Love is in the air! With Valentine’s Day just around the corner, there will be many sweet treats popping up on grocery store shelves and on restaurant menus to entice you and your Valentine. Many will contain one of nature’s sweetest offerings: strawberries.

In the Golden Gate National Parks you can do it all—bike, windsurf, hike, ride a horse, bird watch, and even get married! Looking for the perfect place to hold an outdoor ceremony? Look to your parks—there’s a spot to match any personality!

A month into 2013, some might already be slipping on their New Year’s resolutions. Hopefully, the staff at Crissy Field Center can stay strong on the resolutions they have made. Read on to discover their goals—personal and professional—for the coming year.

How can we help make the world a healthier, happier place? The Institute at the Golden Gate believes the answer is: “One piece at a time.” Institute Director Chris Spence shares how his team is pulling the pieces together—and building on strengths—to make a difference.

If you are a longtime resident of the Bay Area or another temperate location, you have probably heard somebody complain about the “lack of seasons.” And while you might not be able to make a snowman here, winter can still be experienced in our parks. What are the signs of the season?

Working only in wintertime, National Park Service crews and Trails Forever staff have been designing and building new sections of the Hillside Trail in Muir Woods since 2006. This year, 2013, it will be completed. Go behind the scenes as they “fly” one-ton of drain rock for the trail.

A year ago, Monterey pines and Monterey cypresses were removed from Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands to restore endangered mission blue butterfly habitat. How did this affect the birds during fall migration?

Muir Woods Earth Day is the longest-running event in the Golden Gate National Parks. It’s also one of the most enjoyable volunteer opportunities of the year. And it’s on January 26, 2013. Find out why we celebrate “Earth Day”—in the middle of winter.

As 2012 draws to a close, we want to give an enormous and heartfelt THANK YOU to all park volunteers! We are incredibly grateful that you choose to give the gift of your time and energy to these parklands. Read on to see your amazing year of accomplishments.

Experiencing the outdoors and engaging with electronics need not be mutually exclusive. Learn how Crissy Field Center staff—and educators across the country—are harnessing new technologies to connect young people with parks and open space.

As we enter 2013, the Institute at the Golden Gate is lining up a series of ground-breaking pilot programs, cutting-edge reports, and innovative partnerships in their core focus areas: public health, food, and climate change. See what we’ve got cooking!

At your next holiday feast, impress friends and family with some fresh knowledge. Read on to learn the origins of popular holiday foods and discover their closest relatives, found in our parks. Please don’t forage for these items (quite a few are inedible)—but fill your plate with some food for thought!