Browse Our Stories
Tue, Jul 7 2020
United Nations Global Urban Lecture Released on Making Nature's City
SFEI's Urban Nature Lab and the UN-Habitat Global Urban Lectures series have produced a video on SFEI's Making Nature's City report. The lecture demonstrates why urban conservation planning is an essential component of urban design...
Thu, May 7 2020
Assessing Five Watersheds in Santa Clara County
A new synthesis report characterizing the amount, distribution, and diversity of streams and wetlands within the County employing CARI, and an ambient survey of the overall ecological condition of streams employing CRAM.
Wed, Apr 22 2020
This Earth Day, SFEI's Letitia Grenier describes the challenges we face in the Mercury News
SFEI's Letitia Grenier appears in a San Jose Mercury News article by Paul Rogers, describing the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the challenges we still face:
Wed, Apr 22 2020
Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa Completed!
SFEI completed a long-term Restoration Vision for the Laguna de Santa Rosa in the Russian River watershed.
Tue, Apr 7 - Thu, Apr 30 2020
SF Estuary Wetlands Regional Program Plan Released!
The Wetland Regional Monitoring Program (WRMP) Plan has been released! The WRMP will improve wetland restoration project success by putting in place regional-scale monitoring increasing the impact, utility and application of permit-driven monitoring to inform science-based decision-making.
Wed, Nov 13 2019
Newark considering controversial 469-home development at the edge of the Baylands
SFEI scientist Julie Beagle was consulted to discuss the value of wetlands at the Bay's edge in Newark, where a controversial new development is planned for an area adjacent to critical marshland.
Thu, Sep 26 2019
RMP Annual Meeting and Pulse of the Bay Report
With a planned release of October 10th, the 2019 edition of The Pulse of the Bay will feature articles on the four major pollutant pathways that are the primary focus of Bay water quality managers: municipal wastewater, industrial wastewater, s
Thu, Sep 26 2019
SFEI Provides Science Leadership and Support for State of the Estuary Report and Conference
The San Francisco Estuary Partnership (SFEP) brings together the estuarine community every two years at the State of the Estuary Conference and, periodically, SFEP also reports on the State of the Estuary, summarizing the latest scientific findings about ecosystem health.
Fri, Jun 21 2019
Eleven years to save San Francisco Bay
SFEI scientist Julie Beagle and SPUR-based collaborator Laura Tam co-authored an article featured in the SF Chronicle:
Thu, Jun 20 2019
Urban Ecological Planning Guide for Santa Clara Valley published
SFEI partnered with the Santa Clara Valley Open Space Authority to create a guide for how to support biodiversity across the urbanized landscape of Santa Clara Valley.
Fri, May 24 2019
A New Atlas for Dealing With Rising Seas in the Bay Area
SFEI's Julie Beagle penned a new article for Bay Nature, describing the importance of the new Adaptation Atlas, a guide for those around the Bay Area looking for the best ways to adapt their local area to sea-level rise
Fri, May 3 2019
SFEI's and SPUR's Adaptation Atlas shared by multiple media outlets
The newly released Adaptation Atlas (adaptationatlas.sfei.org) has been making waves on several significant media outlets, including the San Francisco Chronicle, the San Jos
Thu, May 2 2019
On May 2, 2019, the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News described how the Adaptation Atlas offers an innovative map of the Bay Area to promote nature-based strategies that can better assist our region in adapting to sea-level rise.
Wed, Jan 30 2019
Vision for Upper Penitencia Creek completed!
SFEI recently completed a resilient landscape vision for Upper Penitencia Creek in San Jose that integrates flood management and ecosystem support.
Sat, Jan 5 2019
Building Cities to Better Support Biodiversity
Erica Spotswood and a team of other SFEI scientists have developed a framework outlining the key elements for supporting biodiversity in urban environments.
Fri, Nov 9 2018
Working with Nature to Adapt San Francisco Bay’s Shoreline for Sea Level Rise
Impacts from sea level rise and combined flooding are increasing along S.F. Bay’s shoreline.
