California Curated

09/02/2026

The destruction of over 8000 giant Sequoia trees in California is considered by some one of the worst environmental crimes in US history.

Watch now | How greed, fraud and staggering waste led to the destruction of 8,000 giant sequoias in one of America’s worst environmental crimes.

08/21/2026

We put together a list of the top 10 best California science and nature books. We spent a lot of time on it. We hope you enjoy it.

From coast to desert to forest, these books capture the beauty, complexity, and changing spirit of California.

08/21/2026

This hidden collection of seashells is offering scientists fantastic new opportunities in neurobiology. 

Hidden at Occidental College, the Cosman Collection holds nearly 117,000 shells, possible undiscovered species, preserved DNA, and some of nature’s deadliest venom.

08/08/2026

California’s highway roadcuts are more than scars in the landscape. They’re windows into millions of years of earthquakes, vanished oceans, volcanoes and tectonic upheaval. Next time you’re on the road, you may never look at them the same way again.

How geologists read millions of years of history in California's highway roadcuts.

07/22/2026

The Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita is home to about 40 endangered apes and has become a globally important center for conservation, research, and education.

The Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita is home to about 40 endangered apes and has become a globally important center for conservation, research, and education.

07/21/2026

An interview with microbiologist Jeffrey Marlow on the magnificence of microbes: https://californiacurated.com/blog/a-planet-built-by-microbes/

07/17/2026

Last week, I spent a morning at the Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita with my colleague and buddy Tod Mesirow. We arrived at dawn to hear the gibbons' morning song. It was so cool. The center is doing important work studying and helping conserve some of the world's most endangered apes. Here's a story with text and video:

The Gibbon Conservation Center in Santa Clarita is home to about 40 endangered apes and has become a globally important center for conservation, research, and education.

06/18/2026

For thousands of years, one California mountain produced a volcanic glass so prized that it traveled across the state and even reached the Channel Islands.

The story of Lookout Mountain obsidian is a story of geology, trade, and the people who turned stone into one of the most important tools in California history.

Lookout Mountain obsidian became prized toolstone, traded through Indigenous networks from the eastern Sierra to the Channel Islands.

06/16/2026

The area around Mammoth Lakes is one of the most geologically active places in California. Beneath the mountains lies a vast volcanic system that continues to produce earthquakes, hot springs, and other reminders that the region is very much alive. Those forces have created a remarkable landscape of volcanic craters, obsidian flows, steaming fumaroles, and the remnants of one of the largest eruptions North America has ever seen.

Supervolcanoes, Hot Springs, Fumaroles, Yellow Lakes, and Other Geologic Wonders of Mammoth Lakes

05/28/2026

It's one of the strangest and coolest wildlife stories in Southern California: Sea turtles are living and thriving at the mouth of the San Gabriel River. A big, urban, ugly concrete river in the middle of LA.

A threatened population of green sea turtles is thriving in the concrete channels of the San Gabriel River in Long Beach.