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 25^th.

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.

The RCD of Santa Cruz County seeks a full-time Program Specialist (PS) to join a dynamic team of conservation professionals. The PS will work closely with RCD staff and partners to help lead watershed coordination efforts and the development and implementation of ecological restoration and stewardship programs throughout Santa Cruz County. The PS will manage a diverse and exciting project portfolio.

The RCDSCC invites contractors to bid on the Fall Creek Truck Trail (FCTT) Shaded Fuel Break Project, a 62-acre forest health project. This project will create a shaded fuel break by removing small trees (less than 8 inches DBH), underbrush and low hanging limbs on trees within treatment boundary of the FCTT. Large, healthy trees greater than 8 inches Diameter at Breast Height (DBH) will be retained, while dead and dying trees greater than 8 inches DBH may be removed as directed by the removal mark. The majority of cut material will be masticated onsite to a depth of between 6 and 8 inches. Where feasible, burn piles will be created in areas where handwork is required in addition to or in place of mechanical treatment. Burn pile locations may be marked out by a Department of Parks & Recreation (DPR) representative. For larger material where mastication or burn pile creation are not feasible, lop and scatter may be used for biomass.

See documents below.

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.

The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD), in partnership with the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission (RTC), the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans), and Cal Poly-Swanton Pacific Ranch (CalPoly )[collectively referred to as the Steering Team], and the Integrated Watershed Restoration Program’s (IWRP) Technical Advisory Committee (TAC), is soliciting proposals from qualified consulting firms to perform technical analyses in support of the Scott Creek Coastal Resiliency Project (the Project).

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.”