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"Protecting the Gualala River
watershed and the species
living within it."
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Breaking News:
Court Rejects Plan to Clearcut
Redwoods for Vineyard
Sonoma County Superior Court rules that the environmental impact report for Artesa's forest-to-vineyard conversion project violates the requirements of the California Environmental Quality Act.
Press Release,
December 6, 2013
Artesa Winery
Artesa Winery plans to clearcut redwoods
for Sonoma County vineyard
Artesa Vineyards and Winery, owned by Spanish wine corporate giant Codorníu, is now the only California vineyard developer applying for permits to
clear-cut coastal redwood forest and grade the soils to construct a sprawling vineyard, roads, and reservoirs in their place.
Read more . . .
Who do you trust?
Who do you believe about Pomo Indian heritage protection? Vineyard developer Artesa, or traditional Pomo elders and a Professor of Archaeology and Anthropology with expertise on Kashaya Pomo?
Eric Wilder and Starhawk speak
at "Wine Back Into Water" event
Excerpts from speeches by Eric Wilder and Starhawk at Annapolis Winery on August 24, 2013.
Misinformation?
Friends of the Gualala River has opposed Artesa's plan to clearcut forestland to plant a vineyard for a decade. We encourage the public to read our comments, read Artesa's comments, and come to your own conclusions.
Redwood Chapter defends coastal forest
We think the highest and best use of coastal forests is to remain in their natural condition so they can protect our coastal rivers, support fish and wildlife, and combat climate change by sequestering carbon.
November, 2013, Redwood Chapter Sierra Club
A fight over vineyards pits redwoods against red wine
In the California wine mecca of Sonoma County, climate change is pitting redwood lovers against red wine lovers. This Friday morning, a coalition of environmental groups are in a Santa Rosa, Calif., courtroom fighting to stop a Spanish-owned winery from leveling 154 acres of coast redwoods and Douglas firs to make way for grapevines.
October, 2013, National Public Radio
Redwoods or Red Wine: Which is More Valuable in California?
When do trees become a forest? According to a California winemaker who wants to clear cut 154 acres of redwoods and Douglas firs to make way for grapevines, not until they're more than 50-years-old and 100 feet tall.
October, 2013, Care2
Chainsaw Wine
There is no forest among the trees. That's what state officials have said regarding a large stand of second-growth redwood and Douglas fir near Annapolis that a Spanish-owned winery has proposed to level and replace with grapevines.
October, 2013, North Bay Bohemian
Codorníu contra las secuoyas de California
Imagínate mi gran disgusto cuando me enteré de que una empresa española, Codorníu, quiere talar más de 62 hectáreas de bosque de secuoyas del río Gualala en el pueblo de Annapolis, California, para plantar viñedos.
November, 2013, El Huffington Post (Spain)
El 'vino de motosierra' de Codorníu
Puede que de forma ingenua el vino se asocie al amor por la tierra y al entendimiento con la naturaleza... Lo que no aparece en tu mente, desde luego, son imágenes de motosierras talando árboles y excavadoras arrancando sus raíces para plantar viñedos.
October, 2013, El País (Spain)
Preservation Ranch
Sonoma County redwood forest spared from conversion into vineyards
Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River mounted a campaign against the CalPERS-funded company that included street theater tactics and an online petition signed by 90,000 critics of the development project.
June, 2013, LA Times
Preservation Ranch Earns Its Name
Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River mounted a campaign against the CalPERS-funded company that included street theater tactics and an online petition signed by 90,000 critics of the development project.
June, 2013, The Conservation Fund
Who Saved Preservation Ranch?
"I sincerely hope that the mainstream press and officials at future dedication ceremonies recognize... Friends of the Gualala River for the sacrifices they made against enormous odds. Lest we are encouraged or allowed to forget, a few people are what it takes to make a difference."
- Larry Hanson, Sonoma County Gazette, May, 2013
Gualala River in the News
Preservation Ranch saved in record deal
A giant redwood forest in Sonoma County that was on the verge of being divvied up and plowed over into a patchwork of vineyards has been preserved by a public-private partnership that engineered what is being touted as the largest land conservation deal in California history.
June, 2013, SF Chronicle
Sonoma County redwood forest spared from conversion into vineyards
Opponents organized under the banner Friends of the Gualala River mounted a campaign against the CalPERS-funded company that included street theater tactics and an online petition signed by 90,000 critics of the development project.
June, 2013, LA Times
Sonoma Deal Aims to Combine Logging and Preservation
Can you preserve a forest by logging it? A land conservation group thinks so.
The Conservation Fund announced Monday that, along with some partners, it had acquired 19,645 acres of forest in Sonoma County. The land had been slated for planting vineyards.
June, 2013, KQED
Preservation Ranch officially preserved
Nearly 20,000 acres of remote forest once targeted for vineyard development in remote northwest Sonoma County will be set aside as timberland and wildlife habitat under a landmark conservation deal that closed Friday.
May, 2013, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
Preservation Ranch: Big conservation, thanks to carbon credits
On May 31, the ink will dry on the largest land conservation deal in Sonoma County history: $24.5 million to permanently protect the 19,000-acre Preservation Ranch from a long-threatened vineyard and estate conversion process.
Bay Nature, May, 2013
Who Saved Preservation Ranch?
