Tag archives: environment
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
Imagine an artistic hub in downtown Santa Barbara brimming with materials, tools, ideas, and creativity, a curated and dynamic gathering space where community members are welcome to imagine, invent, create and collaborate, all in an ecologically friendly way. That’s the idea behind a new vision for the Art From Scrap (AFS) workshop as a permanent […]
Remember when certain environmental groups made it impossible to talk about nuclear power in a positive way, and Santa Barbara locals demonstrated at Diablo Canyon’s nuclear power plant just up the coast from here? Now Democratic Governor Newsom supports it and the Biden’s Energy Department granted $1.1 billion to upgrade it. California’s last operating nuclear […]
Westmont is equipping evangelical students from across the nation who care deeply about the environment to lead their communities in answering God’s call to steward creation wisely. The college will be hosting “Faith. Climate. Action: A Workshop on Christian Climate Advocacy,” attracting about 40 students and faculty from the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities […]
Sandra Richter, Westmont’s Robert H. Gundry professor of biblical studies, speaks about “Down to Earth: A Biblical Perspective on Environmentalism,” on Thursday, November 3, at 5:30 pm at the Santa Barbara Community Arts Workshop (CAW), 631 Garden Street. The Westmont Downtown Lecture is free and open to the public; no tickets or reservations are required. […]
I’m writing to you as a COO of Kiss The Ground, and a supporter of Regenerate America, an unprecedented coalition of farmers, ranchers, nonprofits, experts, companies, and citizens spanning the nation and the political spectrum who are committed to rebuilding America’s soil by making regenerative agriculture the centerpiece of the next Farm Bill. Healthy soil […]
If a picture is worth a thousand words, then it was a photo that inspired a thousand (or so) paintings when the Oak Group gathered under an expansive eponymous tree along the San Marcos Foothill Preserve 35 years ago for a photo. Founded on the idea of painting the places of nature in an effort […]
Exactly one month from this issue’s publication, the Environmental Defense Center (EDC) will be having a 45th anniversary celebration at its headquarters in downtown Santa Barbara, a special community gathering that marks the first public event in the space in three years. Think of it as a one-shot revival of TGIF!, the environmental organization’s much-beloved […]
If you live in Montecito or Santa Barbara, you’ve noticed the oil and gas platforms looming on the horizon. Unless you’ve been in the area since the early 1960s, you’ve never known a coastline without their presence. Today, the 27 platforms off the Southern and Central Coast of California are nearing the end of their […]
The Santa Barbara-based Fish Reef Project is establishing a blue carbon bank to draw down carbon through kelp restoration and create carbon offsets in the process. Founded in 2012 by Chris Goldblatt, the Fish Reef Project is a nonprofit working to restore kelp and coral reef ecosystems around the world. Their invention, the Sea Cave, […]
Montecito is home to an array of birds, vibrant native plants, and rolling green lawns, all dependent on one resource: water. Recently, the question of water reuse has circulated throughout the community. Should Montecito create systems for non-potable water reuse? Potable reuse? Implementing these systems is prudent but will be costly and take time. The […]
It was a double celebration for the popular nonprofit Heal The Ocean at the popular oceanside eatery, The FisHouse, when Alison Thompson, operations policy coordinator since 2018, was given a “Great Wave” goodbye as she leaves for New Haven, Connecticut, to join graduate school at Yale University. She is working her way towards a master’s […]
“When the preferences of economic elites and the stands of organized interest groups are controlled for, the preferences of the average American appear to have only a minuscule, near-zero, statistically non-significant impact upon public policy.” This was the conclusion of a Princeton University study by Martin Gilens and Benjamin Page, “Testing Theories of American Politics: […]
On Saturday, May 14, an unusual influx of emaciated, weak, and hypothermic brown pelicans began arriving at the Wildlife Hospital at the Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network (SBWCN). The amount of pelicans that are being rescued and delivered are increasing at a daily rate, but the cause of their condition is still unknown. There are […]
