Environmental advocates have spent decades working to connect the Santa Ana Mountains to the South Coast Wilderness so wildlife can have enough space to travel and maintain healthy populations.

Communities will welcome the Year of the Snake on Jan. 29, but the celebrations will carry on over several days.

With a wide array of family-friendly amenities and attractions, the 500-acre Great Park in Irvine more than lives up to its name. This public park, the repurposed site of a former air station ...