Golden State Naturalist

Chances are, you’ve never seen our state amphibian in the wild.

In this episode, find out how the California red-legged frog became so rare while also delving into international border crossings with endangered frog eggs, urban drool, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, things that can fit into a bullfrog’s mouth, and the essential mindset shift that might just change the world. 

Join me and Brad Hollingsworth from the San Diego Natural History Museum as we discuss all of this and so much more. 

Links: 

Trivia Night! Join me in-p...

How can listening deepen our relationship with place? What do birds think about highway noise? Is that ice bridge safe to cross at this time of year? How can I learn to listen more closely?

Join me and Fil Corbitt as we snowshoe down the Eastern slope of the Sierra Nevada Mountains in search of a handmade desk and a place to listen to flowing water, to birdsong, to each other, and to the ever-changing landscape itself.

Links:

Fil's podcast is called The Wind.

Check out their Coyote...

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

Suppo...

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...

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 im...

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 spec...

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 Californ...

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...

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, w...

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...

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...

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 coe...

Some animals plod across roads without hesitation. Others dart across quickly, while still more freeze at the sight of an oncoming car. A final group avoids roads altogether. Four distinct approaches, yet roads can have devastating impacts on animals regardless of their type of response. 

Thankfully, wildlife crossings can help. 

Join me and award-winning author Ben Goldfarb as we explore a fragment of old growth oak woodland, discussing how roads impact the environment and imagining a future that’s safer and more connected for humans and wildlife alike. 

Make sure to check out Ben’s...

What are your top ten favorite California native species? 

Join me, Griff Griffith, and Michael Hawk as we joyously compile our collective top ten list (a veritable menagerie meets botanical garden) and discuss how we can help each species. 

Don’t forget to follow Nature’s Archive and Jumpstart Nature wherever you’re listening now.  

Learn more about the great work Jumpstart Nature is doing on their website. 

The cover photo is by Charles Hood, who is generously allowing me to use it for this episode.

Support Golden State Naturalist...

Are coastal wetlands the same thing as estuaries? What about salt marshes? How can some plants grow in saltwater? Can I use them to salt my french fries? What’s an endangered river? Why do some birds build floating nests? Why should I visit nature that’s close to home? 

Join me and Empress Holliday as we explore the Tijuana Estuary to admire plants, gush over birds, and discuss everything from blue carbon to baby halibut.

Helpful Links:

⁠Divided Together Podcast⁠

⁠Tijuana Estuary (TRNERR) ⁠

⁠Endangered River⁠

⁠San Diego Coastkeeper⁠<...

What makes California such a great spot for snake diversity? Where does antivenom come from, and why is it so expensive? Can you really inoculate yourself against snake venom? How did evolving alongside snakes impact who we are as humans today? 

Join me and Michael Starkey, founder of Save the Snakes, as we get a close look at California snakes and then sit down to discuss bright blue snakes, snakes with legs, snake myths, evolutionary arms races, babysitter snakes, and how this diverse group of animals makes our lives better every single day.

Links:

Greetings from the break between podcast seasons! Find out what I've been up to and where I'm headed next.

More to come soon!

Links:

Podcast Feedback Form. A 5-min. way to help a ton and be entered into a drawing! Yay!

Seaweed Class! Use code GOLDEN to get 20% off Allison's two-part course.

Patreon: Support the show and get perks!

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist.

The theme song is called "i dunno" by grapes. Find the Creative Commons license...

How do sea stars move around? Why am I jealous of giant green anemones? When's the best time to go tide pooling? Why is life so hard in the in the place where the ocean meets the land? How have so many creatures adapted to thrive in this strange place where two worlds meet?

Join me and Michelle Kunst as we explore the intertidal zone on the Northern California coast and discuss the incredible diversity of life that can be found there.

Links:

Trinidad Coastal Land Trust

Seaweed...

Indigenous people have lived in the place now known as California since time immemorial and are still here today.

In this episode, join me and Frank Lake as we discuss mutualistic relationships between Indigenous Californians and the land, traditional burning, oak orchards, the powerful ways Indigenous and Western knowledges can come together, common misconceptions about pre-colonial California, reciprocity, and how we can move from a mental model of scarcity to cultivating a shared abundance that leaves no one behind. 

Links:

Frank Lake

California Indian History C...

