Environment

Just three miles south—or 11 minutes away—from downtown Los Gatos, we have Bear Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve, nearly 1,500 acres of unbridled nature. It features six miles of hiking and equestrian trails that meander along perennial creeks. This acreage was acquired for us...

After nearly two years out of commission, Big Basin Redwoods State Park—the oldest State Park in California—is about to open to the public, once again. It was closed after being ravaged by the CZU Lightning Complex fire, (97% destroyed), but on July 22, the proverbial...

Earth Day, which has now been around for decades, marks the anniversary of the birth of the environmental movement. Los Gatos’ annual “Spring into Green” event was held Sunday in Park Plaza, a day before—and in honor of—that important day. But then again, isn't...

The Bay Area Congressional delegation—Rep. Jimmy Panetta (CA-19), Rep. Zoe Lofgren (CA-18), Rep. Anna Eshoo (CA-16) and Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17)—wrote to President Joe Biden on Jan. 19 to request that relief for Santa Clara County be included in the Presidential Major Declaration for...

Rolling Hills Middle School 7th-graders and Louise Van Meter Elementary 5th-graders have completed an in-depth water monitoring educational course that highlighted what life as a professional H20 monitor would be like. As part of the Poseidon Education’s Stormwater Quality Leadership Program, the kids took samples,...

Before you pull up any more “weeds” in your garden, you may want to consider what Alrie Middlebrook has to share about native edible plants and trees. This past Saturday and Sunday, 50 or so gardens around the San Francisco Bay participated in the...

The Santa Clara County Department of Planning and Development has been preventing a homeowner in the Lexington Hills area of Los Gatos from accessing public documents needed to fix damage caused by the storm that sparked the 2020 CZU Lightning Complex fire. A Department of...

There wasn’t a specific address, just a crossroads. A good 20 minutes out of town, the intersection of Sears and Wright Station roads is definitely somewhere in the middle of nowhere. The hills were looking dry and not so green, even after the rain of...

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...

The inventor and artist Robert Seals has spent the majority of his almost-80 years on Earth transforming junk into desirable objects. His invention (and company) Klean Kanteen became famous for its metallic water bottle. But his finely crafted recycled-metal sculptures are almost invisible. You have...