Eco News

Jewish New Year Outside: Nature as a Vessel for Spirituality

Volunteers prepare The Greenhouse Project space for the Jewish New Year. Photo credit: Chel Mandell

Tzimtzum Collective, an innovative Santa Cruz Jewish organization collaborates with The Greenhouse Project to bring Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, outdoors.

Castle Rock State Park Expands Thanks to Major Purchase from Sempervirens Fund

Celebrating the breathtaking view at Castle Rock State Park. Photo copyright Mike Kahn.

By Naomi Friedland

Get to Know the Amah Mutsun Land Trust

Amah Mutsun native plants nursery at Cascade Ranch, photo copyright Mike Kahn.

The Amah Mutsun Land Trust (AMLT) is a nonprofit organization dedicated to restoring and stewarding the ancestral lands of the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band and adjacent Awaswas language cultural areas that span from Año Nuevo to the larger Monterey Bay area. 

Trails Damaged in CZU Fire Reopen at Big Basin

Two children and a giant redwood tree

From Friends of Santa Cruz State Parks

For the first time in three years, visitors can enjoy springtime at Big Basin Redwoods State Park by exploring miles of recently reopened trails and fire roads.

Science Spotlight: Santa Cruz Sandhills

Zayante sand soil from the Santa Margarita sandstone formation covers some trails near Henry Cowell State Park. Photo by Emma Hiolski.

The Santa Cruz sandhills, a unique, fragmented habitat within the Santa Cruz Mountains, hosts seven kinds of plants, animals and insects found nowhere else in the world.

Science Spotlight: Beach Erosion

During the 1983 El Niño winter, Twin Lakes State Beach lost over 10 feet of sand, as shown above. Gary Griggs photo.

Beaches initially form where waves and currents move sand deposited by coastal streams. The shape of a shoreline and human structures like harbors and jetties influence where sand piles up.

Science Spotlight: Schooling & Flocking

A beautiful display of schooling behavior in sardines. Klaus Steifel photo CC BY-SA 2.0

Schooling fish, such as the tight bunches of anchovies and sardines found in Monterey Bay, uniformly dart away from predators, make hairpin turns, and accelerate or stop without colliding.

Science Spotlight: Marbled Murrelets

Marbled murrelets, small and plump seabirds with short necks, stubby tails, and webbed feet, nest silently in old-growth forests. Robin Corcoran, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

They sneak silently into their nests an hour before sunrise, after spending a day and a night hunting at sea. Hundreds of feet off the ground, they settle into the highest branches of old-growth trees.

Big Blue Dream

Maybe THEY will save the world ... Photo by Jasper Lyons.

O'Neill Sea Odyssey nears a major milestone: 100,000 students served.

The Elephant Seals of Ano Nuevo State Park

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