Enviro Updates

SuzanneJune 17, 2025June 18, 2025Sustainable Livingfire resilience, goats

Why more than 1,000 goats are working for Santa Rosa this fire season

Madison Smalstig, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The Santa Rosa Fire Department has brought in some unusual help this summer: more than 1,000 goats — and possibly some sheep.

The animals, hired through two contractors, began work June 8 and are expected to munch through about 130 acres of dry grass and weeds across eight city sites. The contractors — Goats R Us of Orinda and CAPRA Environmental Services of Roseville — will manage the herds as they move through the properties.

The “grazing team” will target areas that typically meet city fire maintenance standards but are difficult to clear using equipment because of rocky terrain or steep slopes.

In Upper Brush Creek Park, for example, city crews would normally cut a 30-foot fuel break around the perimeter but leave the hilly interior untouched, Santa Rosa Division Chief Fire Marshal Paul Lowenthal said.

SuzanneJune 15, 2025June 18, 2025Sustainable Livingfire danger, fire resistant, house hardening, vegetation management

Op-Ed: Banning plants near homes could aggravate fire risk

Max Moritz and Luca Carmignani, LOS ANGELES TIMES

One of the most striking patterns in the aftermath of many urban fires is how much unburned green vegetation remains amid the wreckage of burned neighborhoods.

In some cases, a row of shrubs may be all that separates a surviving house from one that burned just a few feet away.

As scientists who study how vegetation ignites and burns, we aren’t surprised by these images: We recognize that well-maintained plants and trees can help protect homes from windblown embers and slow the spread of fire in some cases. So we are concerned about new wildfire protection regulations being developed by California that would prohibit almost all plants and other combustible material within 5 feet of homes, an area known as “Zone 0.”

Wildfire safety guidelines have long encouraged homeowners to avoid having flammable materials next to their homes. But the state’s plan for an “ember-resistant zone,” being expedited under an executive order from Gov. Gavin Newsom, goes further by also prohibiting grass, shrubs and many trees in that area.

SuzanneJune 14, 2025June 23, 2025Climate Change & Energygeothermal, Geysers geothermal field

Next-gen geothermal power sees early results at The Geysers

Jeff Quackenbush, NORTH BAY BUSINESS JOURNAL

“This is a breakthrough — not just for our team, but for the future of geothermal,” said Rob Klenner, president of GreenFire Energy..”

California’s goal of producing more round-the-clock power from The Geysers may be in reach, as a demonstration there of next-generation geothermal energy technology has become operational and is said to be generating promising early results.

The project is part of a multipronged effort to increase electrical output for the North Bay and throughout California from what’s still the world’s largest geothermal energy field despite declining steam production at the plants in the Mayacamas range between Sonoma and Lake counties.

Oklahoma City-based GreenFire Energy last month announced that its first commercial demonstration system, installed in a low-output well at The Geysers, is now fully operational. The well, previously nearing idle status, is producing sustained flow rates of 300–350 gallons per minute with unexpectedly high-output temperatures of 310 degrees Fahrenheit, all within a closed-loop system.

GreenFire’s patented “GreenLoop” system relies on pipe-enclosed fluid that goes down into the well cool, gets heated then comes back up to release the heat into a electricity-generation system. This fluid has a lower boiling point than water, requiring less heat to produce steam.

SuzanneJune 5, 2025June 19, 2025Land Usecannabis, drones, permits

Sonoma County accused of using drones to spy on residents

Lester Black, SFGATE

Sonoma County has been accused of deploying hundreds of drone flights over residents in a “runaway spying operation” that has violated the constitutional rights and privacy of locals, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union.

The North Bay county of Sonoma initially started the 6-year-old drone program to track illegal cannabis cultivation, but the lawsuit alleges that officials have since turned it into a widespread program to catch unrelated code violations at residential properties and levy millions of dollars in fines. The program has captured 5,600 images during more than 700 flights, the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit is asking Sonoma County Superior Court to halt the county’s use of drones with a warrant. Matt Cagle, a senior staff attorney with the ACLU Foundation of Northern California, said in a Wednesday news release that the county “has hidden these unlawful searches from the people they have spied on, the community, and the media.”

Red more at https://www.sfgate.com/cannabis/article/sonoma-county-drone-aclu-lawsuit-20363620.php

SuzanneJune 1, 2025Land Use, Transportationair pollution, airport, airport expansion, noise

Op-Ed: How busy should Sonoma County’s airport be?

John Reid, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Flying out of Santa Rosa is relaxing. I love it too. But it is like a tiger cub. Cute now, and very likely to get out of hand.

I wasn’t aware of how many planes fly in and out of Charles M. Schulz-Sonoma County airport until they started flying over my house.

That happened in 2024 when the Federal Aviation Administration opened a new flight path over the western part of the county. From 2019 to 2024, the number of Santa Rosa airport passengers increased 58% to around 772,000 a year. Traffic increased 20% last year alone. On one recent weekday, there were 19 commercial departures and various private jets — including Ventura Air Services’ 4:37 a.m. flight to Cabo, which woke me up.

Airplanes pollute. No way around it. They account for 2.5% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, and 9% of U.S. transportation emissions, which is our largest category. They emit nitrous oxides and fine particulates. Even gas cars pollute less than planes per passenger. And aircraft dump noise pollution across the landscape. People lose sleep. Bird communication is interrupted. Batteries are too heavy for planes, so the only way to make them “sustainable” is to fly them less.

