NEWS
Boat runs aground at North Beach
A squid boat ran aground in the pre-dawn darkness Friday morning at North Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. The Lake Bay, a 58-foot fiberglass purse seiner registered out of Smith River, Calif., was carrying roughly 1,000 gallons of fuel and 30 to 50 tons of squid when it beached, according to the U.S.…
Ag values rise as Marin eyes wool industry
Two new reports by the county department tasked with protecting local agriculture found that Marin’s gross agricultural production increased by 12 percent last year and highlighted ways to strengthen the sheep and wool economy. On Tuesday, staff with the Agriculture, Weights and Measures Department presented the 2025 Crop and Livestock Report, an annual snapshot of…
Capturing the capricious coastal fog
Although they are separated by fewer than 20 miles, the Point Reyes peninsula and the Olema Valley can feel a world apart in summer. One is often gray and bone-chilling; the other is warmer, with clearer skies. A new research project aims to measure the mystery of these two landscapes, capturing the ephemeral patterns of…
Stinson parking to adapt to seas
A project that will reconfigure the public parking lots and mitigate flooding while improving ecosystem resiliency at Stinson Beach has received a stamp of approval by the commission responsible for managing the coastal zone. Earlier this month, the California Coastal Commission greenlit a National Park Service plan submitted last year for the parking lots, which…
Water district plans to modernize Nicasio Reservoir spillway
Marin Water has hired a consulting firm that specializes in dam design and rehabilitation as it seeks to modernize the Nicasio Reservoir spillway. Seeger Dam, built in 1961, received a downgraded status from the California Division of Safety of Dams, from satisfactory to fair, this spring, after an evaluation identified design flaws. The California Department…
West Marin butterfly census contributed to national database
Butterflies play a major role in supporting life on earth. As pollinators, they help plants reproduce, and they’re an important link in the food chain for birds, bats, and other insectivorous animals. To gauge their health, it’s essential to count them. Local volunteers contributed to a continent-wide annual census in July, tallying 874 individual butterflies…
FEATURES & OPINIONS
In the Fields, August 27, 2026
As late-summer grasses lose their nutrition, Barinaga Ranch is bolstering the diets of its sheep with alfalfa and tasty almond hulls. To monitor their health, Marcia Barinaga’s team weighs all 80 ewes once a month, sending each animal, single file, through a narrow chute and onto a scale. If they are too fat or too…
