Santa Cruz County Environment Digest

A California Republican’s bill would exempt low and middle income wildfire victims from solar panels requirements on rebuilt homes that didn’t have them when they burned down.

California's reservoirs are brimming with water, and even Shasta Lake could fill up.

Marimo Berk and Brad Lewis joined the Board of Directors of Sempervirens Fund, the oldest land trust in California.

Highway 1 is closed indefinitely from Palo Colorado Road to Rocky Creek Bridge, the California Department of Transportation said on social media after a new landslide eroded part of the roadway.

Captains of fishing boats on the California coast are bracing for salmon fishing to be severely restricted — or possibly canceled for a second year.

The goal is to eliminate habitat competition between "invasive" owls and native owls.

Local opposition is growing in response to a petition before the California Fish and Game Commission to establish a new marine reserve off Pleasure Point and expand an existing reserve next to Natural Bridges State Beach.

Suit claims deficiencies in Environmental Impact Report for Highway 1 widening and Coastal Rail Trail Segment 12 construction.

Sieroty, of Beverly Hills, served as a state Assembly member and senator, championing disability rights and efforts to protect California's coast.

California will miss its goals unless it can increase emission reductions threefold, according to a new study.

A crew from Lewis Tree Service removed the large redwood, which was causing extensive damage to the sidewalk and was threatening an adjacent apartment building.

Elkhorn Slough’s resident otters were singled out when a team of scientists published a cover story in the prestigious journal Nature describing how they protect against erosion in coastal estuaries by eating burrowing crabs.

Whale experts are anxiously awaiting the annual 2024 count of gray whales migrating through Monterey Bay, following a sharp decline in last year’s gray whale survey.

Ecologists estimate that up to 14,000 sequoias have been killed in recent wildfires. The National Park Service for the first time has begun replanting some severely burned areas.

The state’s environmental tool skews which communities are designated as disadvantaged, researchers say. Some immigrant neighborhoods could be left out, while other groups are overrepresented.

A temporary lake in Death Valley National Park doubled after recent rains and is now deep enough to launch a kayak. Prior to August, ghostly Lake Manly hadn’t appeared in 19 years.

Foragers at the beaches in Half Moon Bay might be damaging the area’s reef.

A handful of super powerful tropical storms in the last decade and the prospect of more to come has a couple of experts proposing a new category of whopper hurricanes: Category 6.

The storm fed off of unusually warm waters as it grew. It also reached “bomb cyclone” status as it neared California.

The number of western monarch butterflies overwintering in California dropped by 30% last year, likely due to how wet it was.

As an underground fire burns deep within Chiquita Canyon Landfill, air regulators are raising alarms over the possible spread of toxic vapors.

What is an ARkStorm and why is everyone talking about it on social media right now?

Take a period of limited rainfall. Add heat. And you have what scientists call a “hot drought”—dry conditions made more intense by the evaporative power of hotter temperatures.

Rain romped. Mushrooms rose. Delirium descended. So it went for the first in-person edition of the Fungus Face-Off in several years, as part of Big Sur Foragers Fest.

Students throughout the nation have been engaging in environmental stewardship projects, as part of NOAA’s Ocean Guardian School program.

After a years-long, pandemic-related hiatus, the Santa Cruz Fungus Fair will return to the London Nelson Community Center next weekend.

The Bay Area’s fog is iconic. But the latest episode of KQED podcast “Bay Curious” looks at how climate change could reduce the number of foggy days in the area.

Munition boxes, depth charges and smoke floats have been found 3,000 feet underwater off the coast of Los Angeles. More than 100 square miles of ocean might be contaminated.

Heavy snow is projected in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Previously, warmer storms had been bringing precipitation mainly to higher elevations in the Sierras.

Research shows that a mountain chickadee facing deep snow is like a canary in a coal mine—its survivability tells us about the challenges ahead.

With the fate of the twin-trunked redwood tree on Walnut Avenue to be decided by the Santa Cruz City Council, the appellant of the heritage tree's removal will hold a fundraiser Jan. 6 to help protect it.

Bright blue waves have been spotted in Long Beach, Newport Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach. The bioluminescence is caused by organisms known as dinoflagellates and can impact fish populations.