SuzanneMay 25, 2025June 9, 2025Forestslogging, redwoods

Op-Ed: Fixing Forests

Teri Shore, PACIFIC SUN

I just visited the redwood country and wilderness forests that stretch from the cool coastal range to snow-topped alpine ridges in the interior mountains in Northern California. Hiking through groves of redwoods adorned with bouquets of trillium and along clear rivers ringing with birdsong from tiny hidden warblers, I felt at times like I was in paradise.

But then I’d come upon massive redwood stumps that were cut generations ago still standing. Heading into the famed Headwaters Preserve, the newer growth didn’t hide the past devastation. The fragmented groves of ancient redwoods in the national parks often felt like tree museums. In fact, the Tall Trees Grove on Redwood Creek requires a permit for entry past a locked gate.

Heading into the Smith River, Scott River and Trinity Alps, I was taken by the rugged landscapes and powerful waters but overwhelmed by the miles of burned lands. Some places were recovering with green and wildflowers. Other expanses were spoiled by salvage logging where giant scorched logs were abandoned and massive slash piles left behind.

After seeing all this, I realized the urgency of halting the Fix our Forest Act moving toward passage in Congress. The bill authorizes more logging and less environmental protection in our forests and is key to the log-baby-log mantra coming from The White House.

We need our State Senators Alex Padilla and Adam Schiff to oppose this bill and rally their colleagues to defeat it. If not, they will allow the beauty of our forests to be finally and forever turned into the beasts of industry.

Source: https://pacificsun.com/your-letters-may-21/

SuzanneMay 22, 2025May 24, 2025Sonoma Coast, Wildlifeabalone, Bodega Marine Laboratory, restoration

Federal funding cuts threaten Bodega Marine Lab’s pioneering program to save rare white abalone

Amie Windsor, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A groundbreaking program to rescue endangered white abalone at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Lab is now at risk, as proposed federal budget cuts threaten to end the funding that made the species’ comeback possible.

When Alyssa Frederick and her team at the UC Davis Bodega Marine Laboratory went to spawn white abalone on Jan. 7, it was almost as if the sea mollusk knew something was looming on the horizon.

“Usually we put them into the bucket of chemicals and I tell the team, ‘Go take a break, grab a slice of pizza or a cup of tea,’” Frederick, director of the lab said. “And I kid you not, within two minutes, the person watching them said, ‘They’re spawning!’”

It was a rare scene for a marine invertebrate on the brink of extinction starting a quarter century ago.

“They showed up,” Frederick said, radiating pride. “They did the best job.”

Now, efforts to rescue the endangered species are at risk after the Trump administration proposed to cut federal funding for all species recovery grants, which serve as the financial lifeblood for Frederick’s work at the lab.

SuzanneMay 21, 2025May 24, 2025ForestsBRIC grants, defensible space, fire resilience, wildfires, wildland urban interface

North Bay communities lose tens of millions in federal funding for wildfire preparation work

Marisa Endicott, PRESS DEMOCRAT

As peak wildfire season arrives, Sonoma, Napa and Mendocino counties are scrambling to address the loss of key FEMA grants for fire prevention work already underway.

The Brooktrails community sits in a rugged area of unincorporated Mendocino County a few miles west of Willits. Home to over 3,000 people, the neighborhood is packed in amid thick brush, forest and windy roads. Many of the homes are surrounded by abandoned overgrown lots, there’s one main route in and out and water is limited.

“It has been labeled one of the most fire dangerous communities in the state for a really good reason,” said Scott Cratty, executive director of the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council. “It’s got all the elements if fire gets in there to be very bad.”

In August, Mendocino County was awarded a $3.6 million grant through the federal Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC) grant program, the first phase of a $50-million project which would have gone to reducing fuels across roughly 1,500 acres of land and creating defensible space and retrofits for hundreds of homes in and around the Brooktrails area.

Sonoma and Napa counties also received multi-million-dollar BRIC grants for similar work to make homes less likely to catch and spread fire in a region increasingly prone to devastating blazes.

SuzanneMay 15, 2025Wateremergency warning, flood warning, flooding, NOAA, Russian River

Staffing cuts to National Weather Service river forecast center could leave Sonoma, Napa counties ‘flying blind’ ahead of storms

Austin Murphy, PRESS DEMOCRAT

The short-staffed California Nevada River Forecast Center, a small Sacramento field office of the National Weather Service, has outsized importance to North Bay residents. Its operations are imperiled by downsizing and proposed cuts.

The closer you live to the Russian River, the likelier it is you’ve spent time on this no-frills website, whose wavy, colored lines alert users when the river is approaching flood levels, and when it will recede.

The site is maintained by the California Nevada River Forecast Center, or CNRFC, under the umbrella of the National Weather Service. It’s one of 13 forecast centers preparing “timely river and flood forecasts” for some 4,000 river locations across the nation.

The California Nevada forecast center is a small field office, based in Sacramento. But its work has outsized importance to North Bay residents.

The data it collects during heavy rains helps emergency service officials figure out who needs to be evacuated as the region’s largest rivers rise, none packing a more destructive, dangerous punch than the Russian.

The CNRFC also provides information vital to Sonoma Water, the Army Corps of Engineers and other agencies, as they make decisions on when to release water from reservoirs, and how much.

But now, in the face of cuts and attrition engineered by the Trump administration, that office is operating with a little over two-thirds of its usual workforce. Under Trump, staff shortages have become endemic in offices throughout the National Weather Service.