Sonoma County Gazette April 2018

APRIL 2018
Advocates for Love Parks? YOU FREE Garden Tour
From the Ashes: Spring on the Coast
The Linkage Program~ 7
Can Help us have MORE! ~ 14
focuses in Natives & Urban Gardens ~ 19
Rebuilding for Resiliency ~ 26
for Whales and Harbor Seals ~ 20
CANNABIS
WINE
Our Best Friend,
or Worst Enemy?
Decisions
Olivares? Mutz? Essick?
It’s TIME to learn where they stand on
issues that impact our community. ANSWERS to Reader Questions: pages 8 ~ 11
2 Sides to Every Story
By Aleta Parseghian
When discussing the conservation
The decision on WHERE cannabis can be grown has only partly been decided as Sonoma County enters into farming and selling this now legal crop in California. People who voted to make this beneficial plant legal so that it can be grown for fiber, medicinal solutions, as well as recreational use, are afraid of WHERE this crop will be grown The ease of stealing and selling it attracts criminals and has caused death to innocent people living near grows.
of natural resources within Sonoma County, it’s hard to avoid the elephant in the room. That elephant is our prosperous wine industry. Despite how much wine benefits our local economy, we cannot ignore its negative environmental impacts to our unique and fragile ecosystem.
On April 10th, the Board of Supervisors will be addressing the next decisions regarding the many details around legalizing this crop that has an estimated 4,000 to 10,000 illegal grows that are currently unregulated and untaxed. How to bring this valuable industry into compliance with all other agricultural products is a challenge we have yet to meet. It’s a rogue industry that needs to become legal for many reasons.
There are over 60,000 acres of wine grapes in Sonoma County, of which only 1,400 are grown organically. With organic farming becoming a trend locally and nationwide (80% of all milk from Sonoma County is now organic), the wine industry is slow to follow suit and meet market demands, in spite of Sonoma County Winegrowers committment to making Sonoma County a 100% sustainable winegrowing region.
Groups have formed to support legalization and help support entrepreneurs as they come out of their closets into the light of business regulation. Groups have also formed to protect landowners who are at risk of grows near residential homes.
These vineyards also use 80% of all water within the county. Yet, with a record drought still a looming threat, winegrowers were virtually untouched by the legislative water restrictions. Gov. Jerry Brown excuses this decision as being an economic one, saying that he did not want to damage the wine industry in such a way that the unemployment rate skyrocketed.
CANNABIS cont’d on page 12
WINE cont’d on page 18
It is time that we start asking the wine industry to take accountability
The EVERYTHING to DO Calendar: pgs 52 - 71
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