Eco News

2013 Coastal Cleanup Day Results

The Panther Beach cleanup crew with Patrick Adams. Photo courtesy Save Our Shores.

Three thousand volunteers and 17,000 pounds of trash later, Monterey Bay beaches are looking better.

The Anchovy vs. The Whale

Anchovies in a bait ball. Photo by Cliff/Wikimedia Commons.

What's drawing hundreds of humpbacks to Monterey Bay? Just a little fish.

A Bike Park for Santa Cruz

A rendering of Valmont Bike Park in Boulder. Alpine Bike Parks, the company that built Valmont, will construct the Mount Hermon bike park.

Coastal California's first mountain bike park is coming to Santa Cruz County. It's kind of a big deal.

Clay Kempf, Soul Birder

Clay Kempf in his natural habitat: leading a birding outing to Pinto Lake. Photo by David Sidle.

It’s not about the lists for Clay Kempf, or about having a big year. He just loves being outside. If a bird happens to fly by while he basks in Mother Nature’s glory, so much the better.

For State Parks, A Whole New Direction

"We are an aging white movement," one speaker told the audience at the Sept. 9 Parks Forward workshop in Santa Cruz, intended to gather ideas for updating state parks. Photo by Hilltromper.

Suggestions for revamping California State Parks poured in at the first workshop of the Parks Forward commission—including some that would have been unthinkable a few years ago.

The Santa Cruz Pump Track Boom

The Aptos pump track, built by Epicenter Cycling with volunteer labor, is almost always bustling. Photo courtesy Epicenter Cycling.

With one up and running and four on the way, it's pump tracks for all!

Protected Coastal Prairie Transferred to Landless Tribe

Coastal prairie is rich in native grass species. California Native Grassland Association photo.

The partnership between the Amah Mutsun Tribe and Sempervirens Fund will keep 96 acres of coastal prairie near Costanoa Lodge under a conservation easement.

A Water Quality Snapshot

Like a pixel in a bigger picture, Snapshot Day offers a limited but valuable look at the health of our watersheds. Hilltromper photo.

"How is our water doing?" asks Coastal Watershed Council Executive Director Greg Pepping. "The answer is always a mixed bag. In some cases we have pretty pristine water. In some places, it’s pretty dirty.”

In The Demo Flow

A mountain biker gets airborne. Mountain bikers have long thought sustainable trails might be boring trails. Bell press photo.

Soquel Demonstration bike trail project aims for sustainability

Green Light for Twin Lakes Plan

Rendering of the Twin Lakes State Beach improvements.

In an extraordinarily sensible last-minute move, the staff of the California Coastal Commission has withdrawn its objection to a key piece of the county’s Twin Lakes Beach - East Cliff Drive Plan.

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