Friends of Gualala River Protecting the Gualala River watershed and the species living within it
December 12, 2023
Sonoma County Board of Supervisors
575 Administration Drive
Room 100 A
Santa Rosa, CA 95403
To the Honorable Members of the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors:
Friends of Gualala River (FoGR) thanks you for the opportunity to comment once again upon the importance of passing the Oak Woodland Protection Ordinance. Our previous letter of November 21, 2023 detailed the history of Sonoma County’s efforts to map the oak woodlands as a pre-condition to protecting them.
Here in the Gualala River watershed in the northern part of Sonoma County, we have thousands of acres of intact oak woodlands. The County’s list of parcels and acreages in our watershed that would be affected shows that thousands of acres of oak woodlands occur in parcels along the following roads: Kelly, Annapolis, Fort Ross, King Ridge, Seaview, Tin Barn, Creighton Ridge, Mohrhardt Ridge, Bohan Dillon, and Stewarts Point-Skaggs Springs. Many of the parcels are listed as No Situs Address. It’s likely that the Gualala River watershed contains some of the largest intact remaining oak woodlands in the County.
These woodlands are of great benefit locally to the residents of the Gualala River watershed. This type of vegetation is adapted for summer drought. It does not need any water or irrigation. Leaving the oak woodlands intact is the highest and best use of the land in a watershed that is ranked entirely as Class 4 for Groundwater Availability. Class 4 is defined as “Low/High Variable Water Yield Area,” the most critical groundwater designation in the County. (See attached map). Every vineyard and development removes much more water and places additional stress on an already over-stressed groundwater basin.
The oak woodlands also naturally protect soils against erosion and mass wasting that deposit sediment in the river and its tributaries, affecting salmonids (coho salmon and steelhead) that use the river as habitat. The Gualala River has been listed under the federal Clean Water Act as impaired for both sediment and temperature, critical factors in the decline of salmonid species (coho salmon and steelhead) in the river, both of which are listed under the federal Endangered Species Act. But, left in place in their natural habitat, the oaks are capable of stabilizing steep slopes and reducing the sediment load in the river.
Our oak woodlands have also been designated in The Conservation Lands Network as essential to regional conservation because they support huge biodiversity and provide connectivity for wildlife, especially for large animals like mountain lions and black bears that require large unbroken tracts of land that allow them safe passage. (https://www.bayarealands.org).
For all these reasons and because it is just the right thing to do, we urge the Supervisors to vote yes on the Oak Woodlands Protection Ordinance.
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Nathan Ramser
President of the Board
