Santa Cruz County, in partnership with local cities and special districts, including the Resources Cosnervation District, has released a draft update of the Multi-Jurisdictional Hazard Mitigation Plan (MJHMP) for public review and comment. The MJHMP is a comprehensive roadmap for reducing risks from natural hazards, including floods, wildfires, earthquakes, coastal hazards, drought, and landslides. 

The updated plan reflects lessons learned from recent disaster events, new climate science, and local development trends. Its purpose is twofold:
• To identify strategies that protect residents, neighborhoods, and infrastructure from repetitive disaster damage.
• To maintain eligibility for federal funding through FEMA’s Hazard Mitigation Assistance programs

Public participation is essential to ensuring the plan reflects the needs and priorities of all Santa Cruz County communities. By sharing your perspective, you can help shape strategies that make neighborhoods safer, protect local businesses, and strengthen our ability to recover from future disasters.

California State Parks, in partnership with the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD), is kicking off an exciting habitat restoration project to improve 1.5 miles of Aptos Creek in more remote areas of the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park. Starting September 23 and continuing through October, crews will carefully place large wood and trees in the stream to mimic natural processes slowed by past land use.

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The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County along with public and private partners will begin work on the Lockhart Gulch Shaded Fuel Break Project in July and continue through October 2025. Funded by a CAL FIRE Fire Prevention Grant, this important wildfire resilience project aims to protect communities and forests in Felton, Scotts Valley and the greater San Lorenzo Valley area by reducing hazardous fuels along critical access roads.

The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCDSCC) has secured a $7 million Forest Health Grant from CAL FIRE to implement an ambitious, regionally connected suite of on-the-ground forest health projects spanning public and private lands throughout the Santa Cruz Mountains.

The Lockhart Shaded Fuel Break project will help protect multiple communities throughout the Santa Cruz County wildland urban interface (WUI) from the effects of wildfire by creating a strategic, ridgeline shaded fuel break. The objectives of the project are to: (1) reduce the potential for loss of human life and property and damage to infrastructure and public improvements from wildfire, (2) increase the ability of CAL FIRE and other emergency responders to suppress wildfires and evacuate people during a wildfire. Project activities focus on removal of small trees, removing select dead, dying and hazardous trees, tree pruning treatments, and clearing of woody ladder fuels.

In close coordination with California State Parks (CDPR or CSP), the Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County (RCD) is requesting proposals for professional services to complete a feasibility assessment and develop a preliminary design for rehabilitation and restoration of the Skyline to the Sea Trail corridor accessed via Waddell Canyon Road. The project is located in Big Basin Redwoods State Park and accessed via the coastal unit of Rancho del Oso.

The purpose of the project is to assess feasibility and constraints of key trail structure and restoration sites through preliminary analysis, design, and consultation. The desired goal is to develop a project package sufficient for CEQA analysis and permitting agency review.