"Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it."

The Gualala River needs YOUR help
Join our effort to protect the Gualala River and its wildlife by making a generous donation to Friends of the Gualala River. Our watershed is facing imminent threats from several large-scale developments. We have assembled a scientific and legal team that is ready to do what is needed to protect the river and watershed, but we can only set our plan in action with your immediate support.

Rivers of a Lost Coast

A Documentary narrated by Tom Skerritt

Monday, July 13
Arena Theater

More information . . .

Artesa vineyard conversion EIR
The Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) claims that the proposed destruction of 171 acres of forest to plant a vineyard will have no significant environmental impacts.
Deadline for public comments: July 28, 2009 (may change to later date).

What's New on our website?

The so-called "Preservation" Ranch is a 19,300 acre development in the heart of the Gualala River watershed. Premier Pacific Vineyards plans to destroy and fragment coastal redwood forest to plant grapes on the ridgetops - and call that "preservation."

"Vineyard development is a real threat" to recovery of Gualala steelhead, according to Craig Bell, and is "the last thing I'd want in my watershed." He argued that vineyard threats are cumulative impacts, not due to single vineyards in isolation, but the aggregate effect of many of them in the same watershed.

Gualala River photo tour
A photo tour of the Gualala River watershed, showing its natural beauty as well as damage caused by unsustainable human activity.

April showers bring May flows
The low flow winter drought conditions that prevailed on the Gualala River were erased by late April rainfalls that scoured the gravel beds and flooded bars and floodplains.

Wave energy project off the Gualala coast?
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has accepted applications by the Sonoma County Water Agency for investigation of wave energy projects off the Sonoma Coast, including one offshore of Gualala and the Sea Ranch.

Unauthorized diversion by North Gualala Water Co.
NGWC has pumped water from its wells near the Gualala River during low flow periods in violation of its permit for many years, which could reduce critical habitat for threatened coho and steelhead, according to the State Water Resources Control Board. Hearing scheduled for May 27, 2009 has been postponed.

Gravel Mining in the Gualala River
Many criticisms and recommendations Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) has issued in past public comments appear to be matched by NMFS findings and opinions. The NMFS biological opinion resulted in negotiations that modified the gravel mining permit application, and significantly improved environmental protection, monitoring and regulatory agency supervision, and mitigation.

Gualala River Steelhead Studies
"By late August 2008, JSH [juvenile steelhead] densities had declined dramatically... a likely result of widespread dewatering, related elevated water temperatures, and lack of stream connectivity needed for JSH to escape lethal conditions and move to cool-water refugia."
- 2008 GRSS Annual Report Summary

Expand Gualala Point Park
The choices we make now and the actions we take will determine what type of river our grandchildren and their grandchildren will inherit.

Retaining wall above the estuary?
Destroying coastal bluff, native vegetation and the Gualala Bluff Trail for a project that hasn't even been reviewed makes no sense, and violates California law. Coastal Commission will schedule a de novo hearing on the proposed retaining wall project.

Fireworks over the Gualala River estuary?   Not this year
The Gualala Festivals Committee canceled their controversial plans to detonate fireworks over the Gualala River estuary in 2008, after the California Coastal Commission ordered them to cease and desist.

Legal cases

Court rules EIR required for vineyard conversion
In Sierra Club and Friends of the Gualala River v. CA. Dept. of Forestry, the appellate court rules that "...there is substantial evidence to support a fair argument that the timberland conversion project may have a significant effect on the environment, thus requiring the preparation of an EIR [Environmental Impact Report]."

Court upholds jurisdiction over Gualala Water Co. wells
Appeals Court rules that the State Water Resources Control Board has jurisdiction over the subterranean water flows under Elk Prairie, where the North Gualala Water Comapny's wells are located.

Court upholds denial of floodplain logging plan
The Superior Court of Mendocino County upholds the California Board of Forestry's denial of a timber harvest plan in the floodplain of the Gualala River because it was likely to cause harm to endangered coho salmon.

Court tells CDF to prepare EIR for vineyard conversions
Friends of the Gualala River joined the Sierra Club in a successful legal action to strike down the Department of Forestry's approvals of three forestland to vineyard conversion projects, because CDF had approved the projects without the thorough analysis of environmental impacts required by law.

Friends of the Gualala River
PO Box 1543, Gualala, CA 95445