Environment

Home gardens and landscapes should be compatible with their respective climates. For local chaparral climates, plants that do not need much watering through the long and dry summers are appropriate. Aquatic plants are the extreme opposite. They require regular replenishment of the ponds that...

The drought might not be completely done with California, but the state’s residents are now free of the strictest water conservation measures put in place by Gov. Gavin Newsom nearly two years ago.  Standing at a podium in front of a storm-soaked agricultural field in...

On Saturday morning, Los Gatos Kiwanis boardmember Nancy Pearson arrived at Old Forbes Mill with coffee and donuts in-hand, prepared to guide members of the Los Gatos High School Key Club, and other volunteers, on an environmental spruce-up.  While embarking on this green clean, Pearson...

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...

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...

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...

The Santa Cruz Boardwalk Giant Dipper has drawn over 60 million thrill-seekers to scream while careening around the roller coaster’s hairpin turns. But more than 65,000 motorists a day know that roller coaster ride pales compared to the high-speed, white-knuckle turns it takes to...

On May 29 around 2pm, Shadi Allen, a resident of Mountain Laurel Lane in Los Gatos, became aware of a possible fire while she was on the second floor of her home. She smelled smoke wafting through the bedrooms, then looked out of a...

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...

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...