Santa Cruz County Sustainability Digest

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

Harnessing clean energy is a venture of unprecedented scope in California, bringing big changes to Humboldt and the Central Coast, and requiring 26 ports along the coast.

Legal rights to use water — particularly those obtained prior to 1914 — lie at the heart of California’s perpetual wrangling over the allocation of increasingly limited water supplies.

The Santa Cruz County Farm Bureau announced the 2024 Farmer of the Year is Janet Webb, president of Big Creek Lumber.

Tens of thousands of California homeowners, especially those who live in areas at risk of wildfires, have lost their insurance or have to pay more to keep coverage. One after another, major companies have pulled out of the state, many citing the cost of claims.

Aiming to store more water and protect the public, legislators are negotiating with the governor to restore $50 million to help repair 42 aging dams throughout the state.

The two-day CalMatters Ideas Festival wrapped on June 6 with more than a dozen events examining critical policy issues impacting the lives of millions of Californians.

These community projects can give renters and low-income homeowners a chance to go solar, but the PUC’s action is unlikely to give them the option.

California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, flew more 6,000 miles to Rome this month to deliver a brief speech on climate change at a Vatican-sponsored conference.

It’s been almost a half-century since I first heard the term “peripheral canal” uttered by William Gianelli, who was then-Gov. Ronald Reagan’s top water official. The project, in one form or another, had already been kicking around for decades.

Santa Cruz County's first cleanup day held on May 11 had 431 volunteers from 30 organizations collecting 1,548 pounds of litter.

Repairs to roads damaged in recent storms, including the slow-moving slide on Mountain Charlie Road, depend on state and federal funding and could take years to complete.

A bill to rein in a proposed monthly fee on California electric bills would let California’s largest for-profit utility companies charge customers $24 per month — with fees as low as $6 for lower-income customers — as a kind of membership fee for the power grid.

The Downtown Streets Program is growing to 8 teams in the County with the start of a new 6 month pilot program in Boulder Creek on the Highway 9 commercial corridor.

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

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

The consumer price index shows services are mostly responsible for persistent inflation, but prices for food and other goods in California remain high.

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.

New research warns of a possible collapse in Atlantic Ocean currents due to climate change. That could fundamentally alter global weather patterns.

There was a time not so long ago when trained observers were overwhelmed by the number of whales migrating through Monterey Bay.

The Wildlife Conservation Board voted to award $10.3 million to the Land Conservancy of San Luis Obispo County to preserve the 27,000-acre Camatta Ranch in Santa Margarita.

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 pair of structures near the tip of Capitola’s embattled wharf must be torn down and city officials are seeking the public’s assistance in charting a vision for the locations moving forward.

California electric vehicle sales dropped significantly in the last half of 2023, raising questions about the state’s ability to phase out gas-powered cars.

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

The next phase of an electric bicycle program is preparing for launch next month and community members may see supporting infrastructure begin to pop up in the coming weeks.

In September, Santa Cruz Metro made a big bet on the future of green public transit when it approved the purchase of 57 buses fueled by hydrogen—the largest order of hydrogen-fueled buses made so far in the U.S.

Within the last century, the recovery of southern sea otters has contributed to the health of California’s underwater forests, according to a new research paper from the Monterey Bay Aquarium.

State Senators Ben Allen and Catherine Blakespear announced a new measure to ban plastic bags statewide—particularly the thicker ones billed as “reusable.”

The funds would help California ports expand to handle giant wind turbines and other equipment. California’s first offshore wind farms are on a fast track off Humboldt County and Morro Bay.

When wildfire smoke and extreme heat combine, they create “a synergistic effect” or an “additional burden” on people’s health, researchers say.

Some automakers are reducing production of electric cars and Tesla sales have dropped. Can California sustain its record pace and meet the state mandate?