The Resource Conservation District (RCD) of Santa Cruz County is excited to announce our Spring 2023 No-Cost Community Chipping Program. The program is available to Santa Cruz County residents who live in areas, defined as the Wildland Urban Interface, that have the potential for wildfire to impact their properties. Pre-registration opens on April 1st at 6:00 AM and goes through April 30th. Chipping starts May 9th. Residents who live in recognized FireWise neighborhoods get early bird registration starting March 25th.
An informational Zoom meeting about how to participate in the the program will be held on Wednesday, March 29 at 6:00 PM. Click HERE for more information or to register.
This program is funded through grants from CalFire.
On October 27, Senator John Laird provided welcoming remarks to a large group gathered at Cal Poly’s Swanton Pacific Ranch in Davenport, California to celebrate a huge achievement in the Scott Creek Coastal Resiliency project. The completion of the Project Initiation Document or PID is a key step that officially kicks off the critical environmental review process. The meeting provided a venue for the many stakeholders to connect and catalyze as a group to build on the partnership, strike while the iron is hot, and carry this project all the way forward to implementation to achieve the shared vision and provide a model for collaborative coastal resilience planning.
Sacha Lozano, program manager for the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD), was selected for the 2022 Climate & Agriculture Leadership Award by California Climate and Agricultural Networks (CalCAN). The awards go to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in their fields to accelerate a transition to a healthy, just and climate-resilient farming system, and who have also demonstrated the ability to collaborate across disciplines and approach their work holistically.
“This recognition came as a big surprise,” Lozano said, “and it gives me great encouragement to continue doing my part in addressing the challenges of our global climate crisis through local action and collaboration with farmers. I feel very honored and motivated.”
After the CZU fires, the Santa Cruz Mountains Stewardship Network jumped into action.
The collaboration between 24 organizations includes land trusts, public agencies like Cal Fire, universities like Stanford and UCSC, the Amah Mutsun Tribal Band, the Girl Scouts and logging companies like Big Creek Lumber.
The Resource Conservation District (RCD) of Santa Cruz County is offering neighborhoods, with eight or more participating households, a reimbursements of chipping costs related to the creation of defensible space for wildfire preparedness.
The program is available to Santa Cruz County residents who live in areas, defined as the Wildland Urban Interface, that have the potential for wildfire to impact their properties.