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Billions in Flight: Migratory Birds 
Autumn doesn’t officially begin until the equinox on September 22, but all across North America birds are already on the wing—billions of them. Migration times and destinations vary based on the species and variables like weather and food sources—some...
One-Room Schoolhouse 
Back to school. A hundred years ago in Topanga, it would have been on foot—and often barefoot—to the little, red, one-room schoolhouse by the creek in the bend of the dirt road.  Public education in California was still relatively...
Desert Voices 
“‘Just now our blood dances to other music.’ They fell a-twittering among themselves once more, and this time their intoxicating babble was of violet seas, tawny sands, and lizard-haunted walls.” The swallows in Kenneth Grahame’s Wind in the Willows...
Desert Daytrip 
A desert experience doesn’t always require one to crawl on hands and knees through the thornbush and cactus, regardless of what Edward Abbey says. Anyone seeking cactus, sandstone, and volcanic peaks need look no farther than our own Santa...
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The Making of Butterfly Day 

Young Topangan Coyolli Jimenez has been designated this year’s Butterfly Day Goodwill Ambassador. “Coyolli” is an Aztec name for a small ringing bell. It’s also the first name of the twelve-year-old daughter of Sergio Jimenez, the man in charge...
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On Fire 

Two years ago, fire came here. It licked the thick brush from the high hills, And filled the canyon with flame. It leaped from the great parapet of Boney Mountain And swept the slopes below. The hill people fled...
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Hotel California 

Short term rentals have become a source of income for some property owners in the Santa Monica Mountains and a source of aggravation for others, leaving local governments scrambling to regulate this burgeoning new industry. Most short-term rentals are...