Environment

Pam Hansen, of Los Gatos, and Don Vu, of Saratoga, were honored last month for the incredible photographs they took while out in nature, winning a Midpeninsula Regional Open Space District contest that was decided by social media voting. Each year Midpen hosts a photography...

A new state law allowed Santa Clara County businesses to donate almost 5 million pounds of food during the first half of 2022, according to a press release from the county.  SB 1383 took effect this year. It requires grocery stores and other businesses to...

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...

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,...

It was on Aug. 11 that 69-year-old Lexington Hills resident Sidney French reached out to Farmers Insurance to gain more information about the “Additional Living Expense” coverage on her home insurance policy. That’s the section that’s meant to help customers get reimbursed for costs incurred...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...