Mountains and Marshes: Exploring the Bay Area’s Natural History

In this wide-ranging volume, Wallace (Articulate Earth), a conservationist and natural historian, celebrates the beauty of the San Francisco Bay and calls attention to its unique natural features. Written over the course of five decades, the essays here are largely—and loosely—grouped geographically. A section on what Wallace calls “the Bay West” includes a piece on harbor seals as well as one on the Farallones, “the 221-acre island cluster 27 miles off the Golden Gate.” His unit on the North Bay features an article about a big raven roost at Point Reyes National Seashore. Wallace doesn’t ignore urban terrain, and city dwellers will appreciate pieces on Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif. He notes that though it might seem “raggedly artificial, a run-down vestige of genteel Victorian landscaping,” the lake remains “a working part of San Francisco Bay’s ecosystem.” It was established by the state in 1870 as a sanctuary for wintering waterbirds and is now the oldest migratory bird refuge in the U.S. In highlighting such phenomena in urban environments, Wallace reminds readers that they don’t always have to venture to the mountains or deep into the woods to commune with nature; sometimes they can simply walk a few blocks from home. (Dec.)