Have you ever noticed a bee that looked a little…different? Maybe it was a bit fuzzier than a typical honey bee, or maybe it was obsidian black, bright orange, startlingly large, or as tiny as a gnat. Chances are, if you’ve seen a bee meeting any of these descriptions, you observed one of Earth’s 20,000 species of native bees (with around 1,600 of those species living in California). 

Join me and National Geographic Explorer, TEDx speaker, and community scientist Krystle Hickman as we head outside to find native bees and discuss the widely varied social lives of bees...

Author, artist, poet, and eco-philosopher Obi Kaufmann doesn't want to craft a better argument.

He wants to tell a better story.

But what does that kind of story look like? How do we begin to convey the incredible complexity of a place like California? How do we avoid unproductive divisiveness, embrace a better worldview, and move forward together in healing the land?

Join me and Obi in a field of wildflowers on Mt. Diablo as we discuss humanity’s relationship with the earth, Mt. Diablo daisies, ways in which meaning is co-constructed, biodiversity, wh...

Happy New Year! 🎉

This episode has a great story, so I added a new intro to tell you about it.

Here are the links mentioned in the new intro!

7 Ways to Connect with Nature zine by Kate Rutter

Find Kate on Instagram @katerutter.

Patreon. This is a great way to support your local indie podcaster.

Find me on Instagram @goldenstatenaturalist.

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com.

Have you ever wondered why we bring a toxic, parasitic plant indoors during the holidays...and then kiss under it? Or what ecological role this plant plays?

Come with me and Dr. Joshua Der as we discuss the ecological importance of mistletoe, its evolution, the vast array of wildlife it supports, and of course, the ancient folklore that led to all those stolen smooches.

Helpful Links:

Dr. Der's Publications

Mistletoe Folklore

My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com

Support GSN on Patreon.

When was the last time you felt truly connected with a place? Was it somewhere rugged and wild, or was it on a leaf-strewn suburban block? What did you notice? What questions popped up in your mind? What gave you that sense of connection? 

In this episode, join me and Justin Garwood in a Northern California temperate rainforest as we discuss how each of us can connect more deeply with the natural world, glaciers in California, an abundance of tadpoles, when to go off trail (and when not to), and what it means to be a naturalist n...

The Klamath Mountains, straddling the California-Oregon border, are a hotspot for biodiversity. But what drives the species richness of the region? 

Come with me and Michael Kauffmann to a moss-covered edge of the Klamath mountains as we discuss ancient rocks, carnivorous plants, temperate rainforests, why people are a vital part of the story of place, and why the Klamath Mountains are bursting with a truly stunning array of beings and relationships. 

You can find Backcountry Press @backcountrypress on Instagram.

Serpentine Soils and Plant Ad...

Is seaweed a plant? Is it ok to eat straight out of the ocean? What kinds of creatures rely on seaweed? How does kelp fight climate change? Join me and Allison Poklemba on the Humboldt coast as we descend into the intertidal zone to taste seaweed fresh from the ocean and discuss all of the questions above and more.  Helpful Links: Allison's Seaweed Resources Backcountry Press Instagram: @backcountrypress Dandelion Herbal Center IG: @dandelionherbalcenter Beach wheelchairs California Marine Protected Areas Anticancer Effects of Seaweed-Derived Bioactive Compounds Understanding Blue Carbon My website is goldenstatenaturalist.com Support GSN on Patreon! I'm @goldenstatenaturalist o...

At the height of the last ice age, California condors could be found all across North America, and since time immemorial, these birds have held special cultural and spiritual significance for a number of Indigenous groups.

But by the late 1980's, the last wild condor had been captured and brought into a captive breeding program. They were extinct in the wild.

So what happened to these enormous scavengers to diminish their range so dramatically? How much progress has been made by the captive breeding programs? How is their cultural...

Have you ever wondered about things outside your window--the things that go bump in the night? Or, actually, things that flutter, flap, tread softly, swim, or bloom in the night? Because there’s a whole nocturnal world out there that most of us are missing, and it’s actually not as hard or as scary as we might think to go out and see it for ourselves. 

In this episode, switch on your headlamp, and come with me and Charles Hood to the Cosumnes River Preserve, where we discuss vampire bats, nocturnal ocean migrations, night...

When was the last time you looked closely at the living things right outside your front door? Have you ever gotten lost in a daisy, zoomed in on a burr clover, or watched a ladybug on a rose bush?

Join me and author-illustrator Marni Fylling as we take a walk to explore the nature in her neighborhood. Along the way, learn how you can connect more deeply with the nature where you live and even cultivate more habitat that can welcome a greater diversity and abundance of life in your own yard.

