Alcatraz gardeners needed tough plants that could survive with little water or care. The first ornamental plants that arrived to Alcatraz in the mid 1860s were typically favorite garden plants brought by soldier's families that called Alcatraz home.

Learn more about visiting the historic gardens of Alcatraz.

Resident families introduced roses to Alcatraz during the military era, between 1850 and 1934. Surprisingly, roses thrived under these conditions and soon filled Alcatraz’s first gardens.

After three decades of consistently and meticulously tallying the daily fall raptor migration at the Golden Gate, we have a lot of great data, and we have an amazing ability to see a kind of baseline raptor migration story for the 19 species that are seen here annually.

For example,

Learn more about the "Leave No Trace Seven Principles" to help minimize our actions may have on plants, animals, other people, and even entire ecosystems.