Santa Barbara Green Guide 2025 by bluedotliving

Defenders of nature, climate, and communities on California’s Central Coast since 1977

The Environmental Defense Center is the only public interest environmental nonprofit law firm between Los Angeles and San Francisco. For almost 50 years, EDC has represented more than 140 community groups, providing them with free and low-cost legal services. The organization has helped preserve over 100,000 acres of open space, terminated 40 offshore oil leases, stopped the development of a power plant, secured a ban on fracking and acidizing offshore California, won protections for endangered species including California sea otters, steelhead, and great whales, and protected our communities’ clean air and water from industrial polluters.

Read stories from this magazine and more at 2025/26

SantaBarbara GreenGuide .com

BROUGHT TO YOU BY

Guide Green SANTA BARBARA Guide Green

Publisher Brandi Rivera

Editor in Chief Marianne Partridge

Executive Editor Nick Welsh

Senior Editor Tyler Hayden

Senior Editor Matt Kettmann

News Reporter Callie Fausey

Advertising Director Sarah Sinclair

Digital Marketing Specialist Graham Brown

Advertising Account Executives

Audrey Butler, Camille Cimini Fruin, Suzanne Cloutier, Bryce Eller, and Tonea Songer

Production Manager Ava Talahakemi

Production Designer Bianca Castro

Graphic Designer Leah Brewer

Web Content Manager Don Brubaker

Marketing & Promotions Administrator Richelle Boyd

Operations Administrator Erin Lynch

Distribution Greg Hall

For a full Santa Barbara Independent list, visit independent.com/about-us

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For story ideas, email tips@independent.com

The Santa Barbara Independent is the leading source for news, arts & entertainment, and lifestyle coverage in the greater Santa Barbara area. We print more than 25,000 copies of the paper every Thursday and also publish daily online for more than 300,000 monthly readers at Independent.com.

Bluedot, Inc.

President Victoria Riskin

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Contributors: Randi Baird, Pascale Beale, Ingrid Bostrom, Owen Duncan, Lizzy Fallows, Leslie Garrett, Hilary Dole Klein, Ethan Maday, Hugh Ranson, Joan Tapper, Jasmin Tupy

Santa Barbara Green Guide is printed on recycled material, using soy-based ink, in the U.S.

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SANTA BARBARA

SANTA BARBARA! Good work,

As we prepare this second issue of the Santa Barbara Green Guide to go to print, we are concerned about efforts at the national level to unravel climate resilience projects across the country. Yet we take heart in the powerful movement of citizens and local leadership everywhere who for years have worked tirelessly to build healthier, safer communities.

In February, the County Board of Supervisors’ hearing about the resumption of oil drilling in Santa Barbara was packed. Over 100 people testified and at least 50% were students. The vote was 2 to 2, which by county rules meant no action was taken. For several months, the Santa Barbara Independent and Bluedot Living have been working to let our community know about the potential transfer of rights from ExxonMobil to Sable Offshore. It’s likely not the end of the road, but this was a big victory for citizen engagement.

This magazine is another successful collaboration between the Santa Barbara Independent and Bluedot Living. As owners, we care deeply about the Central Coast and want to highlight the good work being done in the region and ways that every individual living in and visiting this beautiful area can take action — in support of the community and the planet.

In these pages, you will find stories about people working together in our community to support environmental efforts — from school children to retirees. You’ll discover new ways of thinking, like how deconstructing buildings needs to replace the common practice of demolishing them. We’re

bringing you sustainable wines and foods to support local growers and the regional fishing community.

We also celebrate successes, like no-longer-endangered animals and the sheep working to reduce wildfire risk. We hope you are inspired in your daily life to find ways to make changes, both small and big, to lessen your footprint and stand more firmly in support of the planet.

The Santa Barbara Independent and Bluedot Living are committed to helping build a sustainable future for all of us. We are grateful for the several sponsors of this issue who have joined us. The year 2025 marks the 55th anniversary since the founding of Earth Day, right here in Santa Barbara. Today it is celebrated by a billion people in more than 193 countries. Good work, Santa Barbara!

Let's talk!

Please email sbeditor@bluedotliving.com

Marianne Partridge Editor in Chief and Co-Founder Santa Barbara Independent

Victoria Riskin President and Founder Bluedot Living

INGRID BOSTROM

Get to know your SUSTAINABILITY & RESILIENCE DEPARTMENT

City of Santa Barbara

Fostering a greener, cleaner, and more resilient Santa Barbara!

Active Transportation

Creek & Ocean Protection

We are expanding bike sharing, supporting electric vehicle adoption, and promoting cleanenergy public transportation for residents & commuters.

SB Clean Energy

We reduce greenhouse gas emissions by providing renewable energy from solar, wind, and geothermal sources through the City’s electric utility, Santa Barbara Clean Energy.

Clean Community

We work to keep the City free of litter and illegal dumping, manage the City’s solid waste contract with MarBorg, & support recycling and composting efforts.

We protect our beaches and waterways and improve water quality by managing storm water runoff, reducing pollution, and restoring creekside habitats.

City Energy Projects

We are improving and upgrading City buildings and facilities with solar panels, battery energy storage, reliable power from microgrids, and backup storage for emergencies.

Volunteer Opportunities

Together we keep our community clean through neighborhood, beach, and creek cleanups, restore open spaces, and educate through community events.

...and much more!

Scan to learn about all our projects & programs

Follow important updates on the way we handle our waste

Look for this eco action logo throughout the magazine. You have an opportunity to take action and make a difference for this community and the planet.

Garden Power

People connect with nature and each other as the city encourages more community gardens.

By Tyler Hayden

Ricardo Venegas may be the perfect person to run a community garden. The longtime neighborhood outreach coordinator for the City of Santa Barbara is a natural green thumb, tending to a dozen fruit trees at his home – cherimoyas, persimmons, figs, grapefruit.

Warm and affable, Ricardo is also a through-and-through people person, a requirement when working with a diverse group of gardeners in a limited public space. He started his career mentoring gang members and now oversees the Santa Barbara Arts Alliance, a program that

helps city youth spearhead service projects like graffiti abatement, neighborhood clean-ups, and public murals.

On a recent Thursday, Ricardo stood among the 47 plots of Rancheria Community Garden and remarked on the array of edible plants growing there. In addition to the standard fare of corn, lettuce, and beans, he pointed to a stand of lemongrass, some Mexican pepperleaf, and a small area dedicated to herbal tea and Indian spices.

“It’s a great way to exchange food and culture,” Ricardo says of the community cross-pollination that naturally occurs in

Ricardo Venegas runs the community gardens for the City of Santa Barbara with a green thumb and a friendly, inclusive manner.

such a place. “For a lot of people, it’s an escape. It’s disconnected from national politics and the stresses of everyday life.”

Rancheria’s plots – like the 85 others across town at Yanonali Community Garden – are 10 feet by 20 feet, larger than at most public gardens. Two of them are raised for those with limited mobility. They’re almost always all full,

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so to cut down the waiting list and increase access, the city recently enacted a few rule changes.

Plots are now limited to one per household, and abandoned spaces choked with weeds are more quickly reclaimed. “Some people are excited about it, but then get turned off by the work and maintenance,” Ricardo explains.

The majority of gardeners live within a half-mile of their plots, and most make the trip by foot. At Rancheria, on their own accord, they’ve added a picnic table, a hammock, and a few benches. “It’s like a little park,” Ricardo says, where families bring their kids for sunshine and fresh air. One plot was divided between tomato vines and a makeshift play area with two small stools and smattering of toys.

At the moment, two community gardens are all the city can manage, says

shovels, rakes, and hoes.

Funding is tight, he explains, and resources are limited. As a community service, roughly 90% of the program is subsidized by the Parks and Recreation budget. In fiscal year 2022, for example, the annual rental fee for a garden plot was $67, and the total revenue from rent was $9,782. The cost to manage and operate the program, however, was $70,659, with $12,636 in water, $1,000 in materials and supplies, and $66,805 in administration and oversight, which includes management of the rental process and fee collection, weekly inspections, repairs, and ongoing maintenance of the common areas and infrastructure.

To encourage residents to develop their own community gardens, Santa Barbara has a process for making such spaces official. They’re permitted in all zoning districts (except the coastal zone) and even allow animals like bees, chickens, and rabbits, as long as regulations are followed. Gardens are limited to a half-acre in size and must operate only between dawn and

Among the other requirements are creating an operational plan with insurance and lease agreements; designating a person who will serve as liaison between gardeners, property owners, and the city; identifying a landscape plan that includes irrigation, grading, and any structures; and describing efforts to engage with schools, neighborhood organizations, service providers, or other nonprofit organizations to offer access.

It’s a process that requires commitment and patience, but the benefits pay dividends far beyond fruits and vegetables. “Gardens offer a lot of value to the city and the community just by being here,” Ricardo says. “They’re places where people can meet one another, trade recipes, and exercise,” not to mention reduce Santa Barbara’s carbon footprint. “They’re places of healing.”

For information on how to start your own community garden, visit santabarbaraca.gov.

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Notes From the Home Front: Community Counts

Our columnist learns a lesson about playing well with others at school.

By Lizzy Fallows

Strength in numbers. Many hands make light work. It takes a village. We get it. Yet somehow I didn’t. I have a bleeding heart for the Earth; I think about it all the time and genuinely derive joy from doing things that help support our planet. My family is onboard, and I’m connected to environmentally minded community

members who make an impact in a myriad of ways. Yet I only recently discovered how essential community is for driving positive environmental change. Somewhere along the way, I forgot that community counts.

We are blessed to have healthy young children who love school. Since I also love their school, and the kids will

“In three months, our group has built more friendships and accomplished more tasks than I was able to on my own in two years."

inherit the Earth, it felt both obvious and efficient to aim my passion for helping the Earth at their school. And so, I did.

When our oldest child entered elementary school, I joined the school’s existing Green Team, an official group composed of parents who volunteer to help drive Earth-friendly programs. I immediately met interesting, capable people who got stuff done. I learned over time how critical that community element was to our work. Over the course of several years, families graduated,

Dynamic training with hands on skills and real world scenarios

Training available in Santa Barbara and Ventura Counties, as well as Channel Islands National Park, Yosemite National Park and Grand Canyon

WE TEACH

· CPR/First Aid; Pediatric CPR; Epi Pen Use

· Wilderness First Aid [2 days];

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Student members of the Crane Country Day School Green Team.

JENNY HAEG

teachers retired or moved away, COVID … and for no specific reason, I ended up a team of one. Not surprisingly, I was neither effective nor satisfied. I got nothing done; I failed.

I’m not one to give up and schools are wonderful places for hatching and tending new ideas, so I tried again in

a new school year. But this time I did it differently. I used existing channels — in-person events, the school’s online family portal — to directly ask people to join the Green Team.

And ta-da! We now have 18 community members committed to helping drive environmental projects, big and

DO IT ON YOUR OWN TURF

How can you activate your community?

• Invite people to join you! It’s not always obvious. Actively inform people through events, email, WhatsApp, etc.

• Hold regular in-person meetings. People are busy, and in-person communication counts.

• Divide and conquer. Specialize; build teams within the team.

• Parallel process. Spin multiple projects simultaneously, because some will be quick and easy

(i.e., switch to all-recycled paper products) and others will be a slow burn (i.e., designing and installing an interactive sundial).

• Listen (on a deadline). Listen to relevant stakeholders, keep meetings time-bound, and make decisions on the spot!

• Celebrate progress. Communicate wins clearly and enthusiastically, be they big or small. Positive reinforcement fuels us!

small. In three months, our group has built more friendships and accomplished more tasks than I was able to on my own in two years. The desire lived in the community all along; we just needed to organize and activate.

A few things we’ve accomplished this year:

• Eliminated single-use plastic bottles and juice boxes from campus events

• Increased composting and recycling

• Decreased littering

And it has been infectious. Excited about composting, making and hanging owl boxes, and eating from the school garden, the students have started a Green Club. Their first act will be providing coaching for peers on proper waste sorting. Students who have nothing for the landfill get to ring a bell. Community making it fun!

My experience feels like a final release from COVID isolation, as I’ve had to relearn how to be in community and depend on community.

Fish Reef Project is converting

• 16 Sea Caves have been permitted and deployed off the Goleta Coastline.

• Kelp has now grown from our Sea Caves all the way to the surface. We’ve proven that we can restore our kelp beds!

• The Fish Reef Project needs to raise $1 million to permit and study the full 65 acre Goleta Kelp restoration reef.

A BRIGHTER FUTURE WITH BRIGHTEN SOLAR CO.

BY VICTORIA RISKIN

certain and needed trustworthy guidance — and did not want to be pursued by aggressive marketers. What sets Brighten apart is their dedication to quality and personalized service, as the transition can feel overwhelming despite compelling reasons to switch to solar energy.

“We prioritize education, transparency, and exceptional service,” says Marine. “We provide custom-designed solar and battery storage solutions for homes and businesses. The team works closely with property owners to maximize efficiency and savings. From permitting and design to installation and maintenance, we ensure a seamless experience.”

When talking with Marine Schumann, co-founder of the award-winning Brighten Solar Co., three words come to mind — passion, professionalism, and integrity. Along with her partner, Jeremy Favier, they have grown Brighten Solar Co. for over 10 years and now are leading the charge for cleaner, more resilient communities in Santa Barbara and Ventura.

When Marine and Jeremy moved from France, they noticed solar wasn’t as prevalent in Santa Barbara. Consumers were un-

Demand for clean energy is growing, and consumers are increasingly looking for clean solutions and immediate action to build more resilient, safer homes and businesses. Installing solar is financially savvy, because it:

· Reduces exposure to surging utility rates.

