Page 45 - Sonoma County Gazette January 2017

Iwish a Happy 2017 to all of my readers, clients and future clients! And a very special Happy Hopeful 2017 to my wonderful editor Vesta! Her paper is really the #1 paper in Sonoma County (and southern Mendocino County!). In Spirit and in Popularity, absolutely! All due to her amazing optimism,
Gazing out from my cozy cyber-hut, I am happily amazed by the wonderful sun hitting the large and very green redwoods.
We of course have had the bene t of a traditional amount of rain so far this season and now have over 30” in the seasonal ‘bucket’! I
support and dedication to the causes that matter!
do hope that you all have not had any major damage and are embracing the moisture! We say ‘pray for Tinkerbell’ to help keep the power on!
I am all about Buying Local, if anything. When you are heading out River Road for a day on the River, a hike at Armstong Redwoods or heading up to the Coast, make sure you stop at Old World Winery, in the humble craftsman bungalow farmhouse 850 River Road between 101 and Fulton. My favorite. Wineries don’t get any more local or sustainable than Old World.
Time approaches for those necessary winter projects. Remember that Cazadero Supply o ers its 1st Saturday 15% Discount Day, with a wonderful assortment of items for your household, garden and vehicle needs. Raymond’s Bakery is taking a break and will reopen around Valentine’s Day. Do check out the Cazadero and Duncans Mills General Stores,now both owned by Justine and Darrell with daily groceries and wine, meats and many locally produced specialty items. Contact Cathy at schezer@comcast.net regarding volunteering for the great Sky Garden.
‘Pastoral Winemaker’ and Proprietor Darek Trowbridge, using grapes from their 100 year old, sustainable and organic vineyards creates “natural wines that re ect his family history and the traditional winemaking (old world) practices in Sonoma County.” According to Darek, “Two of the most guiding in uences of old world style winemaking are tradition and terroir.” Indeed. Please visit this winery with generations-deep respect for old world winemaking traditions.
Although the Cazadero Community Club is currently on hiatus, monthly meetings will resume on Tuesday, march 7,2017 at 7 p.m. at Firehall #1.
You may send your dues of $15 per family or $10 Individual) to P.O. Box 3, Cazadero, CA 95421. Join with your neighbors in planning wonderful events which bene t the entire community!
What the world needs now more than ever is Hope. Recent reports from Wildlife Biologist Nicolas Bauer give us hope in areas where we really need it: In the streams and tributaries of our Russian River Watershed.
Think about participating in the Forest Unlimited’s Annual Redwood Tree Planting in January. You may contact Carl Wahl at 874-9268 or carlwahl3@ gmail.com for further information.
“Spawner Surveys” conducted the in tributaries by Bauer and his crews
in recent weeks have discovered an adult Coho pair in the upper reaches of Sheephouse Creek! “This is the rst time we have ever observed Adult Coho in Sheephouse since we began this program some time ago,” exclaimed Bauer.
We are now o cially into Winter and I really appreciate all of the festive lights! They certainly make navigating our very dark roadways a bit easier!
The presence of the pair of adult Coho coupled with recent successful planting of thousands of ngerlings through our Broodstock Program in this Russian River Estuary-Perched stream is cause for celebration. According to Biologist Bauer, “This is indeed a good sign for Sheephouse Creek. I think
that perhaps good ocean conditions for adult sh, improved juvenile rearing conditions, and improved rainfall are all contributing factors.” We saw juvenile sh last summer and now, with adults in the creek, we will hope to see more in summer of 2017 as well. So far we are seeing better numbers of returning adult coho in the Russian River tributaries.
