Environment

On a quiet hillside above town, Ma’alot Farms is steadily transforming raw land into one of Los Gatos’ most community-minded food sources. And while this young farm is still growing—literally—its team is gearing-up to serve local families this holiday season with fresh foods and...

Santa Clara County suffered an estimated $15.4 million in damage to local roadways during the winter storms that doused the West Coast in the first three months of the year, according to county officials. The initial storms during the end of December 2022 and throughout...

Another atmospheric river moved into San Jose and the Greater Bay Area from the coast this morning, and forecasters say things will get worse through Friday night. Heavy rain, strong wind, and thunderstorms are all expected. A spokesperson for the The National Weather Service said the...

On Aug. 12, Daniel Alpert, a software engineer at Afresh, headed towards Sausalito, with friends, snacks, tents and sleeping bags in tow. Their destination? Haypress Campground, near Mill Valley. Their mission? Taking in the Perseids light display in the skies above. “I had never seen...

A few months back, neighbors Maggie Contro, an 8-year-old third-grader at Daves Avenue Elementary, and Arlo Britz, a 7-year-old boy a grade below, were sweeping her home’s porch, when they realized they were doing something worth scaling. Contro had been wanting to start some kind...

In Dec. 2022, Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District agreed to a $100,000+ deal with Nomad Ecology of Martinez, Calif., to study the population of the “critically imperiled Santa Cruz Kangaroo Rat,” which had just reappeared on the Santa Clara County side of the Santa...

The Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office has settled a consumer protection lawsuit against popular sunscreen company Sun Bum for advertising claims that misstated its actual impact on the ocean. The judgment is the first obtained by any prosecutor against a major sunscreen manufacturer for...

In the preface to his book “California: A Fire Survey,” Stephen J. Pyne notes that the “California fire scene” has long shaped the broader American agenda. “For the national narrative the important fact is that what happened in California did not stay in California,” he...

Edward Hume, a Pulitzer Prize winner, wrote that the average American throws out three times more trash now than in 1960: “Rethinking waste as our arch-villain isn’t just a word game – it’s the secret sauce that turns anxiety and inertia into hope and...

California Natural Resources Secretary Wade Crowfoot on June 21 shared California's progress on the 30X30 plan, a goal to protect 30% of the state's land and coastal waters by 2030.  California has preserved nearly 1,000 square miles of land and sea in the first year...