"I sincerely hope that the mainstream press and officials at future dedication ceremonies recognize... Friends of the Gualala River for the sacrifices they made against enormous odds. Lest we are encouraged or allowed to forget, a few people are what it takes to make a difference."
- Larry Hanson, Sonoma County Gazette, May, 2013
Preservation Ranch purchase
facing May 31 deadline
The effort to buy Preservation Ranch still needs money and a state board's okay before the controversial timber-to-grapes conversion proposed near the town of Annapolis is officially halted.
March 27, 2013, Sonoma West Times & News
"A Sonoma forest is saved"
Activists, led in recent years by the Annapolis-based Friends of the Gualala River... have been mobilizing voters for over 10 years to oppose Preservation Ranch in its various forms.
March, 2013, Vibrant Bay Area
"The Vine and Its Discontents"
The dark side of the Sonoma wine industry;
Sonoma residents fight an onslaught of forest-to-vineyard conversions.
December, 2012, California Northern Magazine
FoGR Activists Receive Award
Sonoma County Conservation Action awarded the 2012 Dick Day Community Activist Award to
Chris Poehlmann and Peter Baye
for their work fighting forest clear-cuts for vineyards in Northwest Sonoma County.
Water Use by Vineyards Is Challenged
The dense forests of redwood, oak and Douglas fir that once covered much of Sonoma County have for many decades been giving way to pastures, orchards, subdivisions - and vineyards.
August, 2011, NY Times
Redwoods versus red wine
The redwood tree and the wine grapevine are both iconic in Northern California. Two wineries are petitioning the state to let them clear redwoods and Douglas firs to make room for new Pinot Noir vineyards. Environmentalists want the trees protected.
August, 2011, LA Times
Forest lands eyed for vineyards
"These vineyards are biological deserts. It's worse than a clear cut. This is permanent conversion from a natural landscape and it has its consequences."
July, 2011, Santa Rosa Press Democrat
People Who Belong To The Land
One of the greatest instances of harm ever wrought on the Kashia's ancestral land is on the verge of occurring. A pair of huge wine corporations have proposed two large forest-to-vineyard conversions in the heart of the people's ancestral homeland.
July, 2011, Anderson Valley Advertiser
The Mendonoma Coast's Second Spanish Invasion
Spanish wine corporation Grupo Codorníu is accustomed to doing things in a big way. It is reputed to own a greater expanse of vineyard acreage than any wine company in Spain, which in turn has more land under grapevine cultivation than any nation in the world.
June, 2011, Anderson Valley Advertiser
Gualala vineyard conversions get national attention
"Plan to cut forest for vineyards faces opposition",
an article published in newspapers across the country, including the San Francisco Chronicle, Washington Post, Sacramento Bee, etc., as well as Salon, Huffington Post, Forbes and many others.
June, 2011, Associated Press
Gualala River Lagoon Breach
Saturday, April 6, 2013
Annotated photos by Peter Baye,
5 MB pdf.
Gualala River Sightings
View the "Best of" the photographs presented at the 2013 Gualala River Sightings
on March 7 at the Gualala Arts Center
by Jeanne Jackson / Mendonoma Sightings and Friends of the Gualala River.
"The Vine and Its Discontents"
by Matt Gleeson
Sonoma residents fight an onslaught of forest-to-vineyard conversions.
December, 2012, California Northern Magazine
It's as if two iconic California landscapes - the coastal forests and the trim, pastoral wine country - have been chopped up into a coarse mix in a blender . . .
One may regard the grapes that follow with love or indifference, but either way the transformation of the land is total.
Read more →
Cumulative Effects of Logging
Linked to Coho Decline
by Rob DiPerna
January, 2013, Environmental Protection Information Center
Throughout the north and central California coast, Coho salmon are teetering on the brink of oblivion.
The primary deficiency of the Forest Practice Rules is the failure to effectively address cumulative watershed effects.
Read more →
Streamflow Depletion by Wells
Understanding and Managing the Effects
of Groundwater Pumping on Streamflow
by Paul M. Barlow and Stanley A. Leake
November, 2012, U.S. Geological Survey
Groundwater is an important source of water for many human needs, including public supply, agriculture, and industry. With the development of any natural resource, however, adverse consequences may be associated with its use. One of the primary concerns related to the development of groundwater resources is the effect of groundwater pumping on streamflow.
Read more →
Don't Drive in the River
Off-road vehicle impacts on wildlife
The Gualala River is a coastal treasure. Creatures big and small make it their home. Care must be taken to protect them and this beautiful wild river that is a part of our lives.
Video
"Clearcutting in California"
In California, 65,000 acres a year are logged by clearcut-type methods...
a video production by Central Sierra Environmental Resource Center (CSERC).
"Worse than a Clearcut"
The Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club has released a short video designed to educate the public and decision-makers about the proposed Preservation Ranch vineyard development project.
Time-lapse videos of the mouth of the Gualala River
A series of time-lapse videos of the Gualala River mouth in Northern California
during the months of February, March & April, 2009, taken by Dane Behrens,
a PhD student in Environmental Science at UC Davis.
Friends of the Gualala River
PO Box 1543, Gualala, CA 95445
email:
info@GualalaRiver.org
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Forest, or not a forest?
Wilder: Moving speech about land to be bulldozed for vineyard
Poehlmann: Clearcutting redwoods and destroying a Native American site
Starhawk speaks about proposed Artesa Winery deforestation
Changing Wine Back Into Water