Big Wine Blasted at North Coast
California Gathering
By
Shepherd Bliss
In
the heart of what corporate wine industry lobbyists have re-branded “Wine
Country,” activists from four North Coast California counties gathered in early
May for their third monthly meeting. They created a regional network of groups
from Sonoma, Napa, Lake, and Mendocino counties.
Participants
came to the attractive resort town of Calistoga in Napa to discuss how to
contain the rampant, sprawling growth of corporate vineyards and wineries as
commercial, industrial event centers. They pave over agricultural land, damage
the quality of rural life, and create multiple negative impacts upon the
environment with respect to water, land, noise, traffic, wildlife habitat, and
air quality.
Historic Calistoga, CA |
Members
of various national, state, regional, and local groups attended, including the
following: Sierra Club, Napa County Farm Bureau, Community Alliance with Family
Farmers, Greenbelt Alliance, the Grange, Napa Vision 2050, Sonoma County Water
Coalition, Sonoma County Conservation Action, and Preserve Rural Sonoma County.
Various grape growers and wine makers attended and spoke up. A former planning
commissioner, organic farmers, environmentalists, and a professional planner
spoke.
“What
we have in common is respect for rural life,” co-host Donald Williams welcomed the
by-invitation-only crowd. “The reasons for this meeting include becoming acquainted
with each other and hearing our stories. Another goal is to encourage and
inspire each other.”
DON’T
LET WINERIES PAVE OVER AG LAND
“Things
have changed dramatically since I moved here in 1965, when we had diverse
agriculture,” said Bob Dwyer, one of a dozen featured speakers. He was the
Executive Director of the Napa Valley Grape Growers Association, the Napa
County Farm Bureau, and the Napa Valley Vintner’s Association.
“Now
we have little here other than a wine grape mono-culture. A ten-mile stretch of
the Silverado Trail has eighteen wineries. They hire a chef before a
wine-maker. This has to stop. We cannot let them pave over more of our ag land.
The event centers have nothing to do with agriculture,” added Dwyer.
Napa Wineries |
Current
Napa Farm Bureau President Norma Tofanelli--a fourth-generation farmer and
grape grower--read from that group’s mission statement, which is “to preserve
agricultural land and natural resources.”
“Napa
County--the leader with the nation's first agricultural preserve--faces
fundamental questions on how to protect ag lands and resources,” Tofanelli
said. “Planning Commissioner Matt Pope has asked ‘Do we want to maintain an
agricultural economy that benefits from tourism or do we want to transfer into
a tourist economy that capitalizes on agriculture?" according to Tofanelli.
“Ag-washing is when you say a winery
with hospitality events is agriculture. It is not. We have an Agricultural
Preserve here in Napa,” observed Geoff Ellsworth of St. Helena, which he said needs to be
supported.
“Wineries as event centers are being put
on ag lands in rural areas, rather than in municipalities. When
they are put into towns or cities, they should still adhere to the codes of
that municipality and address community and environmental impacts in order for
balance to be maintained,” Ellsworth added.
It's not about wine anymore. |
“We
need to have a state-wide movement,” declared Sonoma County’s Janus Matthes of
the Community Alliance with Family Farmers. “Rules need to be set for the wine
industry, so that everyone knows what they can and cannot do. Neighbors report
that real estate prices go down when wineries as event centers move in,”
Matthes noted.
NAPA VISION 2050 AND LAKE COUNTY THREATS
“We
need a valley-wide voice,” commented David Hallett of the Napa Vision 2050, a
coalition of 15 groups, including the Sierra Club. He recommended that people
“go find your commonality and get organized.”
“A big vintner wanted to put in a winery
in the hills behind my back yard in a known water-deprived area,”
explained Dan Mufson of Napa Vision 2050. “They would cut down 28,000 trees.”
He was able to rally neighbors to raise community awareness of this and
then other projects.
“Lake
County is in a different cycle of winery development,” said Julie Kreis of Lake
County’s Hidden Valley Lake Watershed (HVL) group. They focus on new vineyards
wanting to move in, as land and water become scarcer in Sonoma and Napa
counties. Kreis owns eleven acres bordering a
6,000-person subdivision, which makes it the second largest population
concentration in the small county of 63,860 people in 2013.
“The Wild Diamond Vineyard has an application
to plant 108 acres of vines on a steep
mountainside parcel with moderate to severe erosion and run-off that goes into
Hidden Valley Lake,” noted Kreis. “HVL Watershed is concerned about
depletion of wells and spring recharge. It's critical to address corporate
vineyard development that clear cuts the land of trees, negatively impacts
water resources, pollutes water and air, and destroys natural habitat,”
added Kreis.
“We’ve felt isolated and lonely fighting
Big Wine,” commented Greg Stratmann, who co-owns Stonehouse Cellars winery in Lake
County. He represented the Old Long Valley Road community of some 50
households, “two of which were pumping air from their wells a week after a
nearby winery started irrigating this year.”
