Our Earth Day roundup of environmental stories on the American Riviera shows new progress and old battles.
Earth Day is a fitting time to reflect on the progress made in the last year here in what many regard as paradise, the place where Earth Day was born out of a catastrophic oil spill 55 years ago. So here’s a non-exhaustive list of green news for the last 12 calendar pages.
Ocean
- Santa Barbara Fisherman Chris Goldblatt founded the Fish Reef Project in 2011 to replenish depleted reef habitat on the Central Coast and around the world. One key ingredient is kelp, which has been declining up and down the California coast, and needs to anchor to a hard, rocky surface on the seafloor. Goldblatt and the Fish Reef Project have been installing “sea caves” (igloo-like concrete structures) around the globe for the past few years, and in March plopped 15 into Goleta Bay to begin the nonprofit’s five-year Goleta Kelp Reef Restoration Project.
- Starting Jan. 1, a new agreement between fishermen and conservationists opened up 4,500 square miles of cowcod fishing, while simultaneously protecting 600 square miles of the most fragile and diverse deep sea corals off Southern California. Eight areas are now closed to all groundfish fishing gear to protect the living seafloor, but after 20 years of closure for species recovery, recreation and commercial fishermen can now fish cowcod using non-trawl methods.
Land
- Plans for a 99-room “farmhouse resort” on the Carpinteria Bluffs that includes open space, habitat restoration, 40 units of affordable housing, and walking trails for the public failed to impress local residents in January.
- Over the last year, Santa Barbara County has been replacing invasive ice plant with a selection of native plants at East Beach.
- Construction on the 101 in Montecito began in June, and will continue through 2026 to improve flow and safety in the confined stretch. Unfortunately, widening highways doesn’t usually result in less traffic delay. Really.
- Los Padres National Forest Rangers began clearing brush in November for a “fuel break” in the Camino Cielo area, to reduce the threat to homes from wildfires. Local residents were not psyched. Neither was the Los Padres Forest Watch, which points out that these denuded areas attract invasive species. The Forest Watch also appealed a USFS tree-thinning plan on Pine Mountain.
- In December, the county and its landfill operator MSB Investors parted ways over chaos at the Tajiguas landfill, which was intended to be a high-end facility, separating organics, recycling, and trash, and creating renewable gas. But problems have led to the county seeking to expand the landfill by over 14 acres.
The state’s last oil piers were removed from Goleta in June. But the oil industry’s long goodbye to Santa Barbara got longer in February when county officials approved a test oil-and-gas well on private North Fork Ranch in Cuyama Valley.
Energy and Climate
- In June, Climate Program Manager Garrett Wong said the county is going to have a tough time meeting the 50% reduction of CO2 emissions by 2030 (from 2018 levels) in its Energy and Climate Action Plan, but the supervisors kept the target and will study the costs. Half of Santa Barbara emissions are from vehicles.
- In February, ExxonMobil dropped its quest to truck oil through Santa Barbara in its bid to restart three shuttered oil platforms off Gaviota. (The feds said they would like them totally removed, even though they provide some marine habitat.) The state’s last oil piers were also removed from Goleta in June. But the oil industry’s long goodbye to Santa Barbara got longer in February when county officials approved a test oil-and-gas well on private North Fork Ranch in Cuyama Valley.
Water
- A couple of wet winters filled reservoirs throughout California, and brought the whole state out of drought. The outlook is less bright underground as Santa Barbara County’s groundwater basins remain depleted, as the state requires better groundwater planning. There’s even a modern-day water war brewing in the Cuyama Valley over aggressive carrot farms.
- In October, the six steel ring nets installed across three Montecito creeks in the wake of the deadly debris flows in 2018 were removed due to squabbles over maintenance funding, environmental impact, and efficacy.
- In February, a hole in a 24-inch sewage pipe allowed over a million gallons of sewage to flow into Goleta Slough and then the ocean, closing beaches for days. Another million-plus-gallon sewage overflow, into Oak Creek and onto Miramar Beach, happened that same week.
Nature
- Last spring botanists from the Santa Barbara Botanic Garden and the California Native Plant Society rediscovered a rare native California plant species, the Santa Ynez groundstar (Ancistrocarphus keilii) at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The plant was last seen in 1995, and blooms between March and April annually, but you’d be hard-pressed to see it as the whole plant is about the size of a dime.
- In September, a unlucky-then-lucky sea lion had a knife removed from its face by a clever volunteer with the Channel Islands Marine & Wildlife Institute (CIMWI), who used a long pole and some careful maneuvering to remove the weapon from the snout of the pinniped at Channel Islands Harbor. No one knows where, when, or why the 400-pound animal was stabbed, but he was expected to make a full recovery.
- Caltrans earmarked $8 million for a wildlife crossing under the 101 in Gaviota, which could save hundreds of animals a year and keep drivers safer.
- Monarch butterflies had a pretty good year at Ellwood Mesa, despite a downward trend overall.
Looking back on a year of environmental news reinforces how important the natural environment, especially the ocean, is to Santa Barbarans. And how hard it’s worth fighting to protect it.