· Adds property value. Zillow estimated that solar increases the average sale price by 4.1%.

· Offers a strong financial return, especially with incentives. A 30% Federal tax credit, as well as state and local programs, can significantly offset installation costs.

· Enhances energy independence and ensures reliable power during outages, when paired with battery storage.

“The cost of electricity isn’t just rising — it’s skyrocketing,” says Marine, who points out that Southern California Edison rates have increased by 90% over the past decade, and 51% over the past three years alone. While utilities justify rate hikes as necessary for infrastructure investments, by law their profits are tied to capital expenditures — the more they spend, the more they earn. And they pass on the increased costs to ratepayers. Homeowners who generate their own clean energy are free of a system that rewards reckless spending and punishes efficiency.

“Homeowners are at the mercy of for-profit utilities who can switch off power at the first sign of severe weather,” says Marine. “Going solar isn’t just about savings; it’s about taking control and building resilience.” Learn

Photo credit to: Jay Farbman Photography

Brighten Solar Co.’s mission is to make clean energy solutions both accessible and efficient, while helping lower electricity costs and contributing to a more sustainable and resilient energy system.

5 Eco-Savvy Gift Ideas

These products are locally sourced and sustainably made, so you can feel good about buying with the Earth in mind.

By Tyler Hayden

Shrubs by Sideyard

Shrubs

Unfiltered and cold-processed, Sideyard Shrubs — fruit-infused drinks made with apple cider vinegar — are sugar-free and bottled with the mother, the good bacteria created during the fermenting process. Sarah Bourke started making them in her Santa Barbara apartment during the pandemic, using figs and guavas from trees in her side yard. Now, Sideyard sources all its fruit from small Southern California farms, often buying up the bruised and oddly

shaped pickings that would otherwise end up in a landfill. The company’s 16-ounce bottles can be found in stores and restaurants all over the state. Flavors include apricot, passion fruit, yuzu, and our favorite, prickly pear. Purchase online at drinksideyard.com. ($30)

Biltong by Figure Ate

While beef jerky is typically cooked in an oven or dehydrator for a few hours, biltong – which translates to

“strip of beef” and is jerky’s South African cousin – is air-dried for a week or more, giving it a softer, more tender texture. Figure Ate, a small-scale biltong producer in Lompoc, uses grass-fed cattle free of any hormones or antibiotics. To flavor its 2023 Good Food Awards-winning biltong, Figure Ate uses an organic spice mix of sea salt, black pepper, wine vinegar, and coriander. A spiced version features red pepper flakes, garlic, and paprika. Both are packed with 32 grams of protein and are “Land to Market” verified. Shop online at figureatefoods.com or use the website’s retail locator to find a store near you. ($11.99)

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Martha’s Vineyard: Land, Sea, and Sky

Hosted at the Vineyard Arts Project

Opportunity of a lifetime for high school students interested in nature, environmental and marine science, art, journalism, communication, and leadership. Needs based scholarships available.

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Questons? Contact Leigh Anne Neal. leighanne@bluedot-institute.org 404-420-0999 www.bluedot-institute.org/

Candles by Santa Barbara Company

Santa Barbara Company, a womenowned, California Certified Green Business, produces a line of small-batch candles with clean-burning, plantbased wax and 100% recycled paper labels. Scents include Miramar Beach (cardamom and orange), Fig Mountain (sage, wild herbs, and chaparral), and Goleta Bluffs (lemon and sea salt with hints of vanilla and oud). 214 E. Victoria St., Santa Barabara. ($32)

Everlasting Flowers by Sweet Mountaintop

Sweet Mountaintop is a two-acre farm set among the avocado

orchards of Rincon Mountain, just outside Carpinteria. Its operator, Mary Gonzalez, was born and raised in town and grows herbs and flowers that she sells at weekly farmers markets. She also sells tinctures, oils, and salves, along with wreaths, garlands, and crowns made with dried flowers. If they’re handled with care and kept out of direct sunlight, they can last for years. Buy online at sweetmountaintop.com or at the farmers market at 119 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara. ($15-$25)

Blankets by Sundream

Casey and Brooke Courter’s Central Coast company, Sundream, sources and sells Mexican blankets handwoven on traditional looms. Durable and versatile, they’re made with reclaimed fibers derived from post-consumer materials — clothing and other garments that would otherwise be thrown away. “We are proud to offer a second life to this special blend of sustainable fabric, and to offer sustainable jobs to the artisans in Mexico who make these incredible works of art,” Casey says. Shop online at sundream.co. ($60)

Garden URN ODE

FEYE OF THE DAY GARDEN CENTER

POTTERY, STATUARY, AND GARDEN ORNAMENTS

or 27 years Eye of the Day has worked with independent manufacturers from Italy, France and Greece and searched throughout Europe to provide authen tic, meticulously hand-crafted terra cotta gar den pottery, statuary and garden accessories.

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Visit www.eyeofthedaygdc.com for a detailed look at our offerings. Now operating in two locations, Eye of the Day is open in Camarillo by appointment only Monday through Friday from 9 to 5. On display at the Los Alamos location

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Eye of the Day Garden Design Center adipiscing elit, sed diem nonummy nibh euismod tincidunt ut lacreet dolore magna aliuptatum zzril delen it au gue duis dolore te f consectetuer adipiscin www.eyeofthedaygdc.com

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Friday, Saturday and Sunday from 9 to 4 and by appointment, are vintage and antique European garden pottery,

Visit our website www.eyeofthedaygdc.com to see Eye of the Day’s selection of European pottery to make your choice before visiting and remember, Eye of the Day delivers.

NEW LOCATIONS:

255 Bell St., Los Alamos

321 N Aviador St., Camarillo

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by Elissa Turnbull

The cost of my utilities is steadily going up.

What can I do to reduce what it’s costing?

– Nina

dot

Dear Nina,

You have come to the right Dot. It has long been my insistence that living lighter on the planet shouldn’t be a matter of spending more money (Hybrids! Solar panels! Organic cotton!) but rather less. Just as we can get our vehicles to consume less fuel simply by leaving them in the driveway (and instead walking/ biking/busing/carpooling/etc.), we can consume less energy in our homes by taking some very simple steps:

• Turn up the temp: If, like 90% of the homes in the U.S., yours has air conditioning, bump your thermostat up a few degrees to 78°F (bump it up to 85°F when you’re away from home).

• Cold water for the win: Wash your clothes in cold water and let the sun dry them (or use an indoor drying rack).

• Eliminate phantom power: Also called standby power and vampire electricity, phantom power refers to the energy used by appliances and electronics in your home when they’re turned off or in standby mode. Use a power strip for most appliances and unplug ones you rarely use.

• See the light: Dot hopes there are no CFL light bulbs (or — gasp — incandescents) in your house, but if there are, switch to LEDs immediately.

• T hink small: Use energy-sipping appliances instead of the energy hogs. Consider greater use of your slow cooker, air fryer, or toaster oven versus your stove/oven.

• Try WattBuy: WattBuy helps you save money by making you aware of clean-

energy alternatives to your default power provider.

Frugally, Dot

I’m a renter, so I have little control over carbon emissions from my living situation. But are there things I can do?

– Libby

Dear Libby,

Luckily for you and the other 44 million rental households in the U.S., there are plenty of things to do, even if landlords aren't particularly keen on green upgrades.

How we heat and cool our homes is the biggest energy drain, and that holds true also for rentals. You have likely heard some buzz about heat pumps, which double as a heating and cooling system and replace carbon-intensive systems. One micro heat pump — an easy-toinstall portable system that plugs into a 120-volt outlet and costs between $500 and $700 — should be just fine in a small apartment. If your rental is a larger apartment or home, you may need to purchase more than one. But remember: These are portable. When you go, you can take them with you.

Some other simple steps? Light up your rental with LED light bulbs. Wait to start the washing machine until you have a full load. Use a clothes line or indoor drying rack instead of a powerhungry dryer.

Your landlord might not be convinced to replace the gas stove with an electric one (though, by all means, ask!). But

no matter! Purchase a portable electric burner. Countertop convection ovens and air fryers are also energy sippers rather than gulpers. As a rule, smaller appliances are more efficient than large ones, so use them when possible.

And of course, one of the most impactful carbon choices we make has nothing to do with home ownership — and that’s what we put on our plates.

Researchers at the University of Oxford reported in the journal Science that cutting meat and dairy products from our diet could reduce our carbon footprint from food by up to 73%. Even if you’re not ready to go vegan (Dot is inching there but has a ways to go), simply reducing your consumption of meat and dairy makes a positive difference.

Nomadically, Dot

Are commercial car washes bad for the environment (all that water!)?

– Nick

Dear Nick,

Like you, Nick, I assumed that those drive-through commercial car washes that dump torrents of water on our cars must be plenty more wasteful than me spraying down my car at home. So I spoke with the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power’s Manager of Water Resources Policy, Terrence McCarthy, to get the real dirt on cleaning our cars.

“The most efficient way is to take your car to a commercial conveyor car wash because the majority, if not all, of those car wash facilities in the city of Los Angeles will have some form of a recirculating system that filters and then reuses a good portion of the water,” McCarthy told me.

And good news for all cleancar-loving Californians: The state signed a law in 2012 requiring all new commercial car washes to use at least 60% recycled water.

Illustration

for just $19.95 for one year!

You’ll find simple, planet-friendly recipes, inspiring stories, and smart tips to reduce food waste and shop sustainably. With our digital magazine, you’ll get:

An interactive experience on any device with one-click access (no login!)

Links to ingredients and green products to make shopping easier

Visit bluedotliving.com/kitchenmagazine to subscribe today!

Enhanced audio feature to listen to articles and step-by-step instructions

A bonus 32-page Recipe Collection plus access to previous issues!

WONDERS OF THE WOLF: A 2025 FILM BY ANGIE RUIZ

This beautifully crafted film tells the story of the near extinction of gray wolves and their restoration in the wilds of Yellowstone Park.

BLUEDOT LIVING FOUNDER VICTORIA RISKIN INTERVIEWED THE FILMMAKER IN FEBRUARY 2025.

What inspired you to make a movie about wolves?

My younger daughter, Edie, from the time she was a toddler, absolutely loved wolves. She collected coloring books and wolf figurines, and as she got bigger she went to the library to read everything about wolves. I asked her why she liked wolves so much.

“Mom, wolves are just like us. They have mothers and fathers, and families called packs, and the aunts and everyone works together to feed the pack and take care of the moms and babies.”

During the pandemic was a good time to research my next documentary, so I focused on wolves. I found a film about the 1995 wolf restoration project in Yellowstone National Park. I was fascinated by the story of the wolf recovery effort. I finally got a chance to visit the Lamar Valley. I headed out at 4 a.m. to observe the dens where mothers were birthing, saw how the pack took care of the mother and babies, brought food, even toys … a cooperative society … just like my daughter told me.

The film is visually exquisite and moving. It makes me want to go there. In what part of Yellowstone does it take place?

The film was shot at the northeast corner of Yellowstone — a pure wilderness. The valley is the equivalent to the Serengenti in Tanzania with its concentration of native wildlife, bison, grizzly bear, elk, black bear, moose, foxes, wolverines, and vast varieties of birds. It’s remote and hard to access so most people don’t go there, but if you do, you want to come back. There’s no cell service and only two bathrooms within 30 miles.

The Lamar Valley is both in Montana and in Wyoming. Yellowstone was established in 1872, the first national park in the world, before these were separate states. The European settlers arrived to create ranches and decided to rid the area of the wild animal life, especially the wolves. They began the massive killing of wolves with methods that were horribly cruel, almost unbearable to read about. By the 1930s, almost all the wolves were eradicated. Over time, the elk, bison, and deer populations expanded and without predators to provide a balance, they caused damage, eating everything. By the 1960s, the Park Service realized they

needed to bring back the wolves to rebalance the ecosystem. The Endangered Species Act passed in 1973, and in 1995 the park launched what today is one of the most successful conservation efforts in U.S. history. Now there are approximately 120 wolves spread between about 10 packs concentrated in the Lamar Valley. The film is the story of that journey of loss and restoration.

Angie says taking Edie to the Lamar Valley when she was about 9 was a dream come true for her daughter.

What do you hope people will take away from Wonders of the Wolf?

Even though the restoration project is a wonderful success story, I also hope people understand the wolves are still vulnerable to being killed by trappers and hunters if they wander outside the park. They don’t know if they are inside or outside the park boundaries. I hope the film inspires people to visit Yellowstone National Park to see wolves in the wild. It will be an adventure of a lifetime!

WONDERS OF THE WOLF SCREENINGS:

April 23, 2025, at 7 p.m. Riviera Theatre, Santa Barbara (to benefit the Wildlife Care Network)

April 27-28, 2025 San Luis Obispo International Film Festival

May 13, 2025 UCSB Pollock Theatre, Santa Barbara

To see a trailer and learn more, visit wondersofthewolf.com

A Flock of

All Trades

Sheep can accomplish a great deal — from fighting fires to fueling arts and crafts projects.

By Joan Tapper

Photos by Aaron Smith

““We’re trying to stack a lot of functions in one enterprise,” says Jenya Schneider about Cuyama Lamb LLC, the company she owns and operates with her husband, Jack Thrift Anderson. “We’re using a natural tool” — a flock of 1,000 merino sheep — “to manage our rangeland, manage fire, build soil health, and care for native ecologies … and produce meat and fiber at the same time. We also want to create opportunities for people to work in a natural setting with animals and the land.” That’s a lot to take on, but the couple have succeeded admirably.

