Pilkington Creek is behind the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History, which is at 1305 E. Cliff Drive. The creek might be a far cry from its wild and scenic past but, if y...
Windy Hill Open Space Preserve is part of a myriad of open spaces found in the hills of San Mateo County, California. Located between Skyline Boulevard (Highway 35) and I...
The California coastal landscape has been managed in some way by people for thousands of years. In the Santa Cruz area, the native Awaswas people*, set fires to maintain...
Many towns have rivers running through them. Often, the river has been integrated into urban planning and is a vital resource used and loved by the community. In some tow...
Every December my Dad and I would drive the ten minutes up the road to trudge uphill in the snow through wavering lines of spruce, fir and pine. Dad and I would search ti...
The Awaswas*, the native people indigenous to the Santa Cruz area of coastal California, could recognize hundreds of plant species and knew a variety of uses for each one...
The UC Santa Cruz campus and much of the adjacent Pogonip land was originally part of Cowell Ranch. Henry Cowell bought the land in 1865 for its extensive lime and timber...
The San Lorenzo is the largest (and possibly the most beautiful) watershed in Santa Cruz County, spanning 135 square miles. The last stretch of the river with predominant...
Pilkington Creek lies behind the Santa Cruz Museum of Natural History building and continues roughly ⅛ mile (500 feet) down river ending at Seabright Beach. The land alon...
The San Lorenzo River was once home to very large numbers of coho salmon and steelhead trout. Tourists from across the state visited Santa Cruz to fish in downstream fish...
