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

The Sea Ranch Forum presents:

The Gualala River Watershed:
Our River, Our Water Supply

Saturday, September 4, 2010
3:00 to 5:00 p.m.
Del Mar Center Hall
The Sea Ranch

Who is watching our watershed?

What role do the County, the State Water Resources Control Board and the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board play? Who regulates the use of the water? Who monitors water quality? How are the regulations enforced? Learn more about the river that provides our water supply and what is being done to monitor and protect this important resource. Speakers will include representatives from government agencies and local non-profit groups working to protect and restore the watershed.

More info . . .

News

Erasing Native American history?
As an early morning mist filters through the Redwoods in the village of Annapolis in NW Sonoma County, a Pomo elder of the Kashia band walks through the forest toward an ancient settlement site...

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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 support. Click here to help the Gualala River today!

Topics

Artesa ("Fairfax") 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.

Mega-vineyard begins quest for permits
"Preservation Ranch" is the largest conversion of coastal forestland to vineyards ever proposed in California. If approved, it would transform the rugged and remote landscape of northwestern Sonoma County.

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.

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 hearing on the proposed retaining wall project has been postponed.

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.

North Coast Stream Flow Campaign
The Gualala River, once famous for steelhead and coho salmon fishing, is now choked with sediment from logging and depleted of flow by expanding wineries.

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. Update: June, 2009: Settlement Agreement reached.

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.

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. In March, 2010, the Court of Appeals upheld the Commission's jurisdiction.

Foundation Grant Boosts Fundraising Effort
Friends of the Gualala River has embarked on a drive to raise $35,000 to engage scientific and legal experts in its efforts to preserve the quantity and quality of water in the Gualala River. The fund-raising received a welcome boost with the award of a $5,000 grant from the Rose Foundation.

Video

"Worse than a Clearcut" The Redwood Chapter of the Sierra Club has just released a short video designed to educate the public and decision-makers about the proposed Preservation Ranch vineyard development project.

Rivers of a Lost Coast
Rivers of a Lost Coast is a new documentary that looks at our relationship to nature through the eyes of the most fabled angling community in American history. This surprisingly touching film was recently labeled a must see by the San Francisco Chronicle and Seattle Times. Narrated by Tom Skerritt.

River otter in the Gualala River
Short video taken by a friend of the Gualala River, just west of the Green Bridge, near the confluence of the North & South Forks, in July 2009.

Legal cases

Protecting old growth redwoods
Center for Biological Diversity, Friends of the Gualala River and Coast Action Group file a lawsuit to protect the last remaining stand of old growth redwoods in the northern part of the Gualala River watershed from logging.
See: Press Release

Lawsuit Imminent Over Water Diversions
The Center for Biological Diversity, Northern California River Watch and Coast Action Group intend to sue the State Water Resources Control Board for authorizing water diversions that harm federally protected salmon and steelhead trout in the Russian River and Gualala River watersheds.

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 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