FoGR BLoG Friends of the Gualala River’s web log of river sightings and commentary on the Gualala River watershed. FoGRBLoG is open to everyone in our community. Send your photos and observations to:blog@GualalaRiver.org. Please keep comments and photos focused on the Gualala River watershed and its natural environment . Click on the individual entries below Willows hold their ground 6/13/2006 …
Read More »The Latest from FoGR
Willows hold their ground
“The South Fork of the Gualala River at the confluence with the Wheatfield Fork, at Valley Crossing, has changed configuration of its channel and bar.” June 2006 March 2006 “The lowered bar was “split” during winter and spring high flood flows, and now the main low-flow channel has stabilized in the middle of the broad gravel bar (above left). It …
Read More »Letter to Sonoma Board of Supervisors re: Timberland Conversions
“Leaving something behind is not a mitigation for environmental harm” PAUL V. CARROLL Attorney at Law 5 Manor Place Menlo Park, California 94025 telephone (650) 322-5652 telecopier (same) February 2, 2006 Sonoma County Board of Supervisors 575 Administration Drive, Room 100A Santa Rosa, CA 95403-2887 Re: General Plan and Zoning Code amendments regarding timberland conversions Dear Supervisors: I write on …
Read More »Year-end storm: Valley Crossing
“Here also the entire riparian zone was submerged and part of the channel, with rapid currents among alders. The high water level (mud with ripples, debris lines) went up to the edge of the loggingroad parallel with the river on the N side….highest I’ve ever seen. A thick deposit of silt (over 20 cm deep) covered the extensive ground that …
Read More »I Have Never Seen the River Flowing With Such Power
12/31/2005 Britt “In the hours after we received our second significant storm of the ’05/’06 winter, I made my way to the main stem of the Gualala River to photograph the full and flooding river in conjunction with the 6.9 foot high tide. I first attempted to reach the green bridge where the North Forks join the main stem. …
Read More »Winter is beautiful on the Gualala River
12/2/2005 Jim “Hiking in Gualala Point County Park gives a fine view of the Estuary. It is especially fine as the sun is setting and the shadows lengthen, heightening the peaceful colors of a clear early December afternoon.”
Read More »Retail restoration and forest mitigation
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »FoGR sponsors Environmental Art award
Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) sponsored an award at the Environmental Art exhibit at the Gualala Arts Center in September 2005. Vivian Green presents award to Joost RomeuCongratulations to local artist Joost Romeu for his award-winning work “The Five Natures,” which can still be seen on the Forest Trail at Gualala Arts.
Read More »Ursula Jones, a true Friend of the Gualala River
In January 2002, the Independent Coast Observer broke the story about the proposed waterbag scheme. Ursula Jones was one of the first to begin organizing to respond to this threat to the Gualala & Albion rivers and communities. She organized the initial meetings of Save Our Rivers & Estuaries (SORE), attended by over fifty people. Seeing the need to raise …
Read More »Sonoma Supes wrestle forest conversions
A version of this article was published in the Independent Coast Observer on October 7, 2005. By Julie Verran Courtesy Independent Coast Observer, Gualala, CA SANTA ROSA – Sonoma County Supervisors on Tuesday continued their struggle to regulate loss of forests to vineyards. The regulatory path the Supervisors must tread is narrow and winding, with court cases on every side. …
Read More »North Coast Watershed Assessment Program: Vineyards
Section 1.1. (p. 1-9), Introduction and Overview, Continuing Challenges to RecoverySome areas of the North Coast have seen rapidly increasing agricultural activity, particularly conversion of grasslands or woodlands to vineyards. Such agricultural activities have typically been subject to little agency review or regulation and can pose significant risk of chronic sediment inputs to streams. Associated with development and increased agriculture, …
Read More »Gualala planning council members take a tour of working forests
A version of this article was published in the Independent Coast Observer on September 2, 2005. By Julie Verran Courtesy Independent Coast Observer, Gualala, CA Working timberlands producing redwood and Douglas fir are part of the coastal community here. On Tuesday, members of the Gualala River Watershed Council took members of the Gualala Municipal Advisory Council on a forest tour …
Read More »FoGR sponsors Art in the Redwoods Festival award
Friends of the Gualala River (FoGR) sponsored an award at the Art in the Redwoods festival in 2005, for the fourth year in a row.A cash prize of $100 contributed by the Friends of the Gualala River was given to the artist who best captured the ecology of the Sonoma-Mendocino coast, as determined by the festival judges. Congratulations to local …
Read More »County’s vineyard vs. forest debate escalates
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »“Grapes shouldn’t replace trees”
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »Sonoma Supes hold hearing on conversions
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »Evans Ridge is a complex vineyard project
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »Sonoma studies vineyard conversions
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »“Nature in a bottle”
Friends of the Gualala River protects the Gualala River watershed in Northern California and the species living within it.
Read More »Campbell Vineyard Conversion – letter from Dennis Jackson
March 9, 2005 Attn: ForestPractice California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection 135 RidgewayAvenue Santa Rosa, CA 95401 Re: THP 1-00-147 SON Dear Ms. Markham: The Friends of the Gualala River have asked me to commenton THP 1-00-147 SON Campbell. I was the Hydrologist for the Mendocino CountyWater Agency (MCWA) from May 1989 to November 1994. The Mendocino County Boardof …
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Won’t back down – Friends of Gualala River continue protection efforts
by Tempra BoardThe Sea Ranch Soundings • Summer 2021 © copyright 2021, The Sea Ranch Associationreprinted with permission Friends of Gualala River (FoGR), our area’s grassroots watershed protection non-profit, continues its hard work defending the Gualala River from the threat of floodplain logging. On May 20, FoGR filed a motion for …
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Protecting Endangered Species:
The Case for a Preliminary Injunction -
Gualala River logging project clears hurdle in state court as federal case ramps up
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Under California cap-and-trade program, North Coast forests turn carbon uptake into cash
by Guy Kovner, The Press Democrat, January 3, 2016 [excerpt:] They say money doesn’t grow on trees, but a nearly 75,000-acre swath of redwood and fir forests blanketing the wildlands of Sonoma and Mendocino counties is generating millions of dollars as it contributes to California’s ambitious campaign to curb greenhouse …
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Preservation Ranch saved in record deal – June, 2013, San Francisco Chronicle
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Sonoma Deal Aims to Combine Logging and Preservation
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Sonoma County redwood forest spared from conversion into vineyards