Stratmann reported on a struggle with Shannon
Ranches, which put in a large reservoir without a
permit. “The county does not enforce its laws, so vineyards can do what they
want and then pay minimal fines. Shannon waters its grapes beyond industry
standards and then adds concentrates,” according to Stratmann.
“We
are concerned with all the event centers at wineries in the Sonoma Valley,”
reported Kathy Pons of Valley of the Moon Alliance.
“They
are no longer merely ag., having become hospitality centers. I want true
agriculture to survive, which is cultivating the soil.”
“In
2002 we challenged a giant resort. They had to do an Environmental Impact
Report (EIR), which we challenged in court,” Pons said. Though the court eventually
denied the group’s lawsuit, they slowed down the project, which the worsened
economic situation in 2008 stalled.
This is the plan for our Laguna de Santa Rosa. |
That
resort, which includes a winery with events, was recently bought by a Chinese
holding company for $41 million. Another Chinese corporation has also bought
property in the Sonoma Valley. With the rise of its middle class, the huge
Chinese market for California wines is expanding. Most of Big Wine on
California’s North Coast is owned by outside investors.
“CHAINSAW
WINE” SIGNS AND BUMPER STICKERS
“We
are science-based,” reported Chris Poehlmann of Friends of the Gualala River,
which extends from Mendocino into Sonoma County. “We approach things through
legislation, including dealing with general plans and zoning. We’ve been
successful with legal challenges, forcing EIRs. Our major concern has been the
conversion of forests into vineyards.”
With
respect to the media, Poehlmann suggested, “Be creative. For example, make ‘chainsaw
wine’ signs and bumper stickers.” They have been fighting an 18,000-acre
Preservation Ranch project.
“Big
Wine is a Big Problem,” reported Warren Watkins, who arrived directly from a
celebration of the Russian River. Groups throughout the North Coast have been
showing the acclaimed new documentary “The Russian River: All Rivers” to
sell-out audiences. It includes substantial footage and interviews about the
damage that wineries do to watersheds.
It takes a lot of grapes. |
Watkins
spoke for Healdsburg Citizens for Sustainable Solutions, which has helped mobilized
hundreds of residents to attend various governmental meetings. He noted that
wine tourism creates extra demands for water. “Healdsburg and Sonoma have been
ordered by the state to cut their water use more than any other city in Sonoma
County. These are the two biggest tourist towns in the County.”
“This
is a regional issue,” commented Greenbelt Alliance’s Teri Shore. “Our groups
must look at community separators, to preserve the open spaces and greenbelts
between our cities. Right now I'm focused on renewing community separators policies in
Sonoma. We need
to examine the bigger picture and work together.”
CALISTOGA
MEETING ENDS, THE STRUGGLE CONTINUES
The
six-hour gathering concluded with an evening session on issues such as a
mission statement and the group’s name. Members of Preserve Rural Sonoma County
were present. Its mission statement includes the following: “Our mission is to
promote limits on the encroachment of large wine and spirits processing
complexes/events centers and their negative impacts upon residential
neighborhoods and inappropriate rural areas.”
Four Counties Network (FCN) was the
tentative name agreed upon to identify the collaboration of these diverse
groups in distinct counties. It is a working name that may change. It
signifies the desire to mobilize a mass movement into a united struggle to
ensure the preservation of the rural nature of these neighboring North Coast
California counties, which includes their historic agrarian cultures.
“Four
County Network members have common concerns regarding impact,” noted Napa’s former
winery executive Robert Dwyer. “We are united by out-of-control negative
impacts upon our regional resources. We are not going away. Network member
organizations plan to monitor, challenge, and participate in future land use
policy decisions in the region.”
Folsom Lake - 2011 and 2014 |
Since
it takes about 30 gallons of water to produce one glass of wine, extensive
water use by wineries as events centers was a major concern of the gathering.
After reading a report on the meeting, geologist Jane Nielson, Ph.D., of the
Sonoma County Water Coalition wrote the following in an email:
“The
US Geological Survey’s 8-year study of groundwater under the Santa Rosa Plain
showed an annual deficit of 3,300 acre-ft (just over a billion gallons) per
year, due mostly to agricultural and rural residential pumping from wells,
which the County has permitted with no limitation. The County permits more and
more and more water extraction by new wineries, distilleries, and event centers
by large wine-making concerns.”
“How
many wineries and wine-based entertainment centers does one firm really need?”
asked geologist Dr. Nielson.
For
Further Information: www.facebook.com/preserveruralsonoma
county and preserveruralsonomacounty.org.
NapaVision2050@gmail.com
(Dr. Shepherd Bliss {3sb@comcast.net}
teaches college, farms, has contributed to 24 books, and works with the Apple
Roots Group.)
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