They met in 2016 in the Cuyama Valley, where Jack had

worked at the nonprofit educational farm Quail Springs as a rangeland steward and was studying the use of ungulates on the land. Earlier, Jenya had been involved in restoring ecosystems in Washington state and Northern California. “I had had dairy goats but never worked with ruminants,” she remembers. “I thought ranching was something you were born into.” Nevertheless, she and Jack founded their company in 2018, focusing on sheep and targeted grazing.

“We were going to come to the coast part-time,” Jenya says, “but we ended up full-time in Gaviota,” which is where the company is now based. They truck and

“We’re using a natural tool” — a flock of 1,000 merino sheep — “to manage our rangeland, manage fire, build soil health, and care for native ecologies … and produce meat and fiber at the same time.”

– Cuyama Lamb co-owner Jenya Schneider

Estabon Sepulveda with wool from freshly sheared Cuyama Lamb sheep. The strongest wool will eventually be turned into yarn by a small mill in Wyoming that uses minimal water.

“It’s compelling to work with animals with a livelihood and lifestyle you enjoy.”

– Jenya Schneider

trailer their flock throughout the South County, where there’s more population and more need and receptivity to the use of sheep for management. Once at a property, the animals are deployed with movable electric fences. But where the sheep are, and what they’re doing, depends on the time of year.

The work with various fire departments begins at the end of the growing season in spring and goes through September, with the sheep excellent at munching grasses and low plants that could fuel fires. “Montecito Fire Department was the first [fire department] we worked with,” Jenya says. “We got a contract in 2020 and have had a steady relationship with them ever since. There’s also the Santa Barbara County Fire Department, and Carpinteria-Summerland in years past, as well as the city of Santa Barbara.” Recently, the departments have started coordinating such efforts through the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council, which is implementing a regional wildfire mitigation plan.

Beyond fire management, the Cuyama Lamb flock grazes the San Marcos Hills, where the focus is on promoting the health of the native bunchgrass habitat, which holds more moisture and encourages more birdlife and wildflowers. In other places, the focus may be on targeting invasive species. The timing and intensity of the grazing is different for different purposes, and is

Sheep from Cuyama Lamb on the move, encouraged by Cristian Arambula.

different for every property.

Lambing takes place in October and November, and just before spring, the flock is ready for shearing. “We want the animals sheared before they graze,” Jenya says, “so they pick up fewer burrs and other dirt. If you don’t want to have fiber, don’t buy wool sheep.”

The fleeces are sorted according to length and quality, with the long, strong wool going to Mountain Meadow Wool in Wyoming for processing into yarn. “It takes a lot of water to clean the wool,” Jenya notes, and that mill is small enough to do custom processing, yet large enough to do it efficiently. “They send back beautiful yarns,” she says. The skeins are sold on the Cuyama Lamb website (cuyamalamb.com) and at several yarn boutiques in California. The wool was also part of a project by award-winning artisanal weaver Porfirio

Gutierrez (porfiriogutierrez.com).

“We sell some meat,” Jenya says, “but that’s a small portion of our business.” They’re exploring a new avenue, however: “We’re working on researching wool pellets as soil amendment,” taking the parts of the fleece that aren’t good for wool yarn. The fiber is run through a shredding machine, then a pelletizer, which makes the wool denser and easier to handle. The result releases nitrogen and reduces the frequency of watering, as a test with potted elderberries at the ranch attests.

“Nurseries are an obvious fit,” but there are undoubtedly other uses, she says. “There’s more research and manufacturing to be done.” In the meantime, there are many satisfactions of life ranching sheep. “It’s compelling to work with animals with a livelihood and lifestyle you enjoy.”

“The material was so beautiful, very soft and textured. I wanted to respect that beauty. I’d just be the conduit.” – textile artist Porfirio Gutierrez

From Hillside to Needle

When Brook Rademacher founded The Knit Shop in downtown Santa Barbara (1221 State St., Suite 7) in summer 2024, she knew she wanted to include purveyors whose wool is grown and processed in the United States. Cuyama Lamb fit the bill.

“I like that the wool is part of Santa Barbara,” Brook says. “I love that it’s local. It’s so soft, and the sheep are helping Santa Barbara soil thrive and helping to clear away hazardous brush.”

Hers is just one of several boutiques in California that carry the fiber. It’s also available at Coachella Valley Yarns (coachellavalleyyarn.com) and A Verb for Keeping Warm (averbforkeepingwarm.com) in Oakland.

Weaving Connections

“We first heard about Porfirio Gutierrez when we were on vacation in Oaxaca,” Jenya Schneider says. “The work in his studio was breathtaking.” Learning that the weaver lived and worked in Ventura, she and her husband, Jack, later visited him there. “We thought someday it would be great if he would weave from our yarn.”

“Jack and Jenya and I organically connected,” Porfirio says. “As a maker, I’m always looking to explore the idea of community and what it means to be an indigenous diaspora artist. Who is part of the community here? Jenya is part of that as a farmer. An indigenous practice doesn’t have to be traditional.”

Over the years, the idea evolved to use the undyed Cuyama Lamb wool to make blankets, which traditionally in Oaxaca were both for everyday use and for ceremonies. Jenya got a grant from Kiss the Ground, a nonprofit promoting regeneration and healthy soil, and Porfirio experimented with the yarn. The blankets called for a fourharness weaving technique that is quite different from the way he creates his tapestries. “I wanted to revisit the process,” he says. “The material was so beautiful, very soft and textured. I wanted to respect that beauty. I’d just be the conduit.”

Porfirio created 20 blankets, roughly four-by-five feet, and the project is now waiting to launch to the public. Looking forward, he says, “I want to explore how to sustainably continue this collaboration and find a meaningful way to connect with Jenya’s and Jack’s spirit.”

COURTESY OF PORFIRIO GUTIERREZ

COURTESY OF THE KNIT SHOP

Green & GrayPair Perfectly

Showing that saving the planet isn’t just for the young, this retired Santa Barbara couple is greener than ever.

By Callie Fausey

Phil and Lora Clarke reject the idea that environmental advocacy sits solely on the shoulders of younger generations.

“People think, ‘We’re retired, so we don’t do anything anymore,’ and that’s not true,” Lora says. “There’s a lot of contributions that our age group can make.”

Phil, a recent graduate of the Community Environmental Council’s Climate Stewards course, is applying his newfound knowledge to make the Valle Verde retirement community, where the Clarkes live, more sustainable. “I took the course to learn how to make this campus greener,” he explains.

The Clarkes’ journey began in the 1970s at Cal State Los Angeles, where their love for each other blossomed alongside a mutual love for nature. In their youth, they joined the antinuclear protests at Diablo Canyon Power Plant and became

active with the Sierra Club. Over the years, they helped lead the West Los Angeles Sierra Club chapter while building their careers, Phil in health care and Lora in higher education.

Since retiring in 2008 and moving to Santa Barbara, the couple has carried the activism that first sprouted on their college campus into their lives on the Valle Verde campus.

The Clarkes, along with their eco-conscious collaborators and fellow residents Janis and Dick Storbo, started by tackling film plastic, like bubble wrap and paper towel wraps. Ablitt’s — a local dry-cleaning business — holds collection events through their Planet Protectors program to recycle film plastic into material that can be used to make furniture and decking.

The couples collect 30 to 50 pounds of plastic per week from their neighbors and donate it all to Ablitt’s. While they’re at it, they collect textiles to recycle through a national company

INGRID BOSTROM

“We’re trying to get a committee together with more like-minded people to help around the campus,” Lora Clarke says. “We have to help remind them that it’s everyone that needs to get on board with the environment — it’s at every turn, you can’t separate it out.”

called Trashie. They’re also advocating for Valle Verde facilities to ditch single-use plastics, such as swapping out the grill’s plastic clamshell to-go containers for reusable or biodegradable alternatives.

Beyond recycling, the Clarkes and their neighbors successfully campaigned to introduce green-waste containers on campus and install a new EV charging station for residents. They’re also focused on long-term projects, like replacing the community’s outdated solar panels, securing backup power batteries, and advocating for more sustainable building practices, such as heat pumps. Neighbor Kenny Standhardt is leading his fellow residents as they design two new gardens on the Valle Verde grounds composed entirely of native plants.

HumanGood, the nonprofit senior-living organization that owns Valle Verde, was immediately on board, Phil says, “except that they need the residents to step up and help out.” Valle Verde’s directors have been supportive as well, and residents have responded positively, he adds.

“We’re trying to get a committee together with more likeminded people to help around the campus,” Lora says. “We have to help remind them that it’s everyone that needs to get on board with the environment — it’s at every turn, you can’t separate it out.”

That sentiment also branches out beyond the fences of Valle Verde. The Clarkes, as well as other residents and staff, are part of a coalition of different HumanGood senior-living communities, including in La Jolla and Las Vegas, that meets quarterly to talk about different environmental initiatives they want to see on each campus. In Santa Barbara, the Clarkes and Storbos want to see more retirement communities get on board with going green.

“I think the more sustainable Santa Barbara is, the more we can set an example for the rest of the state and the country,” Phil says.

Becoming a Climate Steward

Climate Stewards on a field trip at Lotusland.

In every Climate Stewards cohort at the Community Environmental Council (CEC), students learn about climate change, the factors and policies at play that either exacerbate or alleviate the issue, and how to foster conversations around climate. Volunteer opportunities and field trips are also included throughout the nine-week class.

“I thought it was great that they had such a thing here, working through the [CEC’s State Street] Hub,” Phil says. “It’s been amazing.”

All students take on a final project of their choice, and Phil’s was initiating more eco-friendly improvements at Valle Verde. He used everything he learned to start conversations with his neighbors and implement real changes.

“I thought the commitment of all the other people that were taking the class, because I’ve seen a couple of them, was really inspiring,” Phil says. “They’re really moving on and getting things going, which is good, because I think it helps all of Santa Barbara.”

Learn more about how to be a climate steward at cecsb.org/climate-stewards.

When Kit Boss and his wife decided to rebuild their Santa Barbara home, they chose to deconstruct the house rather than destroy it, so they could salvage and donate the reusable parts.

Banishing the BULLDOZER

Deconstruction is the greener and cheaper alternative to demolition.

By Tyler Hayden Photos Courtesy of AIA Santa Barbara

Kit Boss knew there had to be a better way. The owner of a 100-year-old Santa Barbara home had plans to rebuild his house but hated the idea of all its doors, windows, cabinets, fixtures, and lumber being tossed in the trash.

“It haunts me,” Kit says, “the thought of piles of things being scraped into landfills.” And he had good reason to fret –– the waste generated by building demolition and renovation is what fills 22% of California’s dumps. “My wife and I were committed to being as green as possible,” he says.

Kit was just starting to do his research when he listed his bike for sale on Facebook. The buyer was Aude-Line Dulière, an eco-conscious architect from Belgium, who happens to be a world leader in “deconstruction,” the concept of dismantling buildings to salvage their reusable parts. The two got to talking.

The more Kit learned about deconstruction, the more hopeful he got. Up to 80% of a home’s materials can be salvaged and channeled back into the marketplace. But he worried about the “green premium,” the extra cost often associated with making the sustainable choice. How would he make it pencil? In this case, his concerns were unwarranted.

When all was said and done, Kit actually spent about 10% less on deconstructing his West Mesa home than he would have if he’d taken a bulldozer to it. The savings came from the tax benefits he received for donating the used materials to a nonprofit organization, which then resold them to the public at a discount.

Yes, Kit concedes, the more delicate process took longer than the traditional way –– a couple of weeks as opposed to a few days. “But construction takes forever anyway,” he says. Workers removed individual nails from the redwood decking before itemizing each board and prepping it for shipping.

Disassembly was completed this winter with the rebuild now in progress. The final inventory of salvaged items also included a six-foot Danish bookcase, two ceramic sinks, copper downspouts, and more than a dozen lighting sconces, window casements, and solid-wood doors.

The new single-story house is where he and his wife will live, Kit says, acknowledging how much second homes and vacation rentals contribute to Santa Barbara’s housing shortage. Honoring the history of the property was also important to them, he explains, and what better way than ensuring pieces of the old house live on.

“We did the right thing, we did the smart thing, and it wasn’t even a sacrifice,” he says.

ASSEMBLING TO DISASSEMBLE

It takes a village to take a building apart, and Kit connected with a few key people to see the process through. One was local architect Ellen Bildsten, and another was Bay Area–based Ted Reiff, founder of The ReUse People, a nonprofit dedicated to reducing the solid waste stream.

Ellen is among Santa Barbara’s most sought-after architects and is an active member of the Santa Barbara chapter of the American Institute of Architects (AIA). Her firm has designed everything from affordable senior housing to a Miramar beach house, as well as a number of commercial and civic projects, including Toad & Co.’s offices and the Louise Lowry Davis Recreation Center.

As far as Ellen knows, only a handful of deconstruction projects have ever taken place in Santa Barbara. She’d like to see that number grow. “To bring materials back into the construction stream –– that would be huge for our community,” she says.

“To bring materials back into the construction stream that would be huge for our community,” local architect Ellen Bildsten says. “And it would greatly reduce our carbon footprint.” Salvaging materials from a single house can save over 30 million BTUs of energy, she notes, enough to heat and cool 750 Santa Barbara homes for a year.

“And it would greatly reduce our carbon footprint.” Salvaging materials from a single house can save over 30 million BTUs of energy, she notes, enough to heat and cool 750 Santa Barbara homes for a year.

Ted and The ReUse People have been banging the deconstruction drum for decades with offices all over the country. Their client list includes thousands of private homeowners, the cities of San Diego and Chicago, among other public agencies, and a couple of celebrities he can’t talk about because of non-disclosure agreements. Since 1993, the organization has diverted more than 400,000 tons of waste.

