KneeDeep Times

Wildlife Roll With Wildfire

Imagine a Mad Max-style wasteland, ravaged by wildfire, but populated by frolicking woodland fauna. That’s what Kendall Calhoun was surprised to see just months after one of California’s biggest megafires.

Who’s on First at the SF Seawall?

Ten months after the Port of San Francisco lowered 288 experimental tiles into the water, these bio-friendly seawall surfaces are already crawling with crabs and covered in kelp. This August,...

Unpacking the Hold Up on Heat Protection for Indoor Workers

A long queue of indoor laborers pleaded with the Standards Board of the Cal OSHA last spring to implement long-awaited rules, developed almost five years ago, to protect workers from...

Crunching the Adaptation Numbers – Not Peanuts

Regional agencies made splashy headlines when they released a joint study on the likely cost of protecting Bay Area shores from rising seas: $110 billion. But the top-line number didn’t...

Women At Coastal Helm Walk the Talk

A record number of women are leading coastal agencies. In this podcast, they share their visions, discuss equity and glass ceilings, and comment on work-life balance.

Being Human in Big Weather

When it rained this May, it felt unexpected. Based on over 150 years of climate data for San Francisco, May typically gets several days with a light rain. But context...

Who’s on First at the SF Seawall?

by Ariel Rubissow Okamoto | Aug 15, 2023

Ten months after the Port of San Francisco lowered 288 experimental tiles into the water, these bio-friendly seawall surfaces are already crawling with crabs and covered in kelp. This August, researchers are finally getting a good look at all the tile types in their experiment, which range from large to small, and from bumpy to smooth, and which were hung from the waterfront at three different locations and tidal elevations in October 2022.

Crunching the Adaptation Numbers – Not Peanuts

Regional agencies made splashy headlines when they released a joint study on the likely cost of protecting Bay Area shores from rising seas: $110 billion. But the top-line number didn’t offer much insight into the complexities. A new inventory and map from the same agencies is much more revealing.

Being Human in Big Weather

When it rained this May, it felt unexpected. Based on over 150 years of climate data for San Francisco, May typically gets several days with a light rain. But context is key, and we are coming out of three years of drought—a fact which will generally color memories in a drier hue. “If I’ve learned anything it is that people’s perceptions are usually wrong,” says Jan Null….

Return of a Lost Lake

On the heels of the worst drought in 1,200 years, Tulare Lake, at the southern end of California’s San Joaquin Valley, filled and filled again in the heavy rains and runoff, inundating over 100,000 acres. As the Sierra snowpack melts over the next few months, the lake could spread, prompting water managers and locals to reconsider the future of this lake, long thought “dead.”