It was Earth Day, and Foster was busy managing two festival booths – one for Terra Nova and the other for Conservation International. His friend gave him a trailer made from recycled bike frames for transporting his materials to the booths. Immediately recognizing the potential, Foster, a long-time cyclist himself, cleaned up and painted the bike trailer.
After meeting a bike trailer manufacturer at a Santa Cruz hearing on the establishment of bike lanes, Foster commissioned him to increase his fleet. Thus, what Santa Cruz residents now know as ‘The Bicycle Landscaping Company’ was born.
Although Terra Nova used to have a regular pickup truck, it has since sold it and employed mountain bikes with detachable trailers, quadracycles with truck beds, and a biodiesel-powered vehicle.
Terra Nova has five garages and storage units across the city to make transportation without motor vehicles feasible.
“Bicycles are one of the more elegant forms of transportation on the planet – second maybe to walking,” Foster jokes.
He also likes to minimize using equipment that contributes to air and noise pollution. “I used to have a backpack blower and I sold it,” he recalls. “That was a great day.” Foster and his crew use hand shears, rakes and brooms in lieu of electric hedge trimmers and blowers, although a battery-powered lawnmower is used when necessary.