, educator, and coastal wetlands scientist Phyllis Faber has made countless contributions to the Bay Area environmental movement. With the late Ellen Straus, she cofounded the nation’s first agricultural…

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