In all his years, Ted has always saved his clients money. “I’ve never seen a project not worth it,” he says. Although deconstruction typically costs about twice as much as demolition, the tax benefits more than offset the difference. A third-party, IRS-qualified appraiser determines the value of the materials before they’re removed, taking into consideration their age, condition, and so on. “Your mileage may vary,” he explains.

Old-growth lumber used in framing is especially valuable, Ted says, but foundations are often too far gone to save. He’s seen all manner of vintage fixtures and appliances –– even fireplaces –– diverted from the landfill, items that will give their next home the kind of character you can’t buy at IKEA. “Some real treasures,” he says. “But we’re still looking for Jimmy Hoffa.”

The salvaged materials from Kit’s home were trucked to a 40,000-square-foot warehouse operated by The ReUse People in Oakland. Ted says, “It’s almost like a giant thrift store,” where items cost 25% to 50% less than they would at a home supply store or lumberyard. “Local people can come in and save money,” he says. “A lot of money.”

WILL SANTA BARBARA GET ON BOARD?

For all its upsides, deconstruction still hasn’t gone mainstream. One major reason is that demolition is big business — to the tune of $8.7 billion a year in the United States — fueled by a

quickening pace of refits and teardowns as construction methods get quicker and cheaper (think glue instead of screws) and structures don’t last as long.

Of the 250,000 single-family homes that are taken down each year, Ted says, only around 2,500 — or 0.01% — use deconstruction. Nevertheless, Ted and his team, along with hundreds of other deconstruction outfits nationwide, continue to spread the word and educate the public.

Ted’s organization also trains and certifies unemployed and disadvantaged workers, providing new opportunities in recent years to more than 500 tradespeople. They’ve taught 70 or so contractors as well, who in turn have created more jobs in the field.

It takes skill to not only remove materials without ruining them, Ted explains, but also catalog, transport, and store items with care. “Taking out is one thing,” he says. “Preserving is another.”

For deconstruction to take root in Santa Barbara, a few things would need to happen. First, The ReUse People or another similar company would need to secure a large facility like the Oakland warehouse — which serves all Bay Area counties — to resell materials.

Ted suggests one could be established in the city to serve the Central Coast’s tri-counties. Ellen is already brainstorming and scouting potential locations, perhaps by the airport. “Until the infrastructure is in place, we’re only talking in theoretical terms,” she says. But if the right property were to come along, “We’d be happy to open shop,” Ted says.

The other factor is labor, or rather, the shortage of it. There aren’t enough local hands to carry out the specialty work. Not yet, anyway. Existing teams of solar installers, abatement specialists, and others with home service backgrounds could be fairly quickly brought up to speed, Ted says.

Lastly, the demand must exist. Ellen is chipping away at that too, working with city officials to incorporate deconstruction in the teardown permitting process. “Simply introducing people to the option,” she says.

It remains to be seen if the city will adopt any of the mandates that other municipalities have. In 2016, Portland became the first city to require deconstruction of any single-family home built before 1940. Palo Alto requires deconstruction for all its commercial and residential buildings, regardless of age. And Boulder mandates that 75% of buildings by weight be diverted from landfills.

Ellen is hopeful that Santa Barbara will soon follow suit. But she’s not just waiting around for it to happen. “It’s on us as a community to donate or create the resources to make deconstruction a viable option here,” she says. “And I think we can do it.” For

Celebrating

CONSERVATION SUCCESSES

While fighting for our future, it’s heartening to remember conservation victories of the past, especially the animals we’ve saved.

By Jim Miller Photos by Hugh Ranson

Though the “environmental movement” is polluted with an excess of bad news, we have faced great challenges and solved them. Acid rain? Fixed. The hole in the ozone layer? Healing. The blanket of thick smog that choked Southern California for decades? Mostly gone. If we set our collective minds to a problem, it gets solved.

Every crisis you can think of has an army of brilliant minds working on it at this very moment. For example, while many species around the world are endangered, the Endangered Species Act (ESA) is one of the most powerful statutes the environmental movement has passed. Signed by President Nixon in 1973, the act protects roughly 1,800 U.S. species, only 32 of which have gone extinct, mostly freshwater shellfish and birds that had tiny ranges and small populations. And about 60 species have recovered enough to be “delisted.”

Within that number of recovered animals and plants are some terrific success stories. Here are a few that call Santa Barbara home.

Bald Eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus)

Delisted in 2007, the bald eagle is a powerful symbol of conservation success, and the banning of DDT was actually a primary factor in the recovery of this fish-hunting raptor found in every continental U.S. state and Alaska. DDT, a potent pesticide hailed as a miracle in its ability to eradicate

The bald eagle is a powerful symbol of both our country and our ability to protect endangered animals.

illness-causing mosquitoes, accumulates in the bodies of animals high on the food chain. In the case of birds of prey, DDT thins the eggshells, making eggs unviable.

DDT began to come under health and environmental scrutiny in the 1950s that was only heightened by the 1962 publication of Silent Spring , Rachel Carson’s brutal expose on the pesticide and the lies of the chemical industry.

Efforts to protect the bald eagle go back as far as the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act and the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act of 1940. But by the 1950s, only about 400 breeding pairs were thought to be in the lower 48 states. That number is now well over 70,000. Once frequently shot as a pest and predator (it was claimed they would even snatch children, though no incidents of this have ever been recorded), bald eagles still often suffer from lead poisoning as they ingest lead from the carcassed and discarded entrails of game animals shot with lead ammunition (hunting with lead ammunition was banned in California in 2019, though it is legal in most other places). Lead ingestion is also the major threat to the still-highly-endangered California condor.

Bald eagles are often spotted in Santa Barbara County, mostly in winter near bodies of water, and they also breed here. They were even imported to the Channel Islands to help drive out golden eagles that were preying on island foxes (see below).

Gray whales can be seen off Santa Barbara from November through April as they head south and then north again on their epic migration.

Gray Whale (Eschrichtius robustus)

Delisted in 1994, gray whales migrate annually from feeding grounds in and near the arctic to breeding grounds off Baja California. Their 10,000- to 14,000-mile round trip is the longest among mammals. Gray whales are filter-feeding baleen whales and top out at about 50 feet in length and 45 tons.

Gray whales were hunted off California until 1936, when they were protected in the U.S., though commercial whaling continued internationally until the early 1970s. The population, estimated in the range of 100,000 worldwide pre-whaling, is now roughly 27,000, concentrated along the west coast of North America. Populations in the western Pacific, along the coasts of Asia, remain endangered. Threats to gray whales include disturbances of their breeding lagoons in Mexico, climate change, acute noise from human activity, oil spills, entanglement with fishing gear, and boat collisions. These threats are particularly acute in Asia as substantial nearshore industrialization and shipping congestion throughout the migratory corridors of the western gray whale increase the likelihood of ship strikes, chemical pollution, and other disturbances. Gray whales in the Atlantic are thought to have been hunted to extinction in the 1700s, though there are occasional sightings of them all over the world.

In January 1997, a female newborn calf nicknamed J.J. was stranded in Marina del Rey and rushed to Sea World in San Diego. Staff and scientists scrambled to save her, and 14 months later, weighing 10 tons and 31 feet long, J.J. was released back to the ocean during the passing northward gray whale migration. Scientists had hoped to monitor her progress, but tracking devices fell off and researchers lost track of her after a few days. She remains the largest animal ever kept in captivity.

Gray whales can be seen off Santa Barbara from November through April as they head south and then north again on their epic migration.

Gray whales, like this mother and calf, are often seen in the Santa Barbara channel during their migration.

A gray whale comes up for a look around, a behavior known as “spyhopping.”

COURTESY OF NOAA FISHERIES (2)

Island Fox (Urocyon littoralis)

Found only on the Channel Islands, the island fox (about the size of a housecat, but slighter), was delisted in 2016 after an amazingly brief and successful restoration effort that began around 2000, with listing in 2004. For millennia, island foxes were the top predator on the islands, but in the 1990s golden eagles took up residence, filling the void left by the disappearance of the bald eagle. The golden eagles feasted on feral piglets, but were not averse to munching on island foxes, which had never needed to develop a fear of avian predators, as the native bald eagles eat mostly fish.

Due to golden eagle predation, from 1994 to 2000, island fox populations fell by more than 90%, from about 1,500 foxes to fewer than 100. The recovery plan featured a few facets: capturing and breeding the remaining foxes, trapping and relocating the golden eagles, reintroducing bald eagles, eradicating feral pigs, and then re-releasing captive foxes.

With the airborne threats gone, the 100 or so reintroduced captive foxes boomed, with populations now just under 3,000.

NPS wildlife biologist Tim Coonan calls the saving of the island fox “one of the most successful, and quickest, recovery programs in the history of endangered species.” Since they have no fear of predators, island foxes are easily seen roaming the Channel Islands. They scamper about, noses to the ground, all but oblivious to humans nearby.

Want to visit Channel Islands National Park and (hopefully) see island foxes? Use this QR code.

NPS wildlife biologist Tim Coonan calls the saving of the island fox “one of the most successful, and quickest, recovery programs in the history of endangered species.”

The recovery of the island fox from near-extinction shows the power of a dedicated team and a smart recovery plan.

Brown pelicans have bounced back from endangered status.

Brown Pelican (Pelecanus occidentalis)

The first animal to be delisted, in 1985 (though not delisted in California until 2009), the brown pelican is a wide-ranging coast-dwelling bird that nests in colonies in secluded dunes and mangroves. Their ground nests and eggs are easily subject to

Peregrine

Falcon (Falco peregrinus anatum)

Delisted in 1999, the American peregrine falcon is the fastest animal alive, though no one is really sure how fast they can go. Radar tracking has measured about 115 miles per hour, but ornithologists claim they can dive at speeds well over 200 when they prey on unsuspecting pigeons and other birds. The crow-sized peregrines are terrific hunters and have been used in the sport of falconry for more than 3,000 years.

Peregrines were another victim of DDT, but after the ban, captive breeding and release programs were set up to help the species recover, taking advantage of the expertise of the falconry community. There are 18 or 19 subspecies of peregrines, ranging across much of the globe, from tundra to the tropics, appropriate for a bird whose scientific and common names both mean “wandering falcon.” Once functionally extinct in the eastern U.S., they have been re-introduced.

Peregrine falcons can be found year-round throughout Santa Barbara County from the mountains to the Channel Islands. Highly adaptable even to city life, peregrines can nest on ledges of buildings (often becoming webcam celebrities) or bridges and even use artificial lighting in urban areas to extend their hunting times.

predation by a variety of critters; though adult pelicans are large and rarely predated, they have been known to be chomped by large sharks and attacked, drowned, and devoured by packs of river otters in parts of California. Pelicans were hunted by humans for feathers and eggs particularly in the southeast, leading president Theodore Roosevelt to name the 3-acre Pelican Island off Florida’s east coast as the nation’s first wildlife refuge; pelicans were also protected by the 1918 Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Neither law could do much to save the pelican from DDT, and by the late 1960s, the brown pelican was extinct in much of its range. After DDT was banned, reintroduction efforts were extremely successful, and populations have rebounded to the hundreds of thousands. The current threats to pelicans are fishing gear, oil spills, and fluctuations in sardine populations that are likely a result of climate change.

Year-round residents of Santa Barbara, pelicans are gregarious and often seen gliding gracefully in long lines or V formations, sometimes at a height of 50 or so feet, and sometimes skimming right above the waves. They dive with great drama to feed on small fish, filling up their “gular pouch” at the base of their beak before emptying it of water and gulping down the fish that remain.

Peregrine falcons, the world's fastest creature, have been removed from the Endangered Species list.

MONARCHS ARE NEXT ON THE LIST

Another iconic Santa Barbara species, the monarch butterfly, was proposed for listing as an endangered species in December 2024. The western population has declined about 95% since the mid-1980s. Overwintering sites like Ellwood Mesa in Goleta were eerily devoid of monarchs this past winter. While the causes of the decline are not fully understood, habitat loss, lack of milkweed (the monarch’s preferred food), pesticide use, and climate change are all considered likely culprits.

How to Help Monarchs

While large-scale interventions and focused scientific research is needed to help monarchs, because they travel so broadly around the western U.S., every backyard gardener can also help increase the monarchs’ chances.

• Plant milkweed in your yard, or even on a balcony or porch. The monarch depends on several species of milkweed for both breeding and food.

• Plant a mixture of annuals and perennials that flower at different times to provide food throughout the breeding season and migration. Great native options are yarrow, coyote mint, clarkias, sages, and verbena.

• Avoid using pesticides (insecticides, fungicides, herbicides). Not every nuisance

The beloved monarch butterfly has been proposed for the Endangered Species list, and people can help by planting milkweed.

needs to be eliminated, so learn to accept a low level of pests and weeds, and never apply pesticides preventatively. If you do need to use pesticides, start with an organic option, and a pesticide that targets the specific problem you have. Broadspectrum or multi-use pesticides are heavily toxic and can harm beneficial wildlife, like pollinating monarchs.

The cumulative effect of many small actions can add up to a lifeline for a beloved butterfly that’s on the ropes. For a more complete list of ways to help, check out the Xerces Society (xerces.org)

Untangling WHALES

When whales are caught in fishing gear, the Whale Entanglement Team fights to free them.

By Tyler Hayden

Dave Beezer, captain of the whale-watching vessel the Condor Express, spends six days a week on the water introducing excited passengers to the mighty cetacean inhabitants of the Santa Barbara Channel. For three decades he’s been scanning the horizon for spouts and “footprints,” the round, glassy pattern left on the surface of the ocean by a whale’s forward momentum.

