Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteAs the world struggled with COVID-19 and its various complications, the Santa Cruz Mountains faced yet another life-threatening obstacle in August 2020: the CZU Lightning Complex Fire. The fire forced mountain residents to evacuate their homes and scatter to all corners of the country. In the wake of displacement, fear, and uncertainty, Jo Romaniello, a marriage and family therapist, created a Facebook group in September 2020 as a haven for the people of Boulder Creek to share their stories.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteAfter the fire settled and made its mark in history, our community regained some remnants of normality and confidence as the trees and residents took precious time to heal and prepare for the winter. What seemed like a light rainy season, however, took a sharp turn towards the unexpected. Last week a raging wind ripped branches from their trees and knocked down power lines, slammed trees into the roads, and swept miscellaneous items to other parts of neighborhoods. Thousands of Santa Cruz Mountains residents were left without power, internet, and phone service for nearly a week.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteOver the past few months, residents of the San Lorenzo Valley trickled back to the mountains, returning to piles of ash, scorched trees, and the air thick with the scarring smell of fire. While people grieved for the devastated homes and charred forest, they also celebrated the surviving homes and quick regrowth of vegetation. With wounds barely healed, mountain members now face a new and unexpected danger.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteAround the world, murals contribute to the Black Lives Matter movement as performative statements, but they can hold much more power than that. Abi Mustapha, Taylor Reinhold, and Sean McGowen united their creative forces to lead an equity initiative in the heart of Santa Cruz County.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteDue to COVID-19’s incessant determination, the “temporary” closures of businesses seem to be looming towards more permanent closures, creating local devastation across the Santa Cruz Mountains. The Bigfoot Discovery Museum is one those wounded businesses during the ongoing, pandemic-imposed closure. Michael states that the museum faces extinction and, he needs the community’s help to preserve its unique display of the weird.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteOn Tuesday, July 14th, the locally owned Wylder Space opened its doors to the Santa Cruz Mountains community, inviting food lovers to gather together in a creatively-driven restaurant. The owner (Molly Bravo) began as a private chef in 2004, passionately working her way through different fields of the food industry before sowing her creative seeds off Hwy 9 in Felton.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteFrom full-time work to full-time rest, anxiety and isolation promptly made the human race their full-time job. To combat these mental atrocities during the coronavirus quarantine, people rose up to connect with their creative side.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteThe events of Saturday, June 6th reverberated across the Santa Cruz Mountains with waves of fear. Amid the chaos, three strangers set aside their fears and risked their lives for the greater community to detain a shooter blasting through the Boulder Creek and Ben Lomond areas.

Read Time ↠ < 1 minuteAs we say goodbye to autumnal weather and welcome the chilling December, our beloved Santa Cruz Mountains echo with the songs of birds, dance in the blusterous wind, and turn misty in the riveting winter downpours. The brilliantly colored scenery and earthly aromas of the dampened Redwood forests lure in adventurous rain-hikers, photographers, and foragers to soak up the beauty of awakening nature.