<...

Coast redwood trees reside in a category all their own. Not only are these the tallest trees in the world, but they grow in unique ecosystems–quiet, foggy places with ferns and redwood sorrel spilling everywhere you look onto the trail.

In these forests, the sound of running water is never far away, and the redwoods themselves are by far the most prominent tree species, the warm hue of their bark dominating the landscape as they tower over the evergreen huckleberries and red-flowering currants below.

In this episode, join me...

Have you ever looked at a piece of art that altered your perspective? Or one that challenged your thinking? Or maybe you’ve studied a piece that taught you something new.

How can art impact conservation efforts? How can it help break generational cycles of disconnectedness from the natural world? Why does art matter in a time of rapidly changing climate and habitat loss? 

Join me and artist/scientific illustrator Jane Kim in the Ink Dwell Studio as we discuss nature blindness, the importance of place-based art, western monarch butterflies, endangered frogs, the purpose of mur...

Have you ever wondered if the plants growing along your favorite trail or outside your door are edible? Or what kinds of flavors might not be available at the grocery store?

Many of us aren't familiar with the tastes of the places where we live, even though there are wild foods growing all around us. Join me and author, educator, and forager Mia Andler on a walk beside the Truckee River to learn about the wild foods of California and beyond.

Links:

Mia's website

Mia's...

Do bats live close to my house? Why are they important? Do they have rabies? How can people help take care of urban wildlife? How can we involve more people in conservation and community science, particularly people from historically excluded groups? Come with me and Miguel Ordeñana to Griffith Park in Los Angeles, where we discuss all of this and so much more.

Links:

Bat Motherhood

Benefits of Bats

CDC Page on Human Rabies

National Science Foundation STEM Diversity Report

NHMLA's Community Science P...

Have you ever wondered what kind of wildlife lives right in the middle of your city? Or why some animals thrive in cities while others don't? And how did a mountain lion end up in Los Angeles, anyway? Join me and Miguel Ordeñana, the scientist who discovered mountain lion P-22 living in Griffith Park in LA as we discuss these questions and so many more.

Links:

Keeping Cats Indoors

Wallis Annenberg Wildlife Crossing

Safety in Mountain Lion Habitat

P-22 sightings during my visit to LA

Hey friends!

There's sooo much going on with the pod, so I wanted to check in and give you a quick update, including a little about the upcoming episode on urban ecology and some exciting interviews coming up for Season 3! I'll be back with a full episode soon!

In the meantime, check out any past episodes you may have missed, revisit a favorite, or just get some sun on your skin! See you soon!

You can find me on Instagram and TikTok @goldenstatenaturalist

My website is www.goldenstatenaturalist...

Have you ever wanted to grow your own native plants? Where can you get California native seeds? Should you sow them directly in the ground or start them in pots? Is there anything you should do to the seeds before planting them? What time of year should they be planted? How should the soil be prepared? What are some common mistakes to avoid? What are some good plants to start with? Is this the end of the lawn as we know it?

Join me and restoration ecologist Dr. Julia Michaels as we explore Hedgerow...

What is an amphibian, anyway? Are they leading double lives? What's the difference between a newt and a salamander? A frog and a toad? What kinds of amphibians live in California? Why are California newts so toxic? How do they always, always find their way home? 

Join me and Gary Bucciarelli as we explore a stream in the Santa Monica Mountains, finding plentiful frogs and newts as we discuss the questions above and many more. 

Links: 

Map of Amphibian Diversity 

Arboreal Salamanders 

California Herps

Gary's Website 

Gary...

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 coe...

What's the problem with yellow hills? How do you trick a seed? What are the neighbors angry about? Where do restorationists get all those seeds? What's the difference between ecological restoration and restoration ecology? What does reconciliation have to do with it? How can we keep the world brimming with strange and beautiful creatures?

Join me and Billy Sale, Restoration Project Manager at the California Botanic Garden, as we poke around a native plant nursery and discuss all of these questions and more. 

Useful Links: 

California Botanic Garden

Society for Ecological Re...

Most of us live in places where we can only see a few of the brightest stars in the sky at night, but what if that didn't have to be the case? Come with me and guests Kayla Browne and Dan Duriscoe to Death Valley, where we sit under a sky full of stars to discuss light pollution, bats, migrating birds, why dark skies are important, astronomy, places you can go to see a truly dark sky, and what can be done to bring stars back to our cities and our lives. 

Links: 

Friends of th...