A recent decision by the Environmental Protection Agency could prove a small but important step in stopping a deadly epidemic in urban areas among owls, hawks and bobcats. On June 10 the EPA banned four of the most potent rat poisons for consumer use. Also called “second generation” rodenticides because they’ve been showing up for years in the livers of the predators that help keep rat populations in check, the toxins stop blood from clotting and cause fatal hemorrhaging in animals that have ingested it. The decision bans products like D-Con, Hot Shot and Generation from being sold in stores.
Articles by Jacob Pierce
City To Tourists: Right This Way
Peter Koht, the city’s economic development coordinator, has lived in Santa Cruz since 1996. He jokes that he didn’t find out which way was west until about 2003. “For all of its natural beauty, there isn’t an intuitive way to get around,” says Koht of this south-facing coastal town.
Regional Leaders Asking Questions on Climate Change
The fight to slow global warming is bringing together some of the best and brightest from around Santa Cruz , who are hoping to establish the region as part of the vanguard response to climate change. “We can lead from Monterey Bay,” says Santa Cruz city councilmember Don Lane.
Santa Cruz Sound Garden
Mesut Ozgen of the Santa Cruz Guitar Orchestra is more than a music conductor. He’s a tough coach. “You can’t leave!” the UCSC music professor tells an orchestra member in the back row as the group practices for its May 17 performance at Kuumbwa. “But I told you,” the musician barks back, “I have a professional rehearsal!”
Santa Cruz’s Extreme Green Dream
Athletes and adrenaline junkies will converge at Cowell Beach for a one-mile swim alongside the length of the Santa Cruz Wharf in the first part of Xterra’s Pacific Championship Triathlon this weekend. Next, the May 15 event will send thrill–seeking fitness freaks on a 19-mile coastal bike ride starting on the Westside, including up an 800-foot climb in Wilder Ranch State Park and down fist-clenching single-track descents that will allow leaders to make serious gains. Finally, triathletes will literally get their feet wet (depending on the tide) on a six-mile run along the beaches and bluffs of Wilder Ranch.
Enviros Seek Transportation Specifics in Climate Doc
A team of Santa Cruz environmentalists looked at the city’s Climate Action Plan, shrugged and arrived at a common conclusion: it could be better. Micah Posner of People Power, Transition Santa Cruz’s Michael Levy and Virginia Johnson of Ecology Action have released a 16-point list of suggested improvements to the plan, which serves as a blueprint for how the city will get its greenhouse gas emissions below 1990 levels by 2020.
Santa Cruz Supes Ponder Pot Testing Rule
As Santa Cruz County prepares for new pot club regulations, experts are scratching their heads over whether or not dispensaries should test for pesticides and other harmful substances in the future. The new ordinance, which the Board of Supervisors is expected to approve on May 3, would keep medical marijuana dispensaries from operating within 600 feet of a school and 800 feet of another dispensary, forcing some clubs to move. The law would also require financial transparency, prevent clubs from turning away low-income patients due to lack of funds and create a committee to decide what regulations will be needed next.
The Great Santa Cruz Frog Rescue
“The world’s a better place with frogs,” says devout amphibian lover Kerry Kriger. Kriger is sitting in his Santa Cruz office, his arms and legs crossed and his shoes kicked off to reveal white socks. “For me it’s enough just protecting wilderness because I like wilderness,” he says. “It’s our ethical responsibility to other organisms on the planet.”
Water Activists Ready for Desal Debate
Jan Bentley remembers it like it was yesterday—closing down the Graham Hill Water Treatment Plant on Graham Hill Road after sunset because Santa Cruz’s water system had reached capacity. On wet winter nights during the 1990s, Santa Cruz’s now-retired water production superintendent says he used tell his co-workers, “It would be great if we could find a place to send a couple million gallons.”
Mountain Mayhem
Since 1993 the Banff Mountain Film Festival, which visits 345 other cities worldwide, has sent Santa Cruzans’ minds parasailing over tropical rain forests and arctic glaciers even while keeping them riveted to the edges of their seats. This weekend The Swiss Machine and 12 other documentary-thrillers pack the two-night annual adrenaline bonanza, which benefits scholarships for UC-Santa Cruz’s Wilderness Orientation backpacking program.
