Crews hired by Santa Barbara City clean up a beach after a storm swept a number of private boats ashore in the night. Both tourism and pollution are hot-botton issues in the city - owners are sometimes given just 24 hours ro salvage their craft before the wreckers are called in. Although leniency has been shown to those who can't afford salvage, it is yet another controversial 'environmental' topic.

The Western Snowy Plover (Charadrius alexandrinus nivosus) is a small shorebird on the Endangered Species List. Under pressure due to human recreation because, their need to nest in open sand just above the high tide mark, means the birds enjoy access to few of their original breeding grounds. Thanks to conservation work done at Coal Oil Point Reserve in Santa Barbara however, Sands Beach has not only remained open to the public, but has beome one of the most prolific breeding sites on the West coast, with an average of forty chicks fledging every season for the last five years.

Tide, weather and time ... a few feathers lie between a few grassy stalks not far from a more permanent seastack on a southern Oregon beach.