What do cacti and rare pines have in common? What’s a paleoendemic? Do pinecones have teeth? Why do so many different plant species live in Mediterranean climates? 

Join me and Jon Rebman as we go behind the scenes of the San Diego Natural History Museum, explore the herbarium, and discuss the rarest pine species in North America. 

Links: 

San Diego Natural History Museum

University of California Museum of Paleontology

Cool study about redwood leaves

Info about Torrey pines and bark beetles

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

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My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

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The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Have you ever wondered what little-known and mysterious beings are living among us, just out of sight? This episode is about one such creature that most Californians have no idea even exists.  

Join me, Dave Wyatt, and Kristyn Schulte as we discuss clever little foxes, oak mistletoe, the floor is lava, dissolved poop, the smallest mountain range in the world, tasty taxidermy, classroom design, convergent evolution, weasel lemurs, and a whole lot more. 

Links: 

The California Ringtail Project

Mistletoe toxicity

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠. 

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

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Subscribe to the GSN email newsletter.

Episode cover photo by Dave Wyatt.

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Join me and Dr. Alexandra Syphard as we discuss what makes some neighborhoods more fire prone than others, the Santa Ana Winds, defensible space, the massive differences between fires in forested Northern California and shrubby Southern California, the pendulum swing of public opinion, ways that climate change does and doesn’t contribute to wildfires, the WUI, positive uses of abandoned Fry's electronics buildings, waxy leaves, invasive plants, and so much more.

This episode is an attempt to add context for everyone struggling to comprehend the scale of the fires in Los Angeles, especially those impacted. I hope it helps. Sending love.

Links:

California Fire Hazard Severity Zones

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

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My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

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The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Cover art by Raquel Raclette.

Flying over San Diego, you can see them: Fingers of green extending through neighborhoods all across the city. 

San Diego’s urban canyon’s serve as refuges for people and wildlife alike, but they’re also often isolated islands of habitat. This can keep animals from accessing the resources they need to survive. And human neighbors aren’t always able to access these spaces, either. 

In this episode, join me and Michelle Thompson as we search for reptiles in one of San Diego’s urban canyons, discuss what makes canyons special, and explore how the San Diego Natural History Museum is setting the foundation for the long-term health of these spaces. 

Links:

Healthy Canyons Initiative

Go on a FREE hike with the Canyoneers 

Want to help SD canyons? Email Michelle Thompson at: [email protected] 

1988 Michael Soulé Study 

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

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My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

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The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Episode cover photo provided by The San Diego Natural History Museum. 

What do oak trees, goldenrod, willows, and ceanothus all have in common? They all belong to the group of roughly 14% of plants supporting 90% of caterpillar species. 

In other words, they’re all keystone plants. 

Join me and Doug Tallamy as we discuss the vital role these plants play in their native ecosystems and how we can bring them home to welcome hundreds of species into our own yards. 

Helpful Links:

Doug’s books 

Calscape by The California Native Plant Society

Keystone Plants in Mediterranean California (National Wildlife Federation Resource) 

Homegrown National Park Map

Article: “The Illusion of a Trillion Trees”

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠. 

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

Get podcast Merch. 

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.
Episode cover photo by Parker Sturdivant.

What do fake rattlesnakes, California ground squirrels, odd eye bones, bubonic plague, bizarre choices in home decor, and regurgitated mouse bones have to do with burrowing owls? 

Join me and Phil Unitt as we venture into an urban canyon in San Diego to find out. 

Helpful links:

Phil Unitt’s page

Rattlesnake owl noise

Urban Burrowing Owls piece by Clinton Abbott

Fish and Wildlife page on burrowing owls

Secretary Bird video

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

Follow me on ⁠Instagram⁠. 

My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

Get podcast Merch. 

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found ⁠here⁠.

Episode cover photo by Ray Hennessy

The sea is rising, and I have a lot of questions.

Questions about sand movement, seawalls, nature-based climate solutions, ecosystem engineer plants, sand dunes, climate literature, and how we can harness the power of our collective imaginations to adapt to a changing world together.

Join me and environmental reporter Rosanna Xia at Point Dume in Malibu as we discuss my many questions and explore a beach that's been reimagined with the future in mind.

Links:

⁠Become a Heyday Member⁠ and receive a free copy of Rosanna’s book, California Against the Sea, when you add the code GOLDEN to the “How did you find us” section. 

⁠Grist’s climate fiction reading list⁠. 

Learn more about the Embarcadero from this ⁠Exploratorium walking tour⁠. 

Read more about ⁠Seattle’s living seawall⁠. 

Support Golden State Naturalist on⁠ ⁠Patreon⁠⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

Follow me on⁠ ⁠Instagram⁠⁠. 

My website is⁠ ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠⁠. 

Get podcast ⁠Merch⁠. 

The theme song is called “i dunno” by grapes and can be found⁠ ⁠here⁠⁠.Photo Credit ⁠Nikoloz Gachechiladze⁠

It's fall!

And all around the country, tidy piles of raked leaves rest on the corners of lawns, ready to be bagged up and thrown away.

But throwing away leaves means throwing away free mulch and fertilizer.

It also means throwing away habitat and belching methane into the atmosphere.

Join me and National Wildlife Federation naturalist David Mizejewski as we discuss the benefits of leaving the leaves, the harms of removing them, and the kind of abundance we can buoy right outside our doors by embracing the natural habitat building opportunities all around us.

Learn more about leaving the leaves.

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

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My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

Golden State Naturalist Merch

How is the story of tule elk tied to the story of California? What’s the difference between a grazer and a browser? Why do tule elk have such big feet? How much grazing is the right amount of grazing? Why do elk bugles sound like something straight out of a horror movie?  

Come with me and Orlando Rocha as we strike out in search of tule elk in the Grizzly Island Wildlife Area, and then join me and Tom Batter as we discuss the ecological importance of tule elk along with the ties between their story and the story of California. 

Historic range of California elk subspecies

Current (2017) range of California elk subspecies

Read more about Henry Miller, “the cattle king of California”

Thank you so much to Steve Shepard of The Natural Curiosity Project podcast for sharing the elk bugle audio. 

Tule Elk photo by Katie Booth / National Park Service

Support Golden State Naturalist on ⁠Patreon⁠ and get perks starting at $4/month. 

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My website is ⁠goldenstatenaturalist.com⁠. 

Merch 

Listen next: ⁠Central Valley Water and Wetlands with Ellen Wehr⁠ 

Did you know that California's Central Valley once contained a vast inland sea and was home to camels,  400 lb. saber-toothed salmon, and tiny four-tusked mastodons? Or that, just a couple of hundred years ago, it was a network of wetlands, peat bogs, riparian forests, and shallow lakes? So how did this place that was once so defined by an abundance of water become somewhere marked by water-related controversy? 

Come along with me and Ellen Wehr as we discuss the history of this remarkable Valley, the wetlands that remain, and what we can do to both protect and coexist with the many species that still call the Central Valley home today. 

Links: 

Fossils! 

NatGeo on Estuaries 

NOAA Life in an Estuary 

Native Tules 

Nisenan Tribe 

Sinking Central Valley 

Wetlands of California's Central Valley (cool interactive map) 

You can find me on Instagram and Tiktok @goldenstatenaturalist

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist.com

MERCH 

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes, and you can find it and the Creative Commons License here.