Natural resources and environment reporter

Paul Rogers

Paul Rogers is the Bay Area News Group natural resources and environment reporter. He has covered a wide range of issues for The Mercury News and East Bay Times since 1989, including water, oceans, energy, logging, parks, endangered species, toxics and climate change. He also has worked as managing editor of the Science team at KQED, the PBS and NPR station in San Francisco, and has taught science writing at UC Berkeley and UC Santa Cruz.

Media and communications senior manager Marti Tedesco, left, senior transactions project manager Fiona Martin, and Gordon Clark, president of the Peninsula Open Space Trust, a nonprofit environmental group based in Palo Alto, walk through Mead Ranch in Morgan Hill, Calif., on Friday, Feb. 27, 2026. The 1,921-acre property, located between San Jose and Morgan Hill and formerly owned by members of the Bechtel family, was sold to the nonprofit for $24.3 million. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Bechtel family sells scenic South Bay ranch for $24M in latest major conservation deal

March 3, 2026 at 2:41 p.m.

The Peninsula Open Space Trust will preserve Mead Ranch as open space.

Aaron Morris folowed by his dog, Gertie, skis on his way to a store during a brief break from the snowstorm in Truckee, Calif., on Thursday, February 19, 2026. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

Sierra Nevada snowpack just 68% of normal after whiplash winter

February 27, 2026 at 2:54 p.m.

Dry spells and a few big blizzards so far could mean increased summer fire risk.

A bald eagle rests atop a tree at Sargent Ranch, south of Gilroy, on Jan. 16, 2026. The Peninsula Open Space Trust, a Palo Alto environmental group, has purchased 6,114 acres of the historic ranch for $63.7 million in one of the largest land conservation deals in Santa Clara County history. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)

Palo Alto group buys 2,284 acres at Sargent Ranch, ending 10-year battle over proposed quarry on scenic property

January 31, 2026 at 1:25 p.m.

$23 million deal secures nearly all of huge open space area in southern Santa Clara County.

A person cross-country skis as traffic backs up on westbound Highway 50 during a snowstorm in South Lake Tahoe, Calif., on Sunday, Jan. 4, 2026. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group)

The Sierra snowpack is dropping fast. Here’s why experts say it’s not as bad as it seems.

January 30, 2026 at 1:30 p.m.

Blizzards at Christmas have given way to weeks of sunny, warm weather

A drone view of rural land near unincorporated Sites, Calif., left, on Thursday, March 14, 2024. The area is planned for Sites Reservoir, proposed to be constructed in rural Colusa County. The 1.5 million-acre-foot reservoir would be California’s eighth largest at 13 miles long. (Jane Tyska/Bay Area News Group)

Trump administration approves plan backed by Newsom to build largest California reservoir in 50 years

January 24, 2026 at 12:04 p.m.

Sites Reservoir would be 8th largest in California, providing water to Bay Area, farms, LA

Teslas owners charge up, order hamburgers and hot dogs and watch movies all at the same time at the Tesla Diner in West Hollywood on Tuesday, July 29, 2025. (Photo by David Crane, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG)

California hits milestone in electric vehicle sales

January 20, 2026 at 1:34 p.m.

Through 2025, more than 2.5 million EVs have been sold statewide, with Santa Clara County buying the most.

The U.S. Drought Monitor, a weekly report put out by the federal government and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, on Thursday Jan. 15, 2026 showed drought conditions in every Western state but California. (Image: US Drought Monitor)

Is California really 100% drought-free?

January 16, 2026 at 1:49 p.m.

Drought Monitor report is getting a lot of attention. Experts say to keep the big picture in mind.

The Morro Bay Power Plant, photographed in Morro Bay, Calif., on Monday, Nov. 2, 2015, closed down in 2014. Vistra, a Texas energy company, had proposed building one of the nation's largest battery storage plants there. (Patrick Tehan/Bay Area News Group)

Plans for huge new oceanfront battery storage plant are withdrawn following disastrous Moss Landing fire

December 8, 2025 at 1:46 p.m.

January fire cost Texas company $400 million and stiffened opposition to the projects, which are key to renewable energy

Seismograph with paper in action and earthquake – 3D Rendering

5.9 earthquake alert Thursday morning was a false alarm, USGS says

December 5, 2025 at 10:27 a.m.

ShakeAlert early warning system lit up more than 600,000 phones up across Northern California at 8:06 a.m.

Fire blazed Thursday night Jan. 17, 2025 at the Vistra power plant’s battery storage facility in Moss Landing in Northern Monterey County, closing Highway 1 and forcing the evacuation of 1,200 people. (Shmuel Thaler - Santa Cruz Sentinel)

Study: Moss Landing battery fire dumped 55,000 pounds of toxic metals into wildlife-rich marshes

December 3, 2025 at 1:43 p.m.

San Jose State University research sheds new light on impacts from disastrous January fire

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