Environment 9-25

The Community Environmental Council announced last week a new program to promote public transportation. Dubbed Green Rides 2 School, the program was introduced at area high schools and junior high schools, and aims to connect students who normally get rides from friends and parents to something more environmentally friendly-subsidized public transit. Currently, only 15 percent of California’s schoolchildren ride buses.

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On 9/24, the U.S. Forest Service began hydromulching areas of Los Padres National Forest burned by the Gap Fire in an effort to stabilize land denused by vegetation. (See Ray Ford’s story on page 27.) The soil-binding material will be applied by aircraft over 1,531 acres at a cost of $4.8 million, $70,000 of which the Santa Barbara City Council voted on 9/23 to contribute.