Dave even recognizes individual whales by the patterns on their flukes and the scars on their backs. “I know these animals,” he says. And many of them know him, even if they don’t remember him. That’s because Dave, as longtime leader of a federally sanctioned Whale Entanglement Team (WET), has had a hand in saving many of their lives.

Dave and his Santa Barbara-based

crew of volunteers –– boaters, surfers, and divers, including a former Navy SEAL –– are part of NOAA’s National Large Whale Entanglement Network, which jumps into action when a whale is spotted wrapped in fishing gear or marine debris.

Some whales are able to shed the gear on their own, but those that can’t may drag it for days, months, or even years. The tangles can interfere with swimming, eating, and breathing, and in severe cases, can cut off the blood flow to flippers and tails, resulting in a long, painful death. “It’s brutal,” Dave says.

The goal of the team is simple ––cut the line and free the whale –– but the process is delicate and dangerous. A tangled whale doesn’t know that the boat buzzing around it is there to help, Dave explains, and navigating around a distressed, flailing, 50-ton animal is a

difficult task, even for trained experts. People have been killed doing it.

Before the team breaks out carbonfiber poles affixed with specialty knives, they study the entanglement with a drone from above and a waterproof GoPro from below. That’s because they only get so many approaches at the whale before it runs and dives, and they want to make as few cuts as possible. “You really have to go forensic on the wrap,” Dave explains. “You have to be a detective to figure it out.”

Once they develop a game plan, the team launches its inflatable “cut boat” from a larger vessel and gets to work.

“The whole approach is based on safety and not getting hurt,” Dave says. “You have to remain very level-headed and not let adrenaline get the best of you.” And you never, ever get in the water, he says.

The beauty of the national network,

IF YOU SPOT AN ENTANGLED WHALE

The best way to help is to immediately report the sighting to the local National Large Whale Entanglement Response Network or the U.S. Coast Guard on VHF CH-16. NOAA advises, “Then, stand by at a safe distance until authorized response team members arrive, and provide any photos or videos to NOAA Fisheries.”

STEPHANIE MARCOS

“The whole approach is based on safety and not getting hurt,” Dave Beezer says. “You have to remain very level-headed and not let adrenaline get the best of you.” And you never, ever get in the water.

Dave explains, is its ability to locate, track, and intercept whales that can swim up to 100 miles a day. “It’s like finding a needle in the great Pacific Ocean haystack,” he says. The teams –– about a dozen are scattered up and down the West Coast, with the same amount on the East Coast and around Hawaii –– are in constant radio contact and will often attach a telemetry buoy to an entanglement to follow the whale’s movements.

On that point, and again stressing the safety issue, Dave asks anyone who sees an entangled whale to keep their distance and call it in. Sometimes, a well-meaning boater will try to cut the line themselves, which may shorten it, cinch it, and give the WET team less to work with.

Responders may also try to attach large floats (or “kegs”) to the entangling material. This technique, an adaptation of an old whaling technique called “kegging,” adds buoyancy and drag that makes it harder for the whale to dive. Many of their newer techniques come from East Coast teams, where the North Atlantic right whale is critically endangered;

Year by year, the regional number of entanglement reports varies dramatically, Dave says. In 2022, dozens of incidents were recorded in the Santa Barbara Channel, with only a few in 2023 and 2024. In the fall of 2024 alone, Monterey Bay saw more than 20.

Humpbacks are the most common

A NOAA-led team frees an entangled humpback whale near Dutch Harbor, Alaska.

species to get wrapped up, with gray whales a close second, Dave says. He’s personally helped rescue a sperm whale calf, a full-grown blue whale, and a humpback named “Lucky,” who was grounded by gear 15 years ago off Santa Cruz Island. Every once in a while, Dave still sees him swimming through the channel.

Responders celebrate after removing more than 100 feet of line from an entangled humpback whale near Maui, Hawaii.

less than 400 of them remain.

ANDY

Sipping Sustainably

THESE FOUR SANTA BARBARA COUNTY ESTATES ARE MAKING WINE THE RIGHT WAY.

By Matt Kettmann

Just like the myriad decisions we face when choosing to eat responsibly, there are plenty of environmental considerations that play into which wines we choose to drink.

Santa Barbara County’s wine community elevated sustainability long ago — Ampelos Vineyard, for instance, was the first in the country to be certified as organic, biodynamic, and sustainable — and our region remains a leader in pushing the entire world of wine to earnestly embrace eco-minded ways. Whether a winery is aiming to be organic, biodynamic, or regenerative (and some spots are all three!), the underlying ethos for these efforts is to eschew herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic applications.

Here are four estates doing it right.

“It feels good to be surrounded by blooming flowers and our friendly livestock, have a nice green understory, hear birds chirping in every direction, and occasionally see the good snakes slithering.” — Alice Anderson of Amevive

Amevive Wine

When Alice Anderson took over management of the Ibarra-Young Vineyard almost six years ago, she embraced the Santa Ynez Valley property’s three-decade-long adherence to organic farming. But then she turned up the Earth-conscious dial, reinvigorating the soils and breathing life into the vines by employing holistic and regenerative techniques.

“We love to be outside, we love nature and feeling wild,” says Alice, whose Amevive Wines are bright, fresh, and even electric on the palate. “We have seen what over-farming does to the landscape, and we want our vineyards to be the antithesis of perfectly tame, bare-floored vineyards.”

Alice and her partner, Topher De Felice, are in the vineyards daily, both working the vines and watching how

their farming affects the environment around them. “It feels good to be surrounded by blooming flowers and our friendly livestock, have a nice green understory, hear birds chirping in every direction, and occasionally see the good snakes slithering.” The effects border on spiritual for Alice, who explains, “I'm sure that all of this conscious effort and energy translates to the finished wines.” amevivewine.com

Alice Anderson and Topher de Felice with their ducks and Alice’s dog, June, at Amevive vineyard.

BBeckmen Vineyards

ack in the mid1990s, Steve Beckmen was the first vintner in Santa Barbara County to tune deeply into biodynamic farming. He spread the practice to both his family’s Los Olivos District estate — where visitors can taste his wines while overlooking 25 acres of vines that include Cabernet Sauvignon and Rhone varieties — and at Purisima Mountain Vineyard in Ballard Canyon, where they grow even more epic Syrah, Grenache, and more on 125 acres. The lessons never stop.

“We continue to grow within the system with the inclusion of more farm animals and a move toward our eventual

goal of a fully enclosed farm ecosystem,” says Steve, who’s not sure he’ll ever get there, but never loses sight of that goal. “Besides the benefit for the earth, our farm, our workers, and our customers,

biodynamic farming is making our fruit quality better and increasing the quality and consistency of our wines, which is the most important thing for us.”

Though customers may at first be intrigued by these practices because of their Earth-friendly aspects, many affirm them even more vociferously because the resulting wines are so much better, offering an energy not seen in conventionally farmed vineyards.

“The farming practices we do are about quality first,” Steve explains, but not far behind, he says, is “our desire to foster the connection between all living things.” beckmenvineyards.com

WGrimm’s Bluff

orking with rather than against nature was front of mind for Rick Grimm when he planted his Happy Canyon vineyard, which overlooks Lake Cachuma and the Santa Ynez River. The year was 2012, and he was one of the first in the region to plant a vineyard here according to biodynamic principles, which uses various compost teas, as well as the cycles of the moon, to dictate farming.

“Before planting our first vine, we chose to avoid synthetic chemicals, rely on nature, and farm with respect for the land,” says Rick’s son Henri Grimm. To do so, they enlisted legendary French biodynamic consultant Phillippe Coderey and planted Cabernet Sauvignon, Sauvignon Blanc, and petit verdot across 16 acres. The land has never been touched by herbicides, pesticides, or artificial fertilizers.

“We don’t chase trends or look for

quick fixes,” Henri says. “Instead, we trust healthy soil, robust cover crops, and oldfashioned hard work.”

That keeps the vines thriving and the land in good health. “We chose this route because the Earth deserves it,” he says. “When you open a bottle of Grimm’s Bluff, you’re tasting a genuine commitment to the environment, one that hasn’t wavered since we started.” grimmsbluff.com

HENRI GRIMM

Steve Beckmen started practicing biodynamic farming at his family's vineyards in the 1990s.

Donnachadh Vineyard

Located on the steep slopes of the Pinot Noir and Chardonnay hotspot known as the Sta. Rita Hills, Donnachadh Vineyard founders Drew and Laurie Duncan opted to go organic when they planted their 40 acres in 2013. “It just seemed like the best way to take care of our vineyard workers, our land, our customers, and everything downstream of us,” Drew says.

Since then, they’ve integrated regenerative techniques, including the addition of a permanent cover crop and a focus on working toward no-till farming. “On the regenerative side, it’s all connected,” Drew says. “We work on building healthy soils to grow healthier vines; healthier vines produce better fruit; better fruit makes better wines.”

The Earthy upside? These practices allow the soils to sequester more carbon, thereby reducing the vineyard’s ecofootprint. And they do so quietly, not trying to send a major message to the world. “Hopefully it resonates with some consumers,” says Drew, who also produces some stellar Syrah and gamay noir alongside the Pinot and Chard. “But we’re mostly trying to be good stewards of the land and good neighbors while making the best wine we can.” donnachadh.com

Donnachadh Vineyard founders Drew and Laurie

Duncan opted to go organic when they planted their 40 acres in 2013. “It just seemed like the best way to take care of our vineyard workers, our land, our customers, and everything downstream of us,” Drew says.

HOW TO IMBIBE WITH THE EARTH IN MIND

• Search for certifications: SIP Certified (“Sustainability in Practice”) wines are a good start on the Central Coast. Organic, biodynamic, and regenerative certifications require more work, but produce Earth-friendlier wines.

• Buy local: The shipping of wine is the industry’s largest carbon footprint. By buying local, your money stays in the community and eliminates unnecessary energy usage.

• Try out boxes and cans: Glass is costly to produce, purchase, ship, and recycle. Opt for the many good-quality wines that come in boxes and cans. They’re lighter, too!

Assistant winemakers Cooper Allebrand (left) and Axel Kleemeier stomp Chardonnay grapes.

Fisherman Ben Hyman of Wild Local Seafood and chef Brandon Boudet of Lil Dom’s Seafood and Bar Lou.

on Truly Local Seafood DINING OUT

Chef Brandon Boudet and fisherman Ben Hyman have teamed up to bring the freshest catch to restaurant plates.

By Matt Kettmann

After 20 years of cheffing in the urban heart of Los Angeles, New Orleans–raised Brandon Boudet returned to his coastal roots by opening Lil Dom’s Seafood in Carpinteria five years ago.

He’s been on a mission to showcase seasonal, sustainable, and, most of

all, locally sourced seafood ever since. Dishes like his fish-of-the-day piccata (see next page), fried oyster po’boy, and albacore pastrami are coveted fare at the Linden Avenue hotspot.

His campaign now extends to Coast Village Road in Montecito, where Brandon and his business partner Warner

Ebbink recently opened Bar Lou. Inspired by cuisine from the South of France, but featuring regional ingredients, the new restaurant’s menu features sea urchin spaghettini (see page 44) and halibut almondine.

Not surprisingly, Brandon spends a lot of time communicating directly with fishermen, especially Ben Hyman of Wild Local Seafood, who’s always been surprised at how few restaurants in Santa Barbara buy from local boats.

“We provide the opportunity for people to do something good for the planet that supports our fishery’s heritage and a food system where the money stays in the local community.”

–

Ben Hyman of Wild Local Seafood

“There are very few restaurants that really use local seafood in our community,” says Ben, who regularly sells his lobster, vermillion, ling cod, black cod, and other catches to Brandon, as well as Convivo, The Dutchess, and Rori’s in Ojai. He notes that Barbareño, The Lark, and S.B. Shellfish Company frequently buy direct from other fishermen.

“Ninety percent of the seafood that you’re eating even when adjacent to the ocean is going to be imported,” he explains, noting that one popular seaside seafood restaurant actually uses basa, a catfish from Vietnam, in its fish and chips.

Ben admits that it’s easier and cheaper for restaurants to just order the same fish from the same distributor all year long,

no matter where it’s imported from, rather than deal with the higher costs and logistics of the changing sea. “But anything in life that’s easy and cheap isn’t necessarily good,” says Ben, who’s been fishing commercially since 1998 and sells at nine different farmers/fishermen markets each week, in addition to his store in the Ventura Harbor.

“We provide the opportunity for people to do something good for the planet that supports our fishery’s heritage and a food system where the money stays in the local community,” he says. “It’s a win-win-win when you do it one way, and it’s bad when you support the homogenized-food-systems way.”

Brandon doesn’t find it that much more challenging to do the right thing. “You can make it work,” he says. “You just have to do your math and figure it out.”

There are benefits too. “It just lasts a lot longer,” Brandon explains. “You’re getting fish that’s right off the boat.”

A prime example is oysters, often shipped across the country or world to reach your Santa Barbara plate. “I don’t deal with East Coast oysters anymore,” Brandon says. “The furthest away I get oysters is from Mark Reynolds at Jolly Oyster in Baja California.” Orders are placed Sunday, the oysters are harvested Monday, and they’re at Lil Dom’s by Tuesday.

East Coast oysters, meanwhile, often take about a week to show up. “I have an easy two-week window,” Brandon says about the length of time his delivery stays fresh. “I never come close to that.”

Brandon explains that using regionally sourced seafood is just smart business. “It makes the most sense,” he says. He admits, however, that “we’re not the cheapest place in town.” But when quality, community, and environmental impact are considered, local seafood is a bargain.