Wed, Nov 7 2018
New paper: Building resilience in highly modified California landscapes
SFEI has released a new paper in the journal BioScience, "Building ecological resilience in highly modified landscapes." The paper, led by Erin Beller of the Resilient Landscapes team in collaboration with
Tue, Oct 9 2018
SFEI is working with the Santa Clara Valley Water District to develop multi-benefit management tools
In 2014, SFEI and the Santa Valley Water District launched a collaborative partnership aimed at sharing experience, knowledge and resources, and working toward a shared vision of watershed management.
Tue, Oct 9 2018
Investigating the future of sediment in the San Francisco Bay
SFEI scientists are currently working with regional partners and science advisors to assess the future sediment supply to the Bay and how that compares to the sediment needed for baylands to survive sea-level rise.
Sun, Oct 7 2018
Using native ecological practices to manage California’s fire-prone landscape
Current North Coast watershed steward and former SFEI staff scientist Chuck Striplen penned an article for Bay Nature that identifies a number of challenges California faces, while illustrating the lines of connection between the past and present.
Mon, Oct 1 2018 - Tue, Dec 31 2019
Tracking Habitat Restoration Performance Measures
This collaborative project was funded by the USEPA to enhance the functionality of EcoAtlas Project Tracker to collect information on the expected goals of a project, and report performance measures in a consistent way across programs and agencies.
Fri, Jun 29 2018
RMP Technical Report: Sediment Supply to San Francisco Bay, Water Years 1995 through 2016
Sediment delivered from watersheds is a precious and dwindling resource for the Bay. The goal for wetland restoration around the Bay is to restore 100,000 acres. A total of $0.5 billion from Measure AA will be invested to reach this goal.
Fri, Jun 29 2018
New Solutions: Traveling on Sunlight
SFEI secured a grant from the Bay Area Air Quality District to partially fund SFEI’s installation of a set of three Solar Powered Electric Car Charging stations at the front of our offices. These stations can charge up to four cars at a time.
Fri, Jun 29 2018
Vision for the Calabazas Creek, San Tomas Aquino Creek, and Pond A8
SFEI recently released a resilient landscape vision for the interface of Calabazas Creek, San Tomas Aquino Creek, and Pond A8 in South San Francisco Bay that benefits both flood management and bayland habitat restoration.
Thu, Jan 25 2018
SFEI and Google share Award for Re-Oaking
SFEI and Google have won the Arnold Soforenko Award from the non-profit Canopy for significant contributions to the urban forest.
Mon, Jan 15 - Tue, Jan 30 2018
SFEI partner Canopy plants oaks in East Palo Alto
On Martin Luther King day, 170 volunteers came out to help plant oaks and other native landscaping at the St. Francis Assisi church in East Palo Alto.
Tue, Dec 19 2017
Disrupt the Street Tree: Could trees help Silicon Valley find an identity?
As recently as a 1850, according to a recent report from the San Francisco Estuary Institute, 80 percent of the trees in Palo Alto, Mountain View and Cupertino were oak trees. Another 13 percent of the trees were those commonly found alongside oak trees in oak woodlands: buckeye, madrone, sycamore, and California bay laurel. Willows, alders, and redwoods rounded out the final 7 percent. Oaks created the place. Postcards from San Jose in the early 1900s show farmers standing in the shade of skyscraping oak trees. Spanish explorers called Silicon Valley the “plain of the oaks.” The Peninsula is still home to two Roblar Avenues, a Robles Drive, and a Robles Park, as well as the North Fair Oaks and Menlo Oaks neighborhoods of Menlo Park.
Wed, Nov 15 2017
Russian River Watershed Atlas helps track and coordinate post-fire activities
Fire recovery in the Russian River Watershed will benefit from a common online platform for compiling, visualizing, and interpreting many kinds of environmental data available from diverse federal, state, regional, and local sources.
Tue, Oct 10 - Wed, Oct 11 2017
Flood Control 2.0 Wins an Outstanding Environmental Project Award!
The Flood Control 2.0 project team was presented with an Outstanding Environmental Project Award at the 13th Biennial State of the Estuary Conference in Oakland, CA.
Tue, Sep 12 2017
Science Support for Resilient By Design Competition
The challenges of accelerating sea level rise and aging shoreline infrastructure are creating a once-in-a-century opportunity to redesign the Bay shore.