Environment

As part of the Sanborn and Upper Stevens Creek Forest Health Plan, adopted in August 2023 by the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors, Santa Clara County Parks is closing a few hiking trails. The closures are necessary, officials say, in order to put vital...

Over the last decade, Valley Water has continued to spend more money on cleaning up homeless encampments around Silicon Valley. In fiscal year 2013-14, the regional water wholesaler put $786,085 into the initiative. That grew to $1.5 million just a few years later, then...

California State Parks and the Sempervirens Fund announced permanent additions to expand Castle Rock State Park in Los Gatos on Aug. 15.  The $4.21 million in acquisitions for six properties by State Parks are the first for the agency in the Santa Cruz Park District...

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...

The publicly traded company that provides Los Gatos with water recently got the go-ahead to fire up two solar power generating stations—one in Los Gatos and one in Saratoga. Together they’ll help keep about 21 tons of greenhouse gasses out of the atmosphere each year,...

While meeting in the scorching heat at Trinity Bible Church in Felton on a recent Friday afternoon, a group was awaiting a tour of Fall Creek where they’d receive a history lesson about the complex interplay between tan oaks, Douglas fir and coast redwoods...

Santa Clara County is reminding residents about a six-month-old website where people can report illegal dumping.  The site, www.cleanupscc.org, was launched last November using a $2 million grant from CalRecycle, the state agency that oversees waste management and recycling. Since its inception, citizen reports to the...

The Los Gatos Creek Watershed Collaborative was awarded a $6,336,790 Cal Fire Forest Health Grant to continue work in the watershed, incorporating new treatment areas with Aldercroft Heights Firewise and Lupin Lodge, the Santa Clara County FireSafe Council announced May 2.  This forest health project...

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...

A recent statewide snowpack measurement from the California Department of Water Resources is another indication that the tremendously wet winter might have been too much of a good thing. The agency’s readings from 130 snow sensors placed throughout the Sierra Nevada show the  snowpack’s snow-water...