When it comes to combating stress, Carmel Valley’s Jacquelyn Schwartz has long turned to meditation. Now, with the launch of San Diego’s Balanced Mind Meditation Center, Schwartz hopes to share the benefits of meditation with others in the community. “It’s really exciting,” Schwartz said. “This...
The Solana Center introduced its Eco Container on opening day of the San Diego County Fair. The re-purposed shipping container, which has been transformed into a center for environmental innovation featuring solar energy, a greywater demo system, rain barrels, composting, drought-tolerant landscaping...
Raising bees, selling produce from a residential stand and starting a commercial farm just got easier in Encinitas. The Encinitas City Council on May 11 voted 3-2 to approve an agriculture ordinance after months of debate over the role of farming in the city’s increasingly suburban environment....
Are you ready for EcoFest Encinitas? Presented by North County Eco Alliance, it’s a celebration of community and green ways of living, and this year’s 10th annual event promises to be bigger and better than ever. The site is Coastal Roots Farm, a nonprofit community farm and education center on...
Doug Gibson has dedicated 20 years to conservation and education at the San Elijo Lagoon, earning him his own day. Friends, family and colleagues honored Gibson, the San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy’s executive director and principal scientist, with a surprise party on May 2 at Tower 13 in Cardiff....
It’s an inescapable reality: El Niño stripped away a lot of sand from local beaches this winter, leaving chattering cobblestones in its wake. Wide beaches protect infrastructure and attract beachgoers. So it begs the question — how much sand was lost? And will it return? To find answers, a city...
Officials on March 16 told the San Dieguito Water District board that local water supplies are safe and the area won’t experience a crisis like the one in Flint, Mich. Flint residents were exposed to unsafe levels of lead following a cost-cutting move to switch to a new water source. The corrosive...
The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department is exploring whether to purchase camera-toting drones for locating missing people, aiding SWAT teams and assessing raging wildfires. Lt. Jason Vickery said the Sheriff’s Department is in the early stages of getting feedback on drones, and if the agency...
Julian Duval is a native of the Chicago area, growing up under the influence of understanding parents and the area’s great zoos and botanical gardens. Upon graduation from high school, he became an animal keeper in the reptile house at Brookfield Zoo. Duval was employed for seven years at Brookfield...
In the latest in a string of recent improvements to its hospital campus, Scripps Memorial Hospital Encinitas has opened an expansion of its surgical services department. The enhancements include two new state-of-the-art operating rooms, bringing the hospital’s total to six. The project also brings...
Federal legislation to relocate spent nuclear fuel from the shuttered San Onofre power plant has the support of the Encinitas City Council. The Encinitas council on Jan. 27 voted unanimously to approve a resolution backing H.R. 3643, which would let the federal Department of Energy transfer spent...
Jennifer Jones held out a plastic cup of water to a visitor. The water was crystal clear and tasted fresh and pure, as if it had been poured from a bottle of spring water. There was nothing to suggest that as recently as one hour earlier, that water had been pulled from the ocean by powerful pumps....
It is with great excitement that I share the name of our newly seeded “Coastal Roots Farm,” a nonprofit education and community farm on about 20 acres of the Leichtag’s 67.5-acre property. The newly seeded farm consists of organic/biodynamic gardens, orchards, food forest, native plant hedgerows,...
Cal State San Marcos researchers have tapped behavioral sciences to help the Olivenhain Municipal Water District achieve state-mandated water cuts. University interns this summer handed out door hangers with five different conservation messages to 11,000 households in the district, and the researchers...
Native plants are needed to restore the San Elijo Lagoon Ecological Reserve, but many of them can’t be found commercially. That’s where the new San Elijo Nursery, one of the few of its kind in Southern California, comes in. San Elijo Lagoon Conservancy officials and donors on Oct. 21 cut the ribbon...
Encinitas could ban glyphosates, a common herbicide linked to potential health problems, from being sprayed on city parks and property. The Encinitas Parks and Recreation Commission on Oct. 20 voted 4-0 in favor of including glyphosate in the city’s do-not-use chemical list. In the next month or...
Vice chair Brian Grover advocates for bike and walking infrastructure, which seems inappropriate to fellow member
An oil painting honoring first responders who died in the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks is making its way through San Diego County fire stations. Its first stop: Cardiff. Wendy Moldow, a resident of Cardiff, gifted the artwork, titled “9/11 Tribute…We’ll Never Forget,” to firefighters this past...
The Encinitas City Council on Sept. 9 unanimously backed an ordinance that would regulate sober living homes for recovering addicts. But it remains to be seen whether the new rules will take effect. Before giving final approval on the ordinance, Encinitas is watching what happens in Costa Mesa,...
The Encinitas Planning Commission on Aug. 20 said a proposed urban agriculture ordinance that would relax livestock buffers and permits leaves too many questions unanswered. After hearing more than an hour of public testimony from those for and against easing city agriculture rules, the planning...
Work group would look at growing Community Choice Aggregation movement, which buys directly from providers
Looking to rent a wooden planter box at the Encinitas Community Garden? Now is the time. This week, garden organizers announced plot prices and that they’re taking rental applications at encinitascommunitygarden.org. Last month, the community garden, at 441 Quail Gardens Drive, broke ground after...
Promoting "hands-only CPR," first responder agencies in the San Diego County Service Area 17 — Del Mar Fire Department, Encinitas Fire Department, Rancho Santa Fe Fire Protection District, and Solana Beach Fire Department — and ambulance service provider American Medical Response, are striving...
The Leichtag Foundation is growing food and harvesting sunshine. The Leichtag Foundation property in Encinitas has installed a solar photovoltaic system to provide 100 percent of the energy required for the operations of Leichtag Foundation and its developing farm. “Energy, how we make it and how...
Insecticide cited in declining bee population no longer sprayed on city property
Draft plans to slow down traffic on Saxony Road and Quail Gardens Drive — between Leucadia Boulevard and Encinitas Boulevard — were rolled out during a May 14 workshop at the Leichtag Foundation site. Transportation firm Fehr & Peers distilled community suggestions from an April workshop into maps...