LITTLE DOM’S SEAFOOD LOCAL FISH PICCATA

By Chef Brandon Boudet

The fish changes up all the time. But this is a classic dish. Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

4 6-oz thin boneless, skin-on or skinless white-fleshed fish fillets, about 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick (I prefer skin on if the fish has a thin skin, which will crisp nicely)

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

3 Tbsps clarified butter

3 oz white wine

1 1/2 Tbsps large salted capers, rinsed several times in fresh water

1 1/2 Tbsps minced flat-leaf parsley leaves and roughly chopped tender stems

1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice from 1 lemon

5 Tbsps unsalted butter, cut into tablespoon-size pieces

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Dust fish fillets in flour. Season with salt and black pepper.

3. Add clarified butter to a sauté pan on medium-high heat. Add fish fillets, and sauté 3 to 5 minutes on one side only.

4. Remove fish from sauté pan, place cooked-side down on an oven-proof pan or plate, and cook in the oven for 3 to 5 more minutes while you make the sauce.

5. With a hot pan on the stovetop, add wine, and reduce to half. Add capers, parsley, and lemon juice. Turn off heat. Slowly whisk in cold butter cubes. Salt to taste if you want, but it probably doesn’t need it!

6. Pour the sauce over the plated fish, and serve right away.

COURTESY OF LITTLE DOM’S SEAFOOD

BAR LOU’S SANTA BARBARA SEA URCHIN SPAGHETTINI

By Chef Brandon Boudet

This represents one of the best products in the world. We don’t even put butter on our spaghettini. We add some crème fraîche, and then let the sea urchin do all the work.

Serves 4

INGREDIENTS

8 oz fresh sea urchin (uni)

1/2 cup crème fraîche

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus more for drizzling

2 cloves garlic, finely minced

1 leek, white part only, finely minced

1 tsp Tutto Calabria Hot Spread Sauce

1/2 cup white wine

12 oz spaghettini

Kosher salt

Freshly ground black pepper

Small handful finely minced fresh chives

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Set aside 4 tongues of sea urchin to use as garnish. Combine remaining sea urchin and crème fraîche using a blender. Blend until completely smooth. Set aside.

2. Heat olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat until shimmering. Add garlic and leeks and cook, stirring constantly, until softened but not browned (lower heat if the aromatics threaten to brown), about 2 minutes. Add Tutto Calabria Hot Spread Sauce and stir until homogeneous. Add wine and cook until liquid is reduced down to less than 2 tablespoons, about 1 minute. Remove pan from heat and set aside until pasta is cooked.

3. Boil pasta until al dente in a large pot of boiling water. Keep pasta water.

4. When pasta is cooked, use tongs to transfer the spaghettini directly from the boiling water to the pan with the garlic/ oil mixture. Scrape uni purée into the pan and add a few ounces of starchy pastacooking water.

5. Set the pan over high heat and cook, stirring and swirling constantly, until the sauce comes together and develops a creamy consistency and the pasta is fully cooked, about 1 minute. Add more pasta water as necessary to thin the sauce if it over-thickens. Season to taste with salt and black pepper.

6. Divide pasta between warmed serving bowls, drizzle each portion with more extra-virgin olive oil, garnish each with a whole sea urchin tongue, sprinkle with minced chives, and serve.

FISH THE SEASON

When planning to buy seafood, check this chart for what's in season and support our local fisheries. Thanks to the community-supported fishery program Get Hooked (gethookedseafood.com) for this info.

SPRINGSUMMER

FALL WINTER

BASS

SPOT PRAWN

DUNGENESS CRAB

SPINY LOBSTER

BOUNTY: Abalone, Black Cod, Grenadier, Halibut, Ocean Whitefish, Ogo Seaweed, Opah, Oysters, Pink Shrimp, Rock Crab, Rockfish, Shark

OCCASIONAL: Anchovies, Black Sea Bass, Bonito, Dover Sole, Kellet's Whelk, Mackerel, Sanddabs, Sheephead

AHI TUNA

WHITE SEA BASS

A Culinary Cycle to Reduce Waste

Trimmings from a vegetable roast become a stock that’s integral to a soup in these three recipes.

Recipes and photos by

Pascale Beale

Thinking creatively about how to use every part of your vegetables is both economical and sustainable, helping to reduce food waste while maximizing flavor and nutrition. You can create rich, flavorful stocks or add extra layers of depth to soups, stews, and sauces by repurposing vegetable scraps that are often discarded — like skins, stems, and leaves. You can use the stock immediately or freeze it in portions for future meals, ensuring you always have a homemade base on hand. These three recipes will take you through the process.

Vegetable Roast

Makes 8

With Tahini Yogurt Sauce

One-pan dishes such as this one are great for busy weeknights when you want to avoid having masses of washing up after cooking dinner. I make these easy vegetable roasts throughout the year with the seasonal vegetables I have on hand. This version celebrates autumn with glorious, sweet, earthy cruciferous vegetables and jewel-toned squashes. I use zucchini and patty pan squash in the summer and often add asparagus in the spring. Use the vegetables you have to hand. It will always be a treat.

INGREDIENTS

The vegetables

2 lbs cauliflower, florets separated

1 Romanesco broccoli, florets separated (or broccolini)

1 1/2 lbs carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch slices on a bias*

4 leeks, root end trimmed, cleaned, and chopped into 1-inch pieces*

1 butternut or delicata squash, peeled, halved, seeds removed, and sliced

1 red or yellow onion, peeled and cut into eighths*

Olive oil

1 Tbsp za'atar

3 pinches coarse sea salt

8–10 grinds black pepper

2 handfuls small purple kale leaves

2 Tbsps finely chopped chives

The sauce

2/3 cup Greek yogurt

3 Tbsps tahini

1 finely chopped green onion*

1 1/2 Tbsps olive oil

1 1/2 Tbsps lemon juice

Pinch of salt

4 grinds of black pepper

*Keep trimmings for stock

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Place the cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, leeks, squash, and onion in a large roasting pan or on a sheet pan. Drizzle with olive oil. Scatter the za'atar over the top and season with salt and pepper. Toss to combine. Roast for 40 minutes, turning the vegetables over once or twice to ensure they are nicely browned.

3. Remove the pan from the oven, add the purple kale, toss to combine, and return the pan to the oven to cook for 5 more minutes. Once the vegetables are cooked, scatter the chives over the dish.

4. While the vegetables are roasting, prepare the yogurt sauce. Place all the sauce ingredients into a small mixing bowl and stir to combine. If the mixture is too thick (it should have a pourable consistency), add 1 tablespoon of hot water at a time to thin it. Keep at room temperature while the vegetables finish cooking. Drizzle the sauce over the vegetables when ready to serve.

Simple or Roasted Vegetable Stock

Fresh stocks are an essential and vibrant foundation for any soup, stew, tagine, or sauce. A stock full of flavor and fresh ingredients will improve any dish, and most stocks are easy and economical to make. Use simple vegetable stock when cooking rice, risotto, and couscous to enhance the grains. Roasted stocks add depth and richness of flavor to all soups and stews — they are truly worth the effort.

Makes 2 quarts

INGREDIENTS

1 gallon-size freezer bag full of veggie trimmings

— or —

2 large onions, peeled and diced 4–5 carrots, peeled and diced

2 leeks, carefully cleaned, trimmed, and quartered lengthwise

1–3 celery stalks, diced

— and —

2 Tbsps olive oil, if roasting

3 quarts water

1 bunch parsley stems or 1 bouquet garni (1 bay leaf, 6–8 stems parsley, and 6–8 stems fresh thyme, loosely tied together with kitchen twine)

3 good turns of freshly ground pepper

STOCK TIPS

INSTRUCTIONS

1. If roasting, preheat the oven to 350°F. In a large roasting pan, add the freezer bag of veggies or the onions, carrots, leeks, and celery. Drizzle with olive oil, toss to coat, and roast for 45 minutes.

2. For the simple stock or the next step for the roasted stock, fill a 4-quart stockpot three-quarters full with cold water, and add veggies, herbs of choice, and pepper. Bring to a simmer and cook for 30 to 45 minutes.

3. Carefully strain the stock through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl, but do not press down on the solids, as this will make the stock cloudy.

NOTES

• Add the carcass from a chicken or leftover fish bones to turn this into a meat stock.

The recipes for the roasted veggies and soup come from Pascale’s latest cookbook, Flavour—Savouring the Seasons: Recipes From the Market Table. Learn more at pascaleskitchen.com.

Carrot peels, onion skins, celery leaves, tops of celeriac, parsley stems, and green onion and leek trimmings can be collected and simmered to make a hearty vegetable stock, full of natural flavor. Keep a gallon-size freezer bag in your kitchen to collect the peels and trimmings. Once the bag is full, you can easily make a big batch of homemade stock. Some veggies have a stronger flavor that could be offputting — or just make sure you use broccoli stem shavings in a stock for broccoli soup!

Romanesco Broccoli and Leek Soup

I like to call Romanesco the Fibonacci broccoli, as it is one of the most stunning representations of the mathematician's fractal spiral. It can be roasted, grilled, or steamed, and has a nuttier, slightly sweeter flavor than its namesake. This recipe pairs Romanesco with creamy leeks to make a luscious soup.

INGREDIENTS

Olive oil

3 large leeks, halved lengthwise, cleaned and finely chopped*

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt

10 grinds black pepper

1 1/2 lbs Romanesco broccoli, florets separated

4 finely chopped green onions*

4 cups vegetable stock

1 Tbsp finely chopped chives*

4 slices grilled sourdough or ciabatta

*Keep trimmings for your next stock!

INSTRUCTIONS

1. Pour 1 1/2 tablespoons of olive oil into a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the leeks, salt, and pepper, and cook, stirring frequently, until soft and tender, approximately 7 to 8 minutes.

2. Add the Romanesco florets and green onions to the leeks. Cook for 3 to 4 minutes. If the mixture feels a little dry, add 1/2 tablespoon of olive oil. Pour the vegetable stock into the pan and bring to a simmer, uncovered. Cook until the Romanesco is soft, about 12 to 15 minutes, depending on the size of the florets.

3. To get a completely smooth texture for the soup, purée it for at least 1 minute

Serves 4–6

at high speed in a blender (remember to hold down the lid) or for at least 3 minutes if you use an immersion blender.

4. Pour the soup into serving bowls, and add a swirl of olive oil and a scattering of chives. Serve with grilled sourdough or ciabatta.

SANTA BARBARA

FIELDNotes

We're celebrating these organizations that are working toward a healthier planet!

Keeping Our Beaches Clean

Story and photos by Jasmin Tupy, operations manager at Heal the Ocean

Heal the Ocean (HTO) is a local Santa Barbara nonprofit that works to keep our coastlines pristine for future generations. It is important to keep in mind that everything on land will always make its way to the ocean. We are excited to share how you can get involved with our programs that focus on preventing harmful onshore pollution!

Dog Bag Dispenser Program

Dog waste is toxic to the environment and oceans, so it’s important to pick up after your pooch, and local bag dispensers make it easy. In 2010, when Santa Barbara County stopped stocking bag dispensers due to budget cuts, HTO partnered with the county to provide funds through a sponsorship program supported by businesses advertising on dispensers. Each year, HTO supplies about 100,000 biodegradable bags year-round for parks, beaches, and trails from Rincon to Jalama. These eco-friendly bags are a better alternative to standard plastic ones.

Styrofoam Recycling Program

Since Styrofoam can’t be recycled in blue bins and often escapes landfills, endangering wildlife that mistake it for food, it is harmful to the environment. Since July 2021, thanks to community participation, HTO and MarBorg Industries have diverted over 40,000 pounds of polystyrene from the Tajiguas landfill through Santa Barbara’s first Styrofoam Recycling Program. Residents can bring Styrofoam to designated centers, where it’s compressed into pellets and upcycled into products like housewares and toys, giving it a second life. Keep up the great work by recycling your Styrofoam! Take Styrofoam to 20 David Love Place, Goleta, or 132 Nopalitos Way, Santa Barbara.

Heal the Ocean focuses on wastewater infrastructure — sewers and septic systems — as well as ocean dumping practices that have contributed to ocean pollution. We are focused on Santa Barbara County, but our methods now serve as a model for other coastal communities across the country.

The Ocean Connects Us All. Think Globally. Act Locally. It Starts at Home.

Beach Cleanup Program

HTO’s beach cleanups thrive thanks to the enthusiastic participation of our community. We provide groups with reusable gloves and sturdy horse feed bags instead of plastic. Participants play a vital role in tracking and inventorying the collected trash to identify the most common debris at each beach, guiding future cleanup efforts. Students can also earn community service hours while making a tangible impact. By joining us, you’re not only cleaning beaches, but also contributing valuable data that helps shape a cleaner future for our coastline.

GET INVOLVED!

To learn more about any of HTO’s programs, email info@healtheocean.org or call 805-965-7570.

Kids Taking Action at School

By Ethan Maday, Bluedot Institute

The Santa Barbara Middle School Environmental Action Club started small, but with a big idea. There were just four of us, but we wondered: What if we help plan a curriculum for the school?

First, I made a very bold — and very negative — presentation to a group of teachers and students, talking about the terrible state of the Earth and making the case for having an environment club and a curriculum. I now realize the way to go about convincing people is with a positive, inspirational presentation instead of doom and gloom.

W hen our club was approved, our group of four started by using the software Canva to try to create a cause/effect graph depicting the connections between environmental problems and solutions and the chain reactions between them. Originally intended as something to bring our group together, it morphed into a month-long process of discussions, research, and confusing ourselves.

