Agriculture/Food System – Enviro Updates

SuzanneApril 18, 2025April 20, 2025Agriculture/Food System, Water, WildlifeCoyote Dam, endangered species, Lake Mendocino, Potter Valley diversion, salmonids, sediment, water supply

New momentum in decades-long quest to upgrade Lake Mendocino’s Coyote Valley Dam

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

With $500,000 secured by Rep. Huffman, officials have launched a study that could result in raising the level of the 67-year-old earthen dam impounding Lake Mendocino.

Striding along the southern edge of Lake Mendocino last week, Rep. Jared Huffman spotted a bald eagle soaring 150 feet above, a fish in its talons.

An avid angler himself, Huffman then pointed to a nearby stand of partly submerged trees — prime bass habitat, he noted.

If he had a rod, said Huffman, the ranking member of the House Committee on Natural Resources, “I would be casting right into that.”

But the congressman, along with a group of local officials, tribal leaders, and members of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, had work to do.

The group had gathered last Friday to sign an agreement geared to deliver significant future upgrades to the 67-year-old Coyote Valley Dam, which impounds Lake Mendocino, a reservoir providing flood control for nearby Ukiah, and other communities.

SuzanneApril 12, 2025April 14, 2025Agriculture/Food System, Habitats, Land Use, Wildlifedairies, National Park Service, Point Reyes National Seashore, ranching, tule elk, water pollution

Rep. Jared Huffman says House investigation of Point Reyes ranching deal driven by ‘partisan opportunists’

John Beck, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Jared Huffman weighs in on the House committee investigation launched by Republicans and the clouded future of the settlement to end most seashore ranching.

When Rep. Jared Huffman was named the ranking Democrat on the House Committee on Natural Resources in December, he summoned a sports analogy to describe how he might face challenges down the road. “I believe we are better prepared than ever to tackle what lies ahead next Congress,” he said. “This is a team sport, and I am excited and ready to lead this team.”

But this past week, he learned that in committee politics, like in sports, there are trick plays you never see coming. Not long after waking up Thursday morning, Huffman, D-San Rafael, said he was blindsided by the announcement of a sweeping investigation into the controversial deal to end most ranching in Point Reyes.

Launched by committee chairman Bruce Westerman, a Republican former football player from Arkansas, it was a partisan shot fired directly into Huffman’s own backyard. An attempt to wrestle control of the 71,000-acre park that has been the focus of intense debate, it will likely prolong a battle many thought had finally been resolved — love it or hate it — after The Nature Conservancy brokered a deal to pay ranchers on 12 out of 14 Point Reyes farms around $30 million to leave the leased land their families had been farming long before the peninsula became a national park in 1963. The agreement, announced Jan. 8, in the final weeks of the Biden administration, was embraced by all parties involved in several years of closed-door mediation, including the three environmental groups that had sued the park in 2022, alleging environmental violations by the ranches.

SuzanneJanuary 8, 2025January 15, 2025Agriculture/Food System, Habitats, Land Use, Wildlifedairy ranches, Point Reyes National Seashore, tule elk

Deal announced to end most ranching in Point Reyes National Seashore

John Beck, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

Nearly three years after environmental groups sued the National Park Service, most of the ranches in Point Reyes National Seashore have agreed to shut down and stop farming as part of a landmark settlement, the park announced late Wednesday.

The park will phase out farming at 12 out of 14 ranches operating within the seashore over a period of 15 months, said park spokesperson Melanie Gunn. Two other ranches are seeking to continue under new long-term lease extensions, she said.

The deal was brokered by The Nature Conservancy in closed-door talks involving the ranches, the environmental groups and the park service.

SuzanneSeptember 19, 2024September 23, 2024Agriculture/Food System, Habitats, Sonoma Coast, Wildlifecrab season, Dungeness crab, whale entanglement, whales

A handful of crab boats experimented with a new gear. Can it keep whales from being entangled?

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A trial of innovative crab fishing gear designed to reduce whale entanglements is being hailed as a resounding success that should advance widespread use of the new technology off the California coast sometime soon.

But the reception to the trial and reports of its success have opened a window into profound conflict within the Dungeness crab fleet over the future of the industry, the squeeze of government regulations, and mistrust of the technology and those who promote it.

