"Preservation" Ranch?

The so-called "Preservation" Ranch is a 19,300 acre development in the heart of the Gualala River watershed owned by Premier Pacific Vineyards (PPV).

PPV plans to "preserve" their land by destroying ~1,670 acres of coastal redwood forest and converting it into vineyards. Those vineyards - and the road infrastructure needed to service them - will fragment the remaining forest land, reducing its value as habitat for the creatures that depend on the forest for survival.

Sonoma County's Permit and Resource Management Department (PRMD) has received an enormous stack of paperwork from PPV, officially called application PLP06-0107. The application documents are available at the PRMD office, Santa Rosa Public Library, Horicon Elementary School in Annapolis, CalFire office at The Sea Ranch and on the PRMD website: Preservation Ranch Project Proposal.

PRMD will require the preparation of an Environmental Impact Report. The process will begin with an initial study, prepared with public input, to identify relevant environmental issues.

"Preservation" Ranch
PRMD has issued a request for early consultation;
comments are due by September 8, 2008.
Responses should include:

Any concerns you may have regarding the potential environmental impacts of the proposed project that should be assessed in the EIR.
Any feasible mitigation measures, and/or project alternatives that could possibly avoid or minimize potential impacts.

Preservation Ranch,
in the heart of the Gualala River watershed

"The heart of the proposed mitigation concept for Preservation Ranch is forest restoration as a means of compensating for the loss of forest to vineyards. . . The nature of mitigation and restoration, particularly of coastal forests in this region, should be given a hard look before they are accepted as a routine permit process."

- Retail restoration and forest mitigation:
Conservation during the new "Grape Rush"
by Peter R. Baye, Ph.D.

Evans Ridge vineyard development on 'Preservation' Ranch
from a series of aerial photographs by Jamie Hall, October 2007

"Preservation Ranch is the latest in a long series of environmental assaults on western Sonoma County forests. After years of environmentally destructive logging, Sonoma County forests now face the additional threat of permanent development and conversion to vineyards. Numerous western Sonoma County forest conversions have been approved in the past, but the Preservation Ranch proposal is more than twice as large as all previous proposed and approved conversions combined since 1989."

Worse than a Clearcut
Video produced by the Sierra Club Redwood Chapter.

More information

Timber Vs. Grapes - Press Democrat
CalPERS vineyard venture attacked - SacBee
Leaving something behind doesn't mitigate environmental harm - attorney Paul Carroll
Disregard for environmental regulations - AVA
Worse than a Clearcut - Sierra Club
Sierra Club, Redwood Chapter, Sonoma Group
"Preservation" Ranch website