We eventually succeeded in planning a more specific unit now taught by the teachers in our 6th grade environmental science class. The curriculum, centered on the movie Kiss the Ground, teaches students about the importance of compost, sustainable farming, and more about regenerative agriculture. One of the teachers who helped us, Erica Singer, absorbed it into her classes. After reading the end-of-unit reflection done by the 6th graders, I realized how much they had learned through our curriculum and how much it had opened their eyes to some major problems around us. It also made us realize how much more work we had to do to continue the momentum.

Over time, our numbers slowly grew, and our passionate group of activists helped shape the club’s focus and approach. Now, we focus on our “Sustainability Spotlight,” a weekly email highlighting a sustainable tip or product for students, faculty, and parents.

O ur current group of seven students is especially passionate

about recycling and compost. This semester, we’re supporting and adding momentum to the school goal of a zero-waste campus. In addition to our green energy production (solar panels), a sustainable kitchen that composts, our sustainable garden, and our regenerative landscaping, we are building more recycling stations for aluminum cans, coordinating the addition of more compost bins to collect food scraps, and dreaming up more ways to lower our environmental impact.

DID YOU KNOW?

• You can compost a lot more than just uneaten fruits and vegetables. As in most places, Santa Barbara’s industrial compost facility accepts meats, any food waste, paper (with or without ink), paper napkins, plates, utensils, and more. Our club is working to expand composting access across the school, especially into bathrooms, where some paper towels can be composted.

• Aluminum cans can be recycled infinitely, and recycling just one can save between 70% and 95% of the energy that would have been used to manufacture a new one. Our school cafeteria sells around 6,000 canned beverages per year. That’s around 200 pounds of aluminum to be recycled into 150 aluminum laptop casings, 125 cooking pots, 18 signposts, or another 6,000 aluminum cans! We collect the aluminum cans and take them directly to the recycling center, streamlining the recycling process.

Ethan Maday is a part of the Bluedot Institute, a sister organization to Bluedot Living. The institute is a nonprofit dedicated to helping students hone their skills as climate leaders and communicators and supporting students and their teachers doing local, solution-oriented work that addresses the environment and climate change. Ethan is an active member of the Bluedot Institute’s virtual Monthly Firesides, where students plan events and actions for Earth Day and hear from inspiring speakers. He is also part of Bluedot Institute’s student journalism program, learning the craft of environmental reporting and writing.

Know of someone who should join the program? We’d love to hear from them. Find out more at bluedot-institute.org!

COURTESY OF VICKI RISKIN

The SBMS Environmental Action Group, including teachers Erin Finnegan (top left) and Erica Singer (top right).

Reducing Waste With Creative Reuse

By Explore Ecology

The average American creates 4.9 pounds of trash daily and 82 pounds of textile waste each year. How can we transition from a throwaway society to a regenerative one that repairs, repurposes, upcycles, and connects?

Turn Food Waste Into Treasure

In 34 Explore Ecology school gardens, students learn to close the loop on waste and grow food organically. Cafeteria scraps and green waste are added to worm bins and transformed into nutrient-rich vermicompost.

• Become a Worm Wrangler: It’s easy and fun to build a worm bin at home and make compost with the help of your local FBI: Fungi, Bacteria, and Invertebrates! Learn how at ExploreEcology.org/school-garden-program

• Compost Creatively: Use your vermicompost in garden beds, or make “tea” by adding a handful of compost to a bucket of water. Pour into the soil around plants to introduce beneficial organisms, improve water retention, and increase plant and soil health.

Be a Greener Gardener

• Water Wisely: Explore Ecology school gardens use drip irrigation to reduce water waste. Do the same and watch your plants thrive as your water bill decreases.

• Magical Mulch: Chop and drop as you prune and use trimmings, leaves, and other organic material to cover bare soil, keep moisture in, and minimize weeds.

• Save Seeds: Let some of your favorite plants go to seed. Start your own seed collection and trade your favorites with friends!

Consider a World-Friendly Wardrobe

• Mend Your Clothes, Mend the Planet: Learn how to repair, repurpose, and embellish your well-loved clothing at the Explore Ecology Makerspace monthly Sewing and Mending Club.

• Make Old Favorites New: Bring clothes back to vibrant life at an Explore Ecology natural dyeing workshop.

Composting and worm wrangling.

• Connect With a Clothes Swap: It’s fun to see friends and family wearing your stuff their way!

Sustainable Creativity

• Shop! Purchase your craft supplies at the Art From Scrap Creative Reuse Store and help divert thousands of pounds of material from local landfills yearly.

• Learn! Explore Ecology Makerspace workshops teach the art of creative reuse to artists of all ages. ExploreEcology.org/calendar

• Donate! Art From Scrap accepts materials that can be reused by community members and local classrooms as part of the School Materials Program.

Reducing waste while exploring the art of upcycling and creative reuse will positively impact your life, the community, and the planet!

With hundreds of thousands of student interactions every year, Explore Ecology educators impact the next generation in school gardens, in classrooms, and on field trips to the Watershed Resource Center and Art From Scrap. Not just for kids, Explore Ecology inspires all ages to express themselves creatively and participate in solutions to pollution. Explore Ecology is committed to inspiring a creative culture of environmental stewardship that will positively impact Santa Barbara County for years to come.

SADIE RUSHING

Ecoliteracy and Empowerment

By Owen Duncan, content specialist with the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History and Sea Center

How do you grow the next generation of environmental stewards? A good caretaker needs both an understanding of what they’re tending and confidence in their own ability to act. Based at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History (SBMNH) and Sea Center, Nature Adventures camps and classes offer kids prime locations for building their confidence in nature and feeding their hunger for knowledge.

“In 15 years of youth programming, I’m seeing kids’ anxiety going up,” says Nature Adventures Manager Clay Sipiora, M.S. “A lot of kids come in extremely afraid of making mistakes, getting dirty, and the unknown. In Nature Adventures, we give them a space where it’s safe for them to explore, try something new, take risks, and challenge themselves.”

and upcycling help kids understand the life cycles of everyday objects and how their own choices can affect the planet positively or negatively. “During summer camp, we make pots from upcycled paper, and we plant native seeds,” Clay explains. “We use soil that comes from our compost bin. The kids throw their leftovers in there, and they see how the decomposers break it down to eventually build soil.”

Witnessing the way nature works and turning their own hands to creative processes, the children learn they can conserve resources in a way that is connecting, rather than limiting. “They get excited about putting their hands in the dirt and having the experience of cultivating a life.”

One of the key sustainability themes in Nature Adventures is developing children’s understanding of where the things in their everyday lives come from. At the Sea Center, they learn about where our seafood comes from — living marine animals in the ecosystems they study. Bridging that common disconnect from our food sources is important to building an appreciation for life on the planet.

At the museum, crafts and activities that involve reusing

Every day in summer, the kids in the Sea Center camps go to the beach to play. East Beach — near the outflow of Mission Creek — is a perfect place to see how the local watershed connects to a vast, interconnected global ocean. They learn that by taking care of what’s close to us, we’re caring for what’s distant, too. “This summer, kids in our camps diverted hundreds of pounds of trash from the ocean,” Clay says. “They even found items that were too big to carry, so we taught them to use the city’s app to report it and extend their positive impact.”

LILY EFSTRATIS

COURTESY OF SBMNH AND SEA CENTER

How to Protect Area Birdlife

By Santa Barbara Audubon Society

Birds give us joy and are important to our ecosystem. Since 1963, Santa Barbara Audubon Society (SBAS) has been guided by our mission to protect birds, conserve bird habitat, and connect people with birds through education, conservation, and science. Some ways to partner with us in keeping the future bright for birds include:

See your pet through a bird’s eyes

Cats and dogs make wonderful pets, but to a bird, they are predators. Cats, even when well-fed, hunt and kill birds instinctively. A dog running through a flock of birds on the beach is perceived as a threat, causing birds to scatter. Migrating birds lose the opportunity to rest and feed so they can make it to their destination. Birds frightened off their nest leave chicks vulnerable to predators and the elements. To decrease these adverse impacts on bird populations, keep cats indoors and dogs on a leash. Stay on trails when out hiking with your dog.

Feed birds — or not

One question that Audubon.org encourages you to ask: “Is the food appropriate and safely provided?” If you choose bird feeders, they offer “the spread of viruses and parasites, a greater chance of window strikes, and increased vulnerability to cats and raptors. But if best practices have been followed, research shows that feeders may actually help birds to survive and reproduce.” Native plants are the healthiest food. Among the least healthy is bread, which has little nutritional value and can make birds sick.

Properly dispose of used fishing tackle

Discarded fishing line and hooks left in the environment can maim or kill birds, either through entanglement or ingestion. Fishing line is non-biodegradable and remains in the environment for years. Place discarded tackle in a lidded trash can (cut the line into pieces if possible) or recycle the fishing line at a monofilament recycling bin. Report entangled animals to a local wildlife rehabilitation center such as Santa Barbara Wildlife Care Network.

HELP US SOAR

SBAS was founded in 1963 when the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History’s Bird Study Group became an independent chapter of the National Audubon Society. SBAS engages the community through monthly programs, bird walks, field trips, classroom visits, and public presentations. Our iconic Eyes in the Sky program is the only licensed raptor education program in the county. Our rescued raptors live at our aviary at the Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History, where they delight visitors every day that the museum is open.

By applying knowledge gained through community and science, SBAS provides guidance and input on local projects that impact birds, working to ensure that laws protecting birds and bird habitat are honored. To accomplish this work, SBAS relies on chapter memberships, donations, and grants. And volunteers!

For information about what we do and how to help, go to SantaBarbaraAudubon.org.

Clark's grebe with chick.

Wood duck.

Snowy plovers.

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A HEALTHIER HOME = A HEALTHIER PLANET ONE WOMAN’S

Spring cleaning is the perfect time to incorporate choices that protect both the planet and one’s health.

Natural Haven makes it easy to do just that while transforming your home into a healthy, wellness-focused space. Through personalized consultations, Natural Haven helps individuals and families cultivate healthy, non-toxic home environments to support vibrant health.

Founder Karen Bloom guides clients through the process of detoxifying their homes by identifying unsafe products and recommending non-toxic alternatives to create living spaces that support their well-being. By making purchasing decisions that are better for the planet, people can also benefit their health. Natural Haven empowers their clients to create healthier homes through non-toxic product consulting in Santa Barbara and surrounding areas. The typical home often contains a surprising variety of toxins, like formaldehyde, PFAS, and flame retardants, that

can be hidden everywhere from cleaners, furniture, and children’s toys. Daily exposure to these toxins can overwhelm people’s natural detoxification process and cause adverse health effects, often contributing to chronic illnesses and autoimmune disorders. These chemicals also harm the environment, ending up in soil, water, air, and our food chain during manufacturing and disposal.

Bloom’s passion for non-toxic living was born from her experience as a consumer protection attorney, as well as the knowledge she gained from the personal experience of healing from a chronic illness (lyme disease and mold toxicity) that was made more manageable by lowering her daily toxic load.

To learn more about how to create a non-toxic living space and to schedule a complimentary 15-minute consultation, visit www.naturalhavensb.com.

Founder Karen Bloom Consumer Protection Attorney & Non-toxic Living Consultant

Your Guide to Green Resources

LOCAL RESOURCES

ADVOCACY: Contact elected officials and comment at public meetings. Get up-to-date contact information for officials, as well as calendars and agendas for public meetings, at countyofsb.org or your city’s website or city hall.

COMMUNITY ENVIRONMENTAL COUNCIL

(CEC): This nonprofit with more than 50 years of leadership on the Central Coast is working to reverse the climate crisis. This is a go-to hub for whatever you want to know about environmental policies, issues, programs, and more. cecsb.org

Taking bold measures to stop the climate crisis requires all of us - non-profit staff, professionals, recent college graduates, retirees, and community members - to work together. Anyone can be a Climate Steward. Join our groundswell of climate action today.

CEC’s Climate Stewards certification course is offered in April, September, and January.

ELECTRIFY YOUR LIFE: This CEC program gives guidance on tax credits and incentives for energyefficient upgrades and electric vehicle and e-bike purchases. Free to residents of Santa Barbara, San Luis Obispo, and Ventura counties in English and Spanish. Fill out an interest form at cecsb.org/electrify-your-life.

