The American Bald Eagle wasn't named our national bird just its size and fierce countenance. They were also widespread across much of north America, including here in California. That ended in the middle of the 20th century, but the impressive raptors--with a wingspan of 6 to 7 feet-- are now making a comeback.

There is also a second type of eagle also found in some areas of the north bay. Denise Cadman, a natural resources specialist for the city of Santa Rosa, explains that Golden Eagles are similar in size to their bald cousins, but tend to frequent a different habitat.

If you set out to spot a bald eagle, and know what to look for and where, Cadman says the chances are good that you will succeed. But it's never a sure thing.

Special thanks to Joan Langfeld of Sebastopol for sharing her eagle photographs.

As irrigation of treated wastewater moves into more urban areas, it increases the risk of human exposure and runoff into sensitive waterways.

Brenda AdelmanMost of the sewage processed by Santa Rosa's regional water treatment facility comes from urban users, but until late last year, the discharge of the plant's output was concentrated on outlying pasturelands. Guerneville resident Brenda Adelman, who heads the Russian River Watershed Protection Committee, says that a new pilot project is bringing some of that "reclaimed" water back within the city limits.

Purple pipes indicate they are carrying reclaimed waterIf most of the nearby residents of west Santa Rosa are unaware of the new wastewater irrigation program going on around them, Adelman says there's not much that would let them know about it.

Irrigating empty fields allows the water to percolate through the soil. But when it is sprayed onto an urbanized "hardscape," the water quickly becomes runoff that flows into storm drains, then creeks and waterways. But before it gets there, says Adelman, that water collects undesirable nutrients that it carries along, too.

Two examples of standing water in the Stony Point irrigation area, both taken during dry weather last december.

To keep endangered tiger salamanders on the Santa Rosa plain from becoming roadkill as they come out of their burrows to mate, a set of test tunnels have been installed under one local road to offer a safer route to reproduction.

Protecting an endangered species means preserving the habitat it depends on to survive, explains Water Agency biologist Dave Cook, In the case of the California Tiger Salamander, that's an extra complex task, because of the creatures' dual habitat needs.

It's not enough to preserve both types of habitat, Cook continues. They must also be connected. Right now one of the greatest threats to the salamanders is the traffic they must get through when migrating from their upland burrows to the low wetlands where they breed.

The new tunnels have been installed to give the tiger salamanders safe passage while going to and from the breeding site favored by one local population, explains SSU graduate student Tracy Bain. It's something that will likely see sporadic use throughout the rainy season.

The tunnels can protect the slow-moving salamanders from the much-faster traffic on county roads, but the small amphibians are still at risk from multiple other animals, Bain adds.

 In centuries past, it helped the Indians of the Amazon basin feed their people for hundreds, maybe even thousands of years before the first Spaniards arrived. Now bio-char could help the 21st century world curtail a major cause of global climate change.

The key to the benefits of biochar, explains Raymund Gallian of the Sonoma Biochar Initiative, lies in the chemical process of partial combustion.

Although it was only discovered in the past few decades, biochar was actually invented, as much as thousands of years earlier, by the native people of the Amazon basin.

Sonoma County and the Sonoma Biochar Initiative are taking a lead role in exploring the modern uses of biochar, which Gallian says is only appropriate, given this area's progressive response to concerns over climate change.