Will Parrish: Our local water commons has been stolen from us by Globalized Corporate Wine Colonizers to produce high-end booze. Does anyone care? (Updated)

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville [Update: Investigative reporter Will Parrish will discuss his controversial recent series on the ecological toll of California’s wine industry, with a special emphasis on rapacious vineyard development in the Gualala River watershed: The North Coast Wine Industry: Draining Our Rivers Dry] ~ Don Sanderson: … Read more

Will Parrish: When They Came For The Navarro

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville The North Coast wine industry has long acted out a pathological conviction that it is entitled to virtually every single drop of water in every watershed it touches. As in the case of Sonoma County’s recent frost protec tion ordinance, which I detailed in the … Read more

Davis named to head Water Agency

By BRETT WILKISON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Grant Davis, the interim head of the Sonoma County Water Agency, has been hired as the agency’s general manager. The appointment was announced this afternoon by the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors, who also serve as the agency’s board of directors. Davis, 48, has served as the agency’s interim general … Read more

February 2011 Membership Letter

Dear Friends, We appreciate your response to our December letter. Knowing you are still with us is very encouraging. The year 2010 turned out to be a record-breaking year on the Eel River for Chinook. It was amazing to see how different river management and greater flows brought 6,000 to 10,000 Chinook back to the Eel … Read more

The Beginning of a Solution

Humboldt County group pushes rail-to-trail conversion KENT PORTER / THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Chris Weston, founder of the Eel River Trails Association, wants to turn an unused rail line between Willits and Humboldt Bay into a trail system for hikers, cyclists and equestrians. By GLENDA ANDERSON THE PRESS DEMOCRAT Published: Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 2:39 p.m. … Read more

Drinking Our Rivers Dry

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ Drinking Our Rivers Dry By WILL PARRISH The latest in California’s North Coast wine oligarchy’s long series of legislative coups de grace occurred on December 14.  In a 5-0 vote, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors rubber-stamped new regulations on frost protection in the Russian River water basin, … Read more

The new school of fish

The new school of fish The Bay Area’s smartest diners, chefs, and purveyors now know (and care) where every cut of grass-fed beef and stalk of pesticide-free produce comes from. Yet nearly all look the other way when fish is on the plate. What will it take to stop the eco-fibbing? By Erik Vance, Photographs … Read more

Will Parrish: Anderson Valley, Tentacle of the Winegrape Octopus

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville “When at last the land, worn out, would refuse to yield, they would invest their money in something else; by then they would have all made fortunes.” — Frank Norris, The Octopus, 1901 One of California agribusiness’ oldest traditions is clearing huge swaths of … Read more

2011: The Year of the River

Posted on January 5, 2011 | Filed Under: Dams & Dam Removal , Restoring Rivers Amy Souers Kober Senior Director of Communications Hold on to your paddles, because 2011 is going to be a thrilling year. From Maine to Washington, we will be celebrating a river renaissance as waters long-dammed come back to life. 2011 will see the nation’s … Read more

Will Parrish: On Memory & Forgetting in Wine Country

Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville Soon after I became outspoken in my criticism of the regional wine industry, I began having conversations with local people for whom this issue is deeply personal. Across recent decades, the sprawling North Coast booze sector has recklessly reconfigured landbases, sucked waterways dry, killed off … Read more