A state appeals court has restored the authority of California water regulators to direct reductions in cold-weather sprays by grape growers and other waterfront farmers along the Russian River that have led to deaths of endangered species of salmon. A Mendocino County judge previously ruled that the state Water Resources Control Board lacked authority to … Read more
Freezing Out Fish in Whine Country By Lloyd G. Carter Do not expect the State Water Resources Control Board’s recently adopted frost prevention self-monitoring program to halt the Russian River fishery’s slow slide toward extinction. If anything, the new regulations may hasten extinction, given the wine growing industry’s practice of virtually drying up the … Read more
by Will Parrish on Sep 28th, 2011 The Anderson Valley Advertiser The primary mandate of the California State Water Resources Control Board (SWRCB), a division of the California Environmental Protection Agency, is to ensure adequate water for California’s fish populations. Its actual function, however, has proved to be altogether different. In … Read more
by Darwin Bond-Graham and Will Parrish on Jul 27th, 2011 If you’ve followed the Anderson Valley Advertiser for any length of time, you’re no doubt aware that the wine industry wields inordinate political power, not only here on the North Coast, but at the state-wide level also. Whether they’re fighting to prevent regulation of their enormous appetite for … Read more
Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ Will Parrish: Laytonville Photo: The North Coast’s biggest forestland to vineyard conversion ever? Courtesy Friends of the Gualala River Spanish wine corporation Grupo Codorníu is accustomed to doing things in a big way. It is reputed to own a greater expanse of vineyard acreage than any wine company … Read more
Help Support Important Local Reporting, Subscribe Today http://theava.com/ From WