March 2014

Mother Nature Does Her Thing, Even with a Record Breaking Drought In spite of what is shaping up as yet another drought year, More Mesa is green and blooming. In one short walk we spotted Poppies, California Brittlebush, Blue-eyed Grass, Redmaids, Owl’s Clover and Miniature Lupine. Many of these were in profusion and all a…

California is in a state of “Extreme Drought”, with 2014 being the driest year since 1895, 119 years ago! But, in spite of this disastrous condition, one can still observe some native wildflowers in bloom on More Mesa. For example, Deerweed, which normally blooms from March to October, has been in flower constantly for more than a year. Heavily…

EARTH DAY In spite of threatening weather and competing events in downtown Santa Barbara, more than 400 people visited the More Mesa Preservation Coalition booth on Earth Day. A large fraction of these folks sought us out … to offer congratulations on the recent Coastal Commission decision (for a full hearing on the Hacienda Vieja…

Many of you may remember the long and protracted campaign concerning the Hacienda Vieja Project.  From 2004 to 2006, the More Mesa Preservation Coalition fought through all the public processes to ensure that this development was appropriate for More Mesa.  We were deeply concerned about the size, bulk and scale of the proposed structures, as…

You may remember that a fire broke out on More Mesa in mid-summer of last year  (August 2007 News) Since last September, MMPC has routinely been monitoring the five acre burn area. Specifically, we were interested to see how both native plants, as well as invasive plants, were recovering, or colonizing, after the fire.  Twice…