Page 11 - Sonoma County Gazette March 2018.indd

VITAL LANDS cont’d from page 1
Envisioning a Green Future Together
Preserving Land for Life
Sonoma County citizens can take pride in their vision for conservation and their investments in over 114,000 acres of working lands and natural areas.
Ag + Open Space has protected thousands of acres of land that help safeguard healthy watersheds and groundwater basins and provide clean drinking water and critical habitats for sensitive, threatened, and endangered plant and animal species. Further, by working with farmers and ranchers to protect their land from the threat of subdivision and development, Ag + Open Space contributes
to a thriving $650 million agricultural economy that features artisanal cheeses and dairy products, free- range meat and poultry, organic produce, world- class wine, and more.
For information on the Vital Lands Initiative,
please visit www. sonomaopenspace. org/vital-lands (English)
orwww. sonomaopenspace. org/tierras-vitales (Spanish).
With these challenges in mind, Ag + Open Space began work in early 2017 on the Vital Lands Initiative, a comprehensive set of goals and strategies that will guide the organization’s work for the next 15 years. The initiative uses the best available science, data, technical information, and local expertise to prioritize conservation of our agricultural and natural lands, scenic views and greenbelt areas, and to protect land for recreation and urban open space.
The Vital Lands Initiative also relies upon community involvement gathered through public
meetings— ve of which
were held in March
2017—and workshops, stakeholder interviews, polling, community events, and online outreach.
A second round of meetings scheduled in October was cancelled while the organization helped facilitate the county’s post- re watershed recovery and resiliency e orts. With the recovery process underway, Ag + Open Space is focused again on the Vital Lands Initiative and invites the community to share its thoughts on the draft plan at these public meetings:
• Saturday, March 17 | 10:00am–12:00pm | Community Church of Sebastopol
• Monday, March 19 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Sonoma Veterans Memorial Building
• Tuesday, March 20 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Bodega Bay Grange
• Wednesday, March 21 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Petaluma Veterans Memorial Building • Monday, March 26 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Sea Ranch Hall
• Wednesday, March 28 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Villa Chanticleer (Healdsburg)
• Thursday, March 29 | 6:00pm – 8:00pm | Santa Rosa Veterans Memorial Building • Saturday, March 31 | 10:00am–12:00pm | Cloverdale Veterans Memorial Building
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