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STOP Forestland Conversions
to Vineyards
See also: Forest Protection
Private and corporate interests from outside the county
are targeting our forestlands for destruction, clear-cutting
to make way for extensive new vineyard projects.
Many applications have already been filed to clear-cut Sonoma
County coastal forest and plant wine grapes. The projects
would permanently deforest large areas of wooded ridge tops.
Once these redwood forests are removed, they will be lost
forever.
California has laws ensuring that such projects do not cause
environmental damage, but the Department of Forestry is failing
to enforce them. They are approving projects without the analysis
of environmental impacts required by law. To protect our forests,
the Sierra Club and allies such as Friends
of the Gualala River are asking a judge to require the
Department of Forestry to enforce the law.
Redwood Chapter is also calling upon CalPERS, which has voted
to use environmental measures as one guide in its investment
practices, to enact policy against funding or investing in
vineyard projects that result
in the conversion of forests.
The Sierra Club's Sonoma
Group also continues to focus on adoption of forestland
protection amendments to Sonoma County's General Plan. These
much needed amendments would serve as models for general plan
updates in the surrounding counties.
If
you'd like to do more to help protect forests from conversions,
contact Jay Halcomb at halcomb@sonic.net
(707-869-3302). |
Courtesy of National Park Service
Questions To Ask
Preservation Ranch
CalPERS
CalPERS Letters
Premier Pacific Vineyards
Longview Project
Vineyard Conversion
Policy
"Environmentalists
fight vineyards' spread"
"Why
local forests deserve protection"
Wine
country casualties
Grape-eating bears killed as vineyards' territory expands
(SF Chron). " Wildlife is often the loser as vineyards
steadily creep into the hinterlands ..."
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