Tag archives: environment

White Buffalo Land Trust has only been around for six years, and it was only in 2021 that the nonprofit dedicated to restoring our ecosystem through regenerative agriculture acquired the 1,000-acre Jalama Canyon Ranch to establish its center to practice, promote, and develop systems of regenerative agriculture for local, regional, and global impact. Located near […]

How can we use behavior science to persuade people to solve the Climate Crisis? I recently attended a UCSB Psychology talk on this subject. To me, facts and evidence should be enough. It takes a lot more than that for most people. It turns out that people who are most environmentally aware are often worse […]

This year marks the 40th Anniversary of Coastal Clean Up Day, and the team at Explore Ecology is putting out the call for volunteers early this year to celebrate it.  Your trusty Our Town news reporter, Joanne A Calitri, has been covering this event for years, and shares, “It is such a worthwhile and time-well-spent […]

The Environmental Defense Center, one of the nation’s longest running nonprofit environmental law firms working to protect the California coast and natural resources, has added a tony triumvirate of highly qualified new staff members to the team. Jeremy Frankel, a Goleta native, is a new staff attorney, with Matt Campa, who serving as a legal […]

Congratulations to the Explore Ecology (EE) Annual Environmental Steward 2024 Award winners, officially celebrated on Sunday, April 28, at the Santa Barbara Earth Day Festival onstage in the Kids Corner. Each year, the EE group invites the public to submit their nominations for these important award categories of local schools and clubs. The EE team […]

My family home is within walking distance of the Miramar. I am a seventh generation Santa Barbarian. My family and I, along with many neighbors both nearby and across Montecito, firmly support the plan to add affordable housing for the workers of the Miramar, which in part is funded by the addition of retail shops […]

A great gathering of fellow eco-minded citizens, Green Car test drives (including Rivian!), groovy sounds from a gaggle of good bands, GMO (and plastic)-free food and, we hope, gorgeous weather. Yes, it’s Santa Barbara’s annual Earth Day celebration, a two-day community-minded affair in Alameda Park, the city’s version of Central Park. Planet vs. Plastics is […]

Heralding its fifth year for Open Call Environmental Hero Nominees, Explore Ecology is inviting everyone to submit their nominations for 2024 by April 1via the online form. I reached out to Explore Ecology’s PR Director Jill Cloutier, about this year’s awards and the importance of it for the organization. She explained, “We are thrilled to […]

The annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), an event beloved by birders – and a crucially needed data set needed to assess our environmental status – is done here in Santa Barbara County by an all-volunteer team consisting of SBC Audubon Society members, and many who come to volunteer just for this important event. The 2024 […]

Reaching the end of their economic oil producing lifetimes, many of California’s and specifically Santa Barbara’s offshore platforms are in the process of being decommissioned. They can either be fully removed and taken to scrap yards on land, or they can be turned into state-managed artificial reefs through California’s Marine Resources Legacy Act. Why wouldn’t […]

I have written before about bad subsidies and incentives that have gotten us into the Climate Crisis. But there is another way to view the problem. “Nobody thinks we made the transition from horses to cars by taxing horseshit. Nobody thinks that we created the internet by taxing letter writing. Why would it be any […]

Santa Barbara’s Community Environmental Council hosted its annual Green Gala for more than 200 guests at its new 10,000-square-foot Environmental Hub on State Street, just a tiara’s toss from the Granada Theatre. The handsome property, formerly the home of the Unity Shoppe, underwent a major $3.5 million renovation, with the boffo bash, which brings together […]

The NatureTrack Film Festival is back in a big way for South Coast folks as the nonprofit’s re-mounting of its nascent festival moves to Goleta’s Fairview Cinemas for a weekend packed with nature-centric movies spanning adventures and stories via feature film and documentaries October 6-8. With new curators in place, the fest promises to be […]

Montecito is extremely lucky to have Pyp Pratt lead the cleanups for Butterfly Beach. He is the Beach Captain for the third year during this important annual Coastal Cleanup Day that takes place along California’s entire coast. Along with his dad Paul Pratt and mom Rali Kirova, they have been doing beach cleanups in Montecito […]

Sea lion population numbers are stable after more than 50 years of federal protection. But with the combination of more frequent and escalating algae blooms, and so many pregnant animals and their newborn pups being affected, it’s up for debate as to whether that will continue. “It’s a big question whether the population numbers will […]

Domoic Acid Crisis Drives Sea Lion and Dolphin Deaths: Local Organization Rescues Record-Breaking 85 Sea Lions in June In the early hours of a Saturday morning on Butterfly Beach, a small crowd gathers. The focus of their attention is brown, unmoving, and looks to be a large rock or piece of driftwood. But closer inspection […]

The NatureTrack Film Festival was created as an extension of the NatureTrack Foundation, the nonprofit that combats “Nature-Deficit Disorder” by transporting county students outside via a variety of no-charge field trips from the seashore to the inland oak woodlands to engage curiosity and instill appreciation and awe of nature. The festival had a fine first […]

On July 6th, the Community Environmental Council (CEC) celebrated the grand opening of its highly anticipated Environmental Hub. Located at 1219 State Street, this 10,000-square-foot space is set to revolutionize the way Santa Barbara approaches environmental initiatives, fostering collaboration, innovation, and community engagement. With its roots tracing back to the devastating 1969 oil spill, the […]

Walking in the grass, feeling the morning dew, hearing the serenity of the place – we might think of a beautiful park surrounded by nature, our senses alive with feeling. But instead here we are back in 1994 – when the Devereux Slough was still a golf course.  What so intrigued a businessman that he […]