Santa Cruz County Resilience Digest

Santa Cruz mountains residents are able to more easily come and go thanks to a temporary road built over the slow moving Mountain Charlie Road landslide.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held on October 2 to celebrate the beginning of work to repair a 10-mile stretch of levee on the Pajaro River.

A look at Measure Q, the Water and Wildfire Protection Tax on the November ballot and comments from those in favor of the measure and some surprising opposition.

A summary of a September 25 online meeting with California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara and Bonny Doon homeowners impacted by the insurance crisis.

Applications are open through October 31 to Santa Cruz County residents for reimbursement of wood chipping costs under the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County's Neighborhood Chipping Program.

At a CalMatters event, California’s insurance commissioner says the changes he’s making will help homeowners and business owners. One idea: A state grant for those who spend money to protect their property from wildfires.

California’s inland regions are experiencing dangerous heat waves, exacerbated by rapid population growth. As more people move away from the expensive coastal areas to more affordable inland communities, these regions are seeing significant demographic changes and spiking electricity bills.

Inland communities with big population booms will experience the most extreme heat days under climate change projections. The combination puts more people at risk — and many cities are unprepared.

CalFire received the first of five planes promised by the federal government, a former Coast Guard C-130 Hercules air tanker.

Early warning systems save lives during disasters, but a recent FEMA survey found that only a third of people are signed up. Use this resource to find your county’s emergency alert sign-up page.

On August 29, backers of Santa Cruz Measure Measure Q to fund wildfire and climate resiliency and infrastructure announced the support of the Monterey Bay Central Labor Council.

As COVID cases surge, health officials are recommending people take advantage of a recently approved and updated vaccine when it becomes available.

The state of California is funding wildfire prevention and mitigation work in Santa Cruz County, including the clearance of fuel along Soquel San Jose Road and a wood chipping program.

Several projects underway in Santa Cruz County to repair local roads impacted by storms in 2023 are affected by FEMA funding shortfalls.

In an August 7 vote, the Santa Cruz Local Agency Formation Commission approved the study of a a new consolidated fire protection district covering County Service Area 48 in the unincorporated county.

The Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission received grant funding for resiliency planning focused on four areas vulnerable to climate impacts.

So many intense wildfires all at once require an intricate chess game for maneuvering firefighters and equipment around the U.S.

Whether they mean to or not, people are responsible for about 95% of the state’s wildfires. While arson accounts for about 10% of the fires, others can start in a myriad of ways.

The University of California Santa Cruz is the recipient of over $2 million in federal grant funding to help increase California coastal resiliency to climate change.

On July 26, the City of Santa Cruz announced it had received an almost $8 million grant as part of a larger $71.1 million grant awarded to the California Marine Sanctuary Foundation.

In his 2018 campaign, Gov. Gavin Newsom said he would create 500,000 new apprenticeships in the decade after taking office. So far, the state has registered more than 180,000 new apprenticeships. Many of them are firefighters.

The Scotts Valley Fire Protection District board of directors approved a $24.5 million bond measure to go before voters in the November election, to replace Fire Station 1 on Erba Lane.

Government systems in Santa Cruz County and at Dominican Hospital were affected by the Crowdstrike outage.

A multi-part series examining the impact of fentanyl and opioids in Santa Cruz County.

The Santa Cruz County Climate Action Plan will be the focus of a public meeting scheduled for July 31.

Heat waves have killed hundreds of Californians and cost billions of dollars in the past decade, according to a new report from the state insurance department.

An interview with Boulder Creek resident Luka McClish, recently rescued after 10 days lost int he Santa Cruz Mountains.

A recap of a June 27 meeting attended by residents of Mountain Charlie Road and officials from the Santa Cruz County Department of Public Works.

Nearly every major environmental group in California opposes a bill that would modify the state’s signature environmental law to speed up upgrades to power lines. Supporters say it would help free the state from fossil fuels and make the grid more reliable, but opponents fear it would damage state parks.

In their July 1 meeting, the Felton Fire District Board of Directors approved a reciprocal service agreement with the Zayante Fire Protect District.

In their June 25 meeting in which residents expressed deep public safety concerns, Santa Cruz County Supervisors withdrew a proposed a Low-Impact Camping Area proposal.

There are few answers and no solution yet for the slow moving landslide on Mountain Charlie Road isolating a Santa Cruz mountain neighborhood.