Glad to have you at Wednesday’s News Digest:
UC Davis is America’s “coolest school,” says Sierra Magazine because of its climate change initiatives, including a student-run transit line, bike-friendly transportation, and the reuse of 70 percent of campus trash. Stanford University comes in third. [Sacramento Bee]
Reservoirs in the West are drying up, and apparently evaporation is just as much a cause as water use. A proposal to apply a “chemical skin” to water supplies with a layer of vegetable oil is gaining traction. But sealing the surface of water would prevent oxygen exchange that could be deadly to fish and other marine life, not to mention potentially many other impacts on wildlife. [New York Times, Green Blog]
California is getting $11 million in federal grants to protect wildlife and acquire habitat. Among the recipients of the funds, an outgrowth of the Endangered Species Act, is the Bay Delta Conservation Plan which will receive more than $600,000 to help complete a habitat conservation plan. [Sacramento Bee]
Blame the fog and the cold? Just 0.0008% of the 60,000 people who attended Outside Lands turned up for the music event’s Ocean Beach cleanup. That’s 50 people, and they were all neighborhood residents, so the beach was their backyard. Let’s hope for better next year. [SF Appeal]
A second California sea lion has been found with a gunshot wound. Whirlybird, which was found near Corcoran Lagoon blinded with metal fragments in the face, is now hanging out with another gunshot victim, Old Ray, at the Marine Mammal Center in Sausalito. Staff believe they were both victims of conflicts with fishermen who were trying to protect their catch. [San Jose Mercury News]
Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco has added a new fruit orchard to its on-site garden and farm, thanks to a Dreyers’ ice cream grant made possible by 34,000 votes in a nationwide contest. The orchard will help the hospital provide homegrown food to its patients. [San Francisco Examiner]
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