The trees at the Ellwood Mesa preserve have been dying off, and the California Monarchs are following suit. Santa Barbara’s newest poet laureate talks about her two year tenure and her quest to take poetry from the university to the streets. And first it was helicopter moms, now it’s lawnmower parents.

The city of Santa Barbara gets a state grant to try and help the roughly 900 people who are homeless in the city. Old Town Goleta has a reputation for being pretty sleepy. Can a booming beverage industry pour some life into the area? Bakers in Santa Barbara are going to extremes to make the perfect tartine loaf. And as we head into spring, one local nonprofit prepares to receive thousands of wild baby animals in distress.

An investigation by the Ventura County Fire Department says power lines owned by Southern California Edison started the Thomas Fire. The debate continues over whether or not the county should approve new onshore oil drilling near Santa Maria. And hundreds of ultramarathoners will descend on the Los Padres Mountains this weekend for the Nine Trails Race.

Birds are chirping, creeks are flowing and wildflower buds are beginning to pop up and down the Central Coast. A landscape architect who understands the complicated and delicate nature of creating public memorials offers advice to Montecito. And neuroscientists from UC Santa Barbara have developed a new theory that helps explain why some people drink too much.

A new Crisis Intervention Team in Santa Barbara County pairs a sheriff’s deputy with a mental health specialist. Photographer James Balog explains the massive impact humans are having on the elements. And KCRW tours Santa Barbara's largest landfill, which is nearing capacity.

Confidential records detailing police misconduct and use force are on the verge of becoming public in California, but the union representing Ventura’s sheriff's deputies is pushing back. There’s a new executive director at the Santa Barbara Museum of Contemporary Art, and her first exhibit feels like walking through a car wash. And the Goleta Chamber of Commerce wants to freshen up Old Town, but a number of property owners are worried they won’t stop there.

The president of Santa Barbara City College announces his retirement as students fume about how he handled disputes over race and gender. A local historian walks through a 4-mile-long tunnel below the Santa Ynez mountains to learn about Santa Barbara's complicated history with water. And the Santa Barbara City Council selected 32-year-old Meagan Harmon to represent the downtown district.

Tensions flare in the town of Carpinteria over the smell of pot. A local air traffic controller, who went without pay during the government shutdown, reflects after attending the State of the Union Address. And a new documentary highlights Santa Barbara’s global influence in the world of surfing.

The debate over gun control and gun shows heats up in Thousands Oaks after the Borderline shooting. A new documentary tells the controversial story behind a park that was once a cemetery in Ventura. And a rising Chicano musician returns home to Oxnard to support the local music scene.

Southern California’s largest utility company is suing Santa Barbara County for failing to prepare for last winter’s deadly debris flows. Award-winning author George Saunders believes fiction can help bring the country back together. And it’s been 50 years since an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara spilled 3 million gallons of crude oil into the Pacific and brought the environmental movement to the nation’s consciousness.