By 2024’s raw numbers alone, we could probably justify making Bay Nature a wholly coyote-themed publication. We are, however, grateful to have niches of super-readers in just about every taxon—your snake people, your bird people, your protist enthusiasts. Here are the stories from this year (and a few from the archives) that you read most, or lingered on the longest.
—Kate Golden, digital editor
Charismatic Not-Necessarily-Mega Fauna
The internet loves animals. Bay Nature loves animals. Voilà! Also, mushrooms are not animals, but sometimes they have so much personality they deserve profiles of their own.
Top Stories from the Print Issue
If you’re a lover of real, tangible, paper magazines, become a member ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/http://baynature.org/membership), and you will get our longreads well before they appear online.
Most Controversial
Our Spring 2024 cover story, by Anushuya Thapa, laid bare how longtime anchor-outs living in Richardson Bay were pushed out to save the eelgrass—even though, as her reporting showed, there were other solutions. This nexus of environment and housing problems is an increasing theme in our work. And one can’t always predict where the fault lines will emerge.
Most Lingered-Over Stories
Google calls it “engagement time,” but where is the romance in that?
Most Popular Almanac
In each quarterly print issue, we give you a double-page spread with six glimpses into non-human lives of the Bay Area, all illustrated beautifully by Jane Kim.
The Darlings of Social Media
Apart from the abovementioned animals, people are drawn to controversy, hopeful stories, and giant pictures of trees.
The Archives That Keep Giving
Year after year, hordes of people find their way to Bay Nature by asking themselves, and then Google: What is poison oak even good for? We have an answer for that, as well as to other eternal questions, such as “is crow funeral really a thing,” “gold ladybug???,” and “what spider.” We welcome such seekers into the Bay Nature fold!
The Events You Loved
Increasingly, Bay Nature is transforming its journalism into live events. This year we registered almost 3,000 people for nearly 50 outdoor hikes and online talks led by naturalists, educators, and biologists. (Find more videos at our Talks page ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://baynature.org/bay-nature-talks/).)
Quickest to Sell Out: A rare trip to Elkhorn Slough, inspired by an article about otter reintroductions ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://baynature.org/2024/09/12/the-publics-reaction-to-otter-reintroduction/), sold out immediately. We hear you, boat lovers!
Most Attended: Photographer Stefan Thuilot, whose work Bay Nature profiled ^(https://www.blogquicker.com/goto/https://baynature.org/2024/05/23/he-set-out-to-photograph-all-of-californias-forests-then-they-began-to-burn/), spoke to a packed house of at least 100 people at the David Brower Center, with experts Joe McBride, Obi Kaufmann, and Adina Merenlender, alongside Thuilot’s huge, beautiful photographs.
Most Rapt Audience: This month, former longtime BN editor Eric Simons and Tessa Hill’s tales of reporting their book about the science of the changing ocean kept the audience on the call and asking questions till the very end.
#Bay #Natures #Popular #Stories