LAWN REBATE: Apply in advance through the City of Santa Barbara to get paid to remove your lawn. santabarbaraca.gov/lawnrebate

LIBRARY OF THINGS: The Santa Barbara Public Library offers an assortment of objects that you can borrow and then return. Want to try a new instrument? Go on a fishing trip? Bring binoculars on a hike? Borrow items and avoid buying things you may not use

again. 40 E. Anapamu St., Santa Barbara, library.santabarbaraca.gov/books-more/library-things

SUSTAINABILITY AND RESILIENCE

DEPARTMENT: The City of Santa Barbara is spearheading a range of sustainability initiatives, from promoting alternative transportation to investing in clean energy to implementing climate adaptation solutions. Find comprehensive information on projects and resources for taking action, sign up for news about programs and events, explore volunteer opportunities, and keep up to date on the latest waste services online. sustainability.santabarbaraca.gov

GREEN SHOPS AND SERVICES

EYE OF THE DAY GARDEN DESIGN CENTER:

Peruse a wide variety of garden decor that can be customized. By appointment only. 273 Bell St., Los Alamos; and 321 N. Aviador St., Camarillo. eyeofthedaygdc.com

GET HOOKED: This subscription offers delivery or pickup of local seafood that you can customize based on your taste and schedule. gethookedseafood.com

LA SUMIDA: This nursery and gift shop specializes in organic gardening. 165 S. Patterson Ave., Santa Barbara, lasumida.com

MATTRESS MIKE: This local shop features ecofriendly mattresses. 3845 State St., Santa Barbara, mattressmikesb.com

MISSION REFILL: Buy less wasteful products like bamboo straws and reusable paper towels, or choose from a selection of over 40 refillable products. 5733 Calle Real, Goleta, missionrefill.com

Proud to support access to Santa Barbara County's cherished natural spaces through our Conservation, Environment & Public Trails (CEPT) grant program

NATURAL HAVEN: Learn how to reduce toxins in your home with a customized consultation. naturalhavensb.com

SUNKISSED PANTRY: Find home essentials for everything from kitchen to beauty to pet products without single-use plastic packaging. 31 E. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara, sunkissedpantry.com

BUYING SECONDHAND

ANTIQUE ALLEY, antiques, 706 State St., Santa Barbara, antiquealleysb.com

BLUE DOOR, antiques, 4 E. Yanonali St., Santa Barbara, thebluedoorsb.com

CROSSROADS TRADING, thrift, 1025 State St., Santa Barbara, crossroadstrading.com

LOVEWORN, vintage, 11 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara, shoploveworn.com

MOVING MISS DAISY'S CONSIGNMENT & AUCTION HOUSE, consignment, 3845 State St., Santa Barbara, consignmentsbymmd.com

UNITY SHOPPE, thrift, 1209 State St., Santa Barbara, unityshoppe.org

SOLAR COMPANIES

BRIGHTEN SOLAR CO., brightensolarco.com

MAC’S SOLAR, macsolar.com

SUNRISE 805, sunrise805.com

TRANSPORTATION

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY ASSOCIATION OF GOVERNMENTS (SBCAG) TRANSPORTATION PROGRAMS: Find alternatives to driving alone, from electric buses to carpools, vanpools, and e-bike lending programs, and use the SmartRide app for trip planning. sbcag.org/projects/traveler-services

SANTA BARBARA’S ‘SEAFOOD CSA’ SINCE 2018

Get fresh, local seafood delivered to you Customizable with lots of variety and choice Start and stop delivery to fit your schedule

Reduce your carbon ‘foodprint’ Eat more seafood for your health Get recipes & cooking tips

Support a local, women-owned business Learn all about sustainable fisheries!

YOUR FIRST FILLET IS FREE! USE COUPON CODE INDY25

Introducing the MICKEY FLACKS JOURNALISM FUND FOR SOCIAL JUSTICE

A fund that directly supports the Santa Barbara Independent’s coverage of social justice and environmental issues.

To make a contribution visit sbcan.org/journalism_fund

To read articles supported by the Flacks Fund go to independent.com/mickeyflacks

SAM MOORE

MOVE SANTA BARBARA

COUNTY: This group advocates for equitable countywide infrastructure for walking, cycling, and public transit and empowers and educates residents to choose active and sustainable forms of transportation. movesbcounty.org

BCYCLE: Use this app-enabled e-bike share service. santabarbara.bcycle.com

BIKE SHOPS

BICI CENTRO COMMUNITY BIKE SHOPS, 434 Olive St., Santa Barbara; 310 E. Oak St., Santa Maria; Santa Barbara City College, 721 Cliff Dr., Santa Barbara, movesbcounty.org/community-bike-shops-bici-centro

BOOM BOOM BIKE ROOM, 1924 De La Vina St., Santa Barbara, boomboombikeroom.com

FASTRACK BICYCLES, 118 W. Canon Perdido St., Santa Barbara, fastrackbicycles.com

HAZARD’S CYCLESPORT, 110 Anacapa St., Santa Barbara, incycle.com/pages/retailer/hazards-cyclesport

ISLA VISTA BICYCLE BOUTIQUE, 880 Embarcadero del Mar, Isla Vista, islavistabicycles.com

OPEN AIR BICYCLES, 135 E. Carrillo St., Santa Barbara, openairbicycles.com

VELO PRO CYCLERY, 15 Hitchcock Way, Santa Barbara; 5887 Hollister Ave., Goleta, velopro.com

VOLUNTEERING

ACTIVISM

CITIZENS PLANNING ASSOCIATION: This organization advocates for sustainable urban

RANDI BAIRD

From Tots to Teens From Tots to Teens

comprehensive guide for our family-focused audience.

• shares personal stories of parents

• highlights kid-related businesses and services

• continues our award-winning coverage of issues that are important to families

• serves as a hub for our annual issues like Summer Camp Guide

• includes a children/family-focused event calendar

design and land use, as well as natural resource protection. As a volunteer, you can write letters to government officials, assist with clerical work, or be a Watchdog Leader of a project. citizensplanning.org

ENVIRONMENTAL DEFENSE CENTER:

This group takes legal action to protect the local environment. You can volunteer at the organization’s events and help with a range of administrative work. environmentaldefensecenter.org

BEACH CLEANUPS

HEAL THE OCEAN: If you want to host a beach cleanup, you can find resources here to help make it a success. healtheocean.org

SANTA BARBARA CHANNELKEEPER:

This nonprofit hosts at least four major cleanups each year. sbck.org

CONSERVATION

CHANNEL ISLANDS RESTORATION:

Collect native seeds, help remove invasive species, and maybe even be a sheep docent at the Channel Islands. cirweb.org

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY TRAILS COUNCIL:

Join the trail maintenance team or serve on an advisory committee for this organization, which advocates for trail access and improvements so nature lovers can enjoy the outdoors. sbtrails.org

YOUR CHILDREN’S TREES: This student-run nonprofit aims to restore local ecosystems by planting trees. Sign up for one of the many treeplanting events online. yourchildrenstreesatucsb.org

WILDLIFE

OJAI RAPTOR CENTER: This wildlife rehabilitation center offers volunteer opportunities to partake in animal care, wildlife transportation, educational programs, data entry, and much more. ojairaptorcenter.org

SANTA BARBARA AUDUBON SOCIETY:

Volunteer at the Eyes in the Sky program to participate in educational initiatives and care for birds. santabarbaraaudubon.org

FOOD DONATIONS

FOODBANK OF SANTA BARBARA COUNTY: Bring food in good condition. foodbanksbc.org

OTHER ORGANIZATIONS: Check out opportunities to help others and avoid food waste by donating food and scraps. lessismore.org

RECYCLING AND COMPOST

UPCYCLE TRASH

Donate or find secondhand items and supplies for artsand-crafts projects at Art From Scrap. 302 E. Cota St., Santa Barbara, exploreecology.org/art-from-scrap

BLUE BIN RECYCLING

Contents of blue bins are consolidated at various facilities, where they are sorted by material and processed for reuse. Among the items that can go in the blue bins are paper, glass, metal, #1 and #2 plastic bottles that once held liquid, and rigid #5 plastic containers that are gallon-sized or larger. Make sure everything is clean, dry, and not in a bag. To learn more about what can and cannot be recycled where you live, go to the county’s Less Is More website. lessismore.org

What about items not accepted in the blue bin?

BATTERIES: Put tape on the ends and place them in a sealed plastic bag on top of — not inside — your blue bin or in the orange buckets at apartment buildings. (This service is available for Marborg customers and does not apply to the cities of Carpinteria, Lompoc, or Santa Maria.) Batteries are also accepted at local hazardous waste facilities throughout the county.

CAN A DEGREE CHANGE THE WORLD?

At Antioch University, we believe it can. Because the right education doesn’t change you, it prepares you to create change that matters – for your career and your community.

We empower adult learners for career advancement and building a more just society through online, low-residency, and in-person degree programs. No matter who you are, or where you come from, Antioch can prepare you for where you want to go.

YOUR EDUCATION MATTERS. YOUR IMPACT WILL, TOO.

MORGAN COFFEE

You can purchase craft supplies at the Art From Scrap Creative ReUse Store and help divert unused materials from going to local landfills.

ELECTRONICS: Find a location near you at lessismore.org/electronics.

LIGHTS: Fluorescent bulbs and LEDs should be taken to your local hazardous waste facility. String and solar lights should be taken to your local electronic waste collection location. Incandescent light bulbs can be placed in the trash bin.

CARDBOARD PIZZA BOXES: Residents of the South Coast, Santa Ynez Valley, and Cuyama Valley can put these in the trash. They will be sorted out into compost at the ReSource Center. Residents of the Santa Maria and Lompoc valleys should place these in their green bins. Carpinteria residents should bag their pizza boxes along with food waste.

PLASTIC BAGS: To keep film plastics like shopping bags, bread bags, and Ziploc bags (just remove the zipper part) out of the trash, drop them off at Ablitt’s Fine Cleaners and Tailors (14 W. Gutierrez St., Santa Barbara) during one of their recycling events.

STYROFOAM: Bring to MarBorg in Goleta (20 David Love Place) or Santa Barbara (132 Nopalitos Way).

GREEN BIN COMPOSTING

Yard waste, such as grass clippings, small branches, leaves, and plants, go in the green bin in all of Santa Barbara County. Residents of the Lompoc and Santa Maria valleys may mix food scraps with yard waste (it’s composted and used in local agriculture), while residents of Santa Ynez Valley and the South Coast should put food scraps in the trash. Carpinteria residents may also put food scraps in the green bin, but they must be placed in plastic or paper bags first.

Mulch from green bin contents is available for free at South Coast Recycling and Transfer Station (4430 Calle Real, Santa Barbara) and Santa Ynez Valley Recycling and Transfer Station (4004 Foxen Canyon Road, Los Olivos).

Did you know? The Santa Barbara Zoo accepts certain plant clippings. sbzoo.org

TRASH BIN COMPOSTING

Residents of Santa Ynez Valley and the South Coast should put all food waste in the trash bins. The waste from the trash bins is then machine-sorted and put into an anaerobic digester at the ReSource Center. This generates methane, which is turned into renewable

Stacy and Ron Pulice

Tom and Susan Washing

Judy Hopkinson

Susan Rose

Mary Becker

Diane Boss

Natalie Orfalea

Wendy Schmidt

Martha Gabbert

The Gunther Family

Sara Miller McCune

Merryl and Chuck Zegar

John and Suzanne Steed

Rinaldo and Lalla Brutoco

Kath Lavidge and Ed McKinley

Dorothy Largay and Wayne Rosing

Miriam Muscarolas and Grand Abramson

BLUEDOT CIRCLE OF FRIENDS

With your help, we have been able to grow our movement to build a better tomorrow.

Special thanks to Montecito Bank and Trust and Riskin and Associates for your sponsorships.

electricity at a power plant, and the compost is then sold for use by homes, farms, and businesses. This is a great service for those who do not have a yard where they can make their own compost.

DIY HOME COMPOSTING

Composting your organic waste has multiple benefits, not least of which are the nutrient-rich compost you’ll have for your garden and a lower trash services bill. Keep in mind that the following organic materials shouldn’t go in your home compost bin: dairy

products, pet waste, produce treated with pesticides, oils and fats, and meat.

NEED A COMPOST BIN? Get a discounted Earth Machine composting bin at one of these locations:

• South Coast Recycling and Transfer Station (4430 Calle Real, Santa Barbara)

• Santa Ynez Valley Recycling and Transfer Station (4004 Foxen Canyon Road, Los Olivos)

• North County Public Works Building (620 W. Foster Road, Orcutt)

LEARN ABOUT BACKYARD COMPOSTING: Less Is More offers free workshops. lessismore.org

Support Us Today!

Photo by Sheny Leon

GROWING UP (TRAPPED)

recent visit to Arroyo Hondo was my first, but I found it to be unexpectedly familiar.

The creek-carved canyon, the vegetation and tall trees, the quiet, even the smells transported me back to the nearby Hollister Ranch, where I had lived as a teenager.

When I was 13, we moved “just for the summer” into the grand house built in Bulito Canyon for Jim and Lottie Hollister in 1910. It had been empty for 10 years, and to take ownership, all we had to do was clean it up — which took weeks of hard work by my five siblings

VISITING ARROYO HONDO IN NATURE

By Hilary Dole Klein

and me. My summer was ruined.

At a time when I desperately craved a social life, I found myself in the middle of nowhere, cut off by 30 miles of freeway, 12 miles of a bone-rattling, suffocatingly dusty road, and barbed wire gates. I hated that drive; I hated the ranch.

We stayed for 11 years.

My mother once said that for her, every day at the ranch was a new adventure. She brought the formal gardens back to life, tended the neglected fruit orchard, and dealt with endless water challenges and ranch politics.

I preferred my adventures to take place in books. While everyone else surfed and swam, hunted and fished, gathered abalone, rode horses, and went to brandings, I stayed in my room and read.

When I returned to the area to learn about the value of preserving it and its vital importance to scientists, naturalists, artists — and children — I couldn’t help regretting my stubborn lack of appreciation for the paradise that had once been mine to enjoy. That day at Arroyo Hondo, I saw the landscape of my past with new eyes.

At Arroyo Hondo, it’s still possible to get a glimpse of what California looked like when only the Chumash lived here 5,000 years ago. A canyon carved by the deep creek that gives it its name, Arroyo Hondo descends from towering sandstone cliffs down through oak canopies and meadows and passes under the freeway and rail trestle to the ocean.

With 782 acres owned and managed by The Land

Trust for Santa Barbara County, Arroyo Hondo boasts one of the most unique botanic regions in the U.S., rich in biodiversity and habitat for numerous plant and animal species, including endangered ones.

The preserve is open the first and third full weekends of the month, weather permitting Reservations are free and required. Docent-led nature hikes are offered on open Saturdays mornings. sblandtrust.org

Arroyo Hondo photo by Sam Moore