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Free Peoples Live at the Powerhouse

Who's Playing What?

By Vesta Copestakes
Nov/Dec. 03 Live Music Reviews

The Michael Barclay Band at the Tradewinds in Cotati
The Lucinda Williams concert with eastmountainsouth opening at the Luther Burbank Center for the Arts in Santa Rosa
Free Peoples at the Powerhouse Brewing Company in Sebastopol

Homes for Trees

We are looking for places along Green Valley Creek to plant trees this Fall and Winter.

How come?

Did you know our creeks are famous?

The Atascadero Creek and Green Valley Creek watershed is one of the few remaining creek systems in the Russian River Basin with a surviving Coho Salmon population!

Green Valley Creek in particular is famous among naturalists and creek restoration folks for its - small - yearly run of Coho Salmon that return to their birth place to make a "redd" for their eggs.

After hatching they die, so their bodies, fattened with the plenty of the ocean, can enter the riparian food chain that sustains their offspring, the Coho fry. http://www.cohosalmon.com/coho_explained.htm
But Coho Salmon needs cool water to survive. The shade from trees keeps the water at a comfortable temperature for the fish. Leaves from trees also add nutrients to the food chain and trees that have fallen in the creek create hiding places for the small coho fry.

http://www.swrcb.ca.gov/rwqcb3/Facilities/Timber%20Harvest/Salmon-Steelhead%20Life%20Cycle+%20Requirements.pdf

We need to improve tree cover along Green Valley Creek to sustain and improve our returning runs of Coho!

If you know of a landowner along the creek who wishes to support the coho by planting trees for shade and nutrients for these majestic fish please have them contact the Atascader Creek and Green Valley Creek Watershed Council.

There are funding possibilities and volunteers for riparian tree planting projects that will not only sustain the coho communities but also reconnect us to the nature around us.

Zeno Dr Zeno G. Swijtink, 823-1726
Atascadero Creek and Green Valley Creek Watershed Council

Public Hearing - Water Ski Park

Forestville Gazette 12/01/04 Issue
Alert!

This hearing concerns the commercial use of a water storage pond as a "water ski lake" at the old Charnofsky property at 9499 Mill Station Road near Cherry Ridge Rd. in Sebastopol.

Affordable Housing Comes Home

By Vesta Copestakes
Forestville Gazette 12/01/04 Issue

For all those people who hate meetings and don’t want to get involved on that level – you missed a good one. Four and one-half hours of meeting to be exact. Now I have to say that the first two hours had nothing to do with the topic we Forestville and Graton residents came to discuss, but it was definitely educational. For all those who didn’t attend, please thank all those who did, because we had some influence! They listened to us in the Public Hearing part of the show and it made a difference! Over time we’ll find out how it all comes out in the wash. These things are like weather reports. They change with the wind!

Ok – on to the meat!

Earth treasure's wildlife habitat

By Elaine Neiswender

Lucky am I to be serenaded each morning with the sweet sounds of the chorus of wild local birds busy eating the wild bird food mixture that I put out for them in numerous places in my garden. Their happy songs filling the air awaken me instead of the startling blare of an alarm clock. These happy visitors eat and bathe in the fountain designed solely for their enjoyment. Oftentimes I go out into the garden early and lay on the chaise lounge to watch the 20 or 30 hummingbirds drinking their morning "juice" from the plants that they most enjoy.

Quarries Apply for Major Expansions

By Sig Anderman

Blue Rock and Canyon Rock quarries, operating on opposite sides of the road along Scenic Highway 116 a half-mile west of downtown Forestville, have both applied to the County for major expansions. Blue Rock has asked for re-zoning and permits to expand its current 32-acre mining operation by 22 acres, and increase production from approximately 150,000 cubic yards a year to 400,000. Canyon Rock has asked to expand its current 58-acre operation by a total of 83 acres along Martinelli Road, and/or 30 acres along Highway 116. If granted, the requests would more than double the surface areas being mined, significantly increase the volume of gravel being extracted and shipped, and extend the mining operations for at least another 20 years.

An environmental impact report will be issued soon for the requested Blue Rock expansion, at which time input from concerned citizens will be accepted. We will also be discussing these projects at our town meeting on October 4.

In addition to the obvious, but hard to "value," visual and noise impacts of the quarries, the proposed expansions, if permits are granted, will have at least three significant impacts on the people who live in and visit Forestville.

Traffic

Based on county studies, up to 700 single and double trailer trucks go to or from the quarries every day, each causing 10,000 times the roadway wear and tear per trip compared to a typical automobile. A high percentage of those trucks go through downtown. Others go down Mirabel Road. Many go past the elementary school or the Youth Park. Traffic will increase substantially if the expansions are approved.

Health Impacts

One of the most dramatic impacts of the quarries is the increased risk of illness caused by truck diesel emissions. For a one week period between July 27 and August 2, 2000, Dr. Phyllis Fox, an air quality expert, placed measuring devices along Gravenstein Highway at the west end of town and in front of the elementary school. She found that the increase in cancer risk will be significant. Adults living or working along the haul routes east of the proposed new quarry will incur a lifetime increase in the risk of contracting cancer eighteen (18) times the maximum threshold identified by Proposition 65 and the California Environmental Quality Act. Children who live and attend the Forestville Elementary School will incur a lifetime increase in the risk of contracting cancer twelve times the maximum threshold identified for purposes of Proposition 65 and the California Environmental Quality Act. Extending operations for another 20 years can only make things worse.

Fish and Wildlife

Several residents have reported that Tilton Creek was, until quarry spills began approximately 3 years ago, a year-round creek. Other long-time residents remember when Green Valley Creek, one of the last spawning grounds of the endangered Coho Salmon, still had fish in it. Now, after years of quarrying, they are almost gone. Expanding the quarries could seal their fate.