Santa Cruz County Environment Articles

Renewable energy sources provided 37 percent of California electricity in 2021, a new record for the state as it moves toward its 2045 goal of 100 percent clean energy. Battery storage will play a huge role in reaching that goal.

Foresters are being tapped by government to manicure, at-scale, millions of acres of dense, sprawling forest across California to ward off wildfire.

If you’ve never visited the Elkhorn Slough, you should. It’s one of the most incredible places on the Central Coast to view wildlife—especially birds—and is home to the most extensive salt marshes in California south of the San Francisco Bay.…

The all-day seminar featured California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot and other experts.

California stands as America’s agricultural powerhouse, growing half of its fruits and vegetables. Here’s how California farming has shaped the state, from the early missions to today’s “factories in the field.”

The future of environmental stewardship banks on incentives and an app that crowdsources urban cleanup.

Almost one million California residents are forced to drink from contaminated water supplies, or pay for bottled water. Economic inequality makes the crisis worse. What is the state doing to fix it?

By almost any measure, the balance between advancing projects critical to California's future and environmental protection under the California Environmental Quality Act has been lost. The failure to reform CEQA is not for a lack of knowing what the solutions …

The long, wet winter is finally over. The Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History has some tips on what to see in the blossoming new season.

2023’s torrential rainstorms have eased California's drought conditions. But there’s a lot more to drought than the amount of rain, and this drought isn't over yet.

Climate change driven storms are creating new problems for Gavin Newsom and California's budget process, which is already reeling from a projected $25 billion deficit that emerged after a $97 billion surplus disappeared.

By Julie Horner with Chuck Winser  Chuck Winser has been living in Boulder Creek since December of 1989, a refugee from the Loma Prieta Quake. Because he was working with manufacturing data collection at Seagate Technology at the time and …

Dianne Feinstein, California's longtime senior U.S. Senator, has announced she will end a legendary career in public life that began in 1961 and took off amidst the turbulent, violent era of San Francisco in the 1970s.

For over 200 years, ships at sea have used colorful flags to communicate with passing vessels or a nearby shoreline. Monterey City Manager Hans Uslar flew his own flag to the cruise ship industry, signaling his belief the city should…

During January’s destructive storms, environmental studies professor Dustin Mulvaney created a concise, riveting timeline of the San Lorenzo River.

Ten-month outreach tour kicks off.

Kevin McCarthy has reached the top position in the U.S. House, but has still fallen short in addressing the ongoing water crisis in his owndistrict, a new CNN.com report says.

A dozen days of wet and wild weather haven’t ended the drought, and won't cure the driest period in the West in the past 1,200 years.

With a projected $25 billion deficit, Newsom proposes slashing $6 billion from climate change programs even as a historic storm likely driven by climate change batters the state.

2022 was a year that needed a lot of explaining. And California Local was there. Here are our 10 most important explanatory journalism stories from the year gone by, from immigration to cryptocurrency to wealth inequality and more.