I nd myself remembering Christmas and New Year celebrations while visiting other countries, such as Mexico, Spain, Nepal and Thailand. Christmas and New Year’s are big beach times for Mexicans as well as us visitors. We used to sit on the sand at Puerto Escondido, Oaxaca, Mexico and place votive candles around us all. At midnight on December 31st, we sang songs and ate grapes, one by one, with each one representing an upcoming month – no bad grapes, please! That is a tradition that I had remembered from living in Spain. We admired the beautiful teak Christmas ornaments on the huge tree at the posh Oriental Hotel in Bangkok and watched a wonderful dance performance at a traditional ‘Khan Toke’ dinner in Chiang Mai,Thailand. As the very graceful women danced the ‘ ngernail’ dance(long brass nails on their hands) I admit that I volunteered my husband Gregorio to accompany them on the stage! However you celebrated your special holiday,I hope that it was stupendous!
Also in the Local Mother Nature Good News department: On December 22, 2016 the Coho Broodstock Program released 150 adult coho salmon ready to spawn in the main-stem of lower Salmon Creek just north
of Bodega Bay. These sh traveled from the Warm Springs Fish Hatchery in Geyserville. Carefully chosen for genetic success, two- and three-year old adults were released in the water (some of them for their very rst time in a natural waterway) and encouraged to swim up stream to spawn in one of the many high-quality tributaries of the Salmon Creek watershed. Entering the water
I wish Very happy January Birthdays to my friends Peter Perlman, Curtis Ross and son Meshack Sabbah-Ross who all celebrate in early January, Alana Mumy will celebrate on the 1st, Eli Ellis on the 2nd, my wonderful husband Gregorio celebrates his 69th on the 6th, Frank Johanson enjoys the 7th, Kellie Hickson on the 12th, Ace Volunteer Kris Fein has her special day on the 12th, Hank Weidmann will be 30 on the 17th, Christina Tourady enjoys the 18th, Catherine Canelis on the 21st, and Ashley Parmeter on the 26th.
just before late December rains hit, these sh have ample water and partners
to spawn with. The Broodstock Program considers it a special service to add these fertile adults to the system, hoping the investment will result in a greater number of young of the year in the spring, and returning adults in future years. The Central California Coast coho salmon have been on the endangered species list since 1996, and e orts to increase their populations in North Bay watersheds has been on-going since the early 2000s.
The Montgomery Elementary School will be back in session on Monday, January 9th after the winter break. School will then be closed on January 16th to commemorate Martin Luther King, Jr. On Jan. 20th, the students will be o but their parents will be at school to participate in parent-teacher conferences.
These wildlife success stories so close to home are reason for thanks and gratitude for those who work so hard to keep our balance with nature, critical and key to mankind’s very survival. A balance that has been pushed to the limits in recent decades due to development and habitat degradation.
I send my best wishes for all to have a peaceful, prosperous and healthy New Year of 2017. Please call me at 632-5545 or email mayawrld@sonic.net with info for your Cazadero Column!
The Broodstock Program, one of these key programs, (caseagrant.ucsd. edu/project/coho-salmon-monitoring) is an amazing resource. In the case of Sheephouse Creek, perched on the Estuary and one of the rst streams inland from the Paci c Ocean, the recent positive reports after so many frustrating years of just ‘squeaking by’ with sh counts are a re ection of the e orts of the Private and Public landowners’ participation in habitat restoration projects and the employment of positive stewardship methods in recent years.
stream habitat degradation. Although more can be done, these seemingly small steps (in the big picture of (re) creating a habitat the native species would be willing to return to) are showing heart-lifting results! Adult Coho Are Back!
Jenner Headlands Preserve’s e orts at restoring the absolute upper reaches of Sheephouse Creek’s watershed is where it all starts in this textbook example of watershed healing and restoration. Their mission is to return this habitat to ‘Old Growth’ conditions, especially along the streams.
So, as we go into the New Year, know that yes, we can make a
difference! An empowering thought! Now, if I can only talk those private property owners along Sheephouse Creek to sell a conservation easement along the creek to the Landpaths people to assure a consistent restoration e ort. The sh are responding! If only we listened to their message of thanks!
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At a time when so many are feeling helpless and hopeless for so many obvious reasons, we need to remind ourselves that we can be positive in uences on the ultimate outcome.
The private landowners between Jenner Headlands and the Russian River Estuary have in recent years taken advantage of programs enabling them to retire and rebuild old logging roads, known to be the #1 source of spawning