Battered economically by shortened crab seasons for six years and the total closure of king salmon seasons for two years running — many fish for both — commercial crabbers are at once desperate for more opportunities to fish and eager to reclaim some control over their livelihoods.

They have largely resisted the idea of so-called pop-up gear, citing the expense of converting their equipment, doubts about its reliability and concerns that failures and unintended consequences could actually lead to more whale entanglements.

Nineteen commercial crabbing boats participated in the largest experiment to date, fishing with “ropeless” gear from April 9 through June 30, when most of the fleet was shut out of the crabbing grounds because of concerns about ensnaring marine animals.

SuzanneJuly 23, 2024July 30, 2024Agriculture/Food System, Climate Change & Energy, Forests, Habitats, Sustainable Living, Wildlifebiodiversity, California proposition, climate action, parks funding, recreation, salmon, water

A look at the $10B climate bond (Prop. 4) California voters will decide on in November

Manola Secaira, CAPRADIO

In November, California voters will decide whether to approve of a bond that would fund state climate initiatives.

Proposition 4 on Ballotpedia

Legislators announced the $10 billion bond will appear on the November ballot as Proposition 4 earlier this month. Dozens of environmental groups advocated for it, especially in light of state budget cuts made earlier in the year that impacted climate programs.
Fred Greaves for CalMatters
Big cuts, no new taxes: Gov. Newsom’s plan to fix California’s budget deficit

Many advocates are optimistic voters will approve of the bond, citing a PPIC survey published earlier this month that found 59% of California voters would likely vote “yes.”

Assembly member Lori Wilson was one of the legislators who introduced the measure. Before it came together, she said she’d been working to introduce a bond measure that would focus on agriculture. But she and other legislators eventually decided they’d see a better chance of success if they pooled their bond proposals.

“Once we started to see the cost of inflation, just the impact that the voters were feeling, we knew there really wasn’t an appetite for multiple bonds on the ballot and there would have to be consolidation,” Wilson said.

The bond would be paid off by California’s general fund, which is supported, for the most part, by tax revenue. The state’s legislative analyst’s office says the estimated cost to repay the bond would be $400 million a year over the course of 40 years.

Supporters say the bond would provide much-needed funds to accomplish California’s ambitious environmental goals, like its commitment to conserving 6 million acres of land by 2030.

SuzanneMay 13, 2024May 14, 2024Agriculture/Food System, Sustainable LivingCAFO, cows, dairies, factory farming, humane animal treatment, poultry, water quality

Number of Sonoma County farms affected by proposed ‘factory farming’ ordinance is in dispute

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Sometime this year, an initiative aiming to curtail factory farming will appear on local ballots. Its authors frame it as a ban on cruel and unsanitary industrial farms. The local agricultural industry calls it a backdoor attack on the consumption of meat.

The ballot measure, which would be the first of its kind in any American county, raises huge questions relating to financial cost, regulation and Sonoma County’s appetite for animal flesh. The Board of Supervisors will listen to presentations from department heads on the potential economic fallout Tuesday.

For now, the two sides are at odds over a seemingly simple question: How many Sonoma County farms would be directly affected if the measure passes?

Six months ago, Sonoma County Farm Bureau Executive Director Dayna Ghirardelli said on KRSH Radio’s “From Farm to Table” show that it would affect “most of our local dairy and poultry operations.”

SuzanneMay 11, 2024May 14, 2024Agriculture/Food Systemgrazing, holistic planned grazing, sheep, transhumance

Dozens of sheep take to Petaluma streets on Saturday during annual Transhumance Festival

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

As livestock drives go, this one was … different.

Pushed by ranchers on a quad, and kept in line by a pair of highly concerned dogs, a flock of about 65 sheep mobbed down urban East D Street in Petaluma on Saturday morning. They scooted in front of houses, parked cars and spectators — some delighted, some perplexed — and past an out-of-session day care center, the offices of the Burdell Building and Willibee’s Wine & Spirits.

The woolly animals started inside a small pen at the Sonoma-Marin Fairgrounds and wound up at Steamer Landing, where they joined about 600 of their brethren that were already feasting on grasses at the park.

