Sacramento County Environment Overview

Heat pumps, an energy-efficient way to both heat and cool homes, are a necessary element of California's climate goal of net zero carbon emissions. Here's what they are, how they work, and how to get one.

Beavers create unburned islands where plants and animals can shelter from megafires, research has confirmed. A movement is afoot to reintroduce the rodents to the state's waterways.

Supporters say harvesting trees would thin out the state’s overgrown forests; critics say the wood pellets for heating produce more carbon than coal. By John...

The California Environmental Quality Act, CEQA, is both the state’s signature environmental legislation, and is also often named as the villain in the state’s housing shortage. But the story may not be that simple.

In NYT’s “The Farmers Had What the Billionaires Wanted,” we meet a man who wants to build a city in the middle of nowhere, and folks who are slowing him down.

How California’s 10 state conservancies buy up open land and shield it from developers to preserve the natural environment for public use.

California Forever, the company behind a proposed new city in Solano County, will submit a ballot measure seeking an exemption from local laws to allow development on the massive project to proceed.

A 20-year experiment in the Sierra Nevada confirms that different forest management techniques — prescribed burning, restoration thinning or a combination of both — are effective at reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire in California. 

Even though California faces serious water shortages, the Legislature’s analysts recommend weaker outdoor conservation requirements and longer deadlines for urban water agencies.