This was the sixth annual Transhumance Festival in Petaluma — “transhumance” refers to seasonal movement of livestock between mountain and lowland pastures — but the first since Petaluma launched a citywide grazing program in partnership with Two Rock Land Management last year.

“We hope to see this implemented in the rest of our county cities,” said Sarah Keiser, who helps the city with coordination, planning and management of the grazing program. “Regional Parks and some county sites do grazing, but Petaluma is the only city. Community members love it. It’s a really great experience for everyone to see this happening, and watch how it transitions our landscape.”

SuzanneApril 22, 2024Agriculture/Food Systemglyphosate, Roundup, sustainable agriculture, vineyards

Napa Green’s glyphosate ban underscores controversy behind Sonoma County’s ‘certified sustainable’ vineyards

Sarah Doyle, PRESS DEMOCRAT

95% of Sonoma County’s Vineyards are certified-sustainable. Here’s why that’s controversial.

When Napa Green announced it would require its members to phase out the herbicide Roundup by 2026, some wondered if the move signaled broader wine industry change.

The announcement came last November from the Napa-based nonprofit, which provides sustainable winegrowing certification to vineyards in Napa Valley.

In California’s wine industry, Napa Green’s move to phase out Roundup (and glufosinate ammonium by 2028) was seen as a breakthrough.

It is the first sustainability certification specifically for U.S. vineyards to regulate the herbicide, though other organizations, such as the California Certified Organic Farmers, Regenerative Organic Alliance and Demeter Biodynamic, also prohibit Roundup across other areas of agriculture.

But other wine organizations have yet to follow suit.

SuzanneJanuary 28, 2024January 30, 2024Agriculture/Food System, Sustainable Livingcompost, composting facilities, food waste, methane, yard waste

Sonoma County may have a new commercial composting site at the county airport

Mary Callahan, THE PRESS DEMOCRAT

About 100,000 tons of green waste have been hauled out of county since Sonoma County’s last centralized compost facility closed in 2015.

A yearslong search for a new site to process much of Sonoma County’s yard and food waste may finally be over, potentially ending the need to haul almost 100,000 tons of organic materials to neighboring counties for composting each year.

Officials are now exploring the possibility of using a small piece of county-owned land in Windsor adjacent to the Sonoma County-Charles M. Schulz Airport to collect and compost green bin materials and commercial food waste to produce organic soil amendments in high demand by the local agricultural community.

The roughly 15-acre site at 5200 Slusser Rd. is part of a one-time county landfill decommissioned in 1971 and covered over with 9 feet of compacted soil.

Though its conversion to a commercial composting facility is still years off, an initial feasibility study of the site determined in 2022 there were no disqualifying physical or environmental hurdles.

If successful, selection of the site would put an end to a string of bad luck that has plagued local officials and their partners in providing a destination for organic waste just as an aggressive push is underway to keep as much as possible out of landfills, where they contribute to planet-warming greenhouse gases.

SuzanneAugust 3, 2023August 3, 2023Agriculture/Food System, Water, Wildlifeendangered species, erosion, North Coast Regional Water Quality Board, Russian River, sediment, vineyards, water quality, wine industry

Sonoma, Mendocino County grape growers battling new rules designed to reduce sediment, pesticides in local waterways

Mary Callahan, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A new program targeting 1,500 commercial grape growers in Sonoma and Mendocino counties and designed to improve water quality in local creeks and rivers is drawing criticism from members of the agricultural community.

The draft rules include reporting requirements, annual fees, well and groundwater monitoring, ground cover requirements and restrictions on wintertime operations that growers deem excessive.

Vineyard operators and agricultural representatives say the costs and mandates are overkill for an industry that is already working to reduce sediment runoff into waterways and protect fish habitats.

Small growers are especially likely to suffer because “their margins are really small, and the proposed permit is going to create costs that are significant to them,” said Robin Bartholow, deputy executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau.

But staff of the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board say the soil disturbance and chemical use in many vineyards, as well as potential disruption of riparian plants needed to shade fish habitat, can degrade water quality in creeks and rivers.

Environmental Center of Sonoma County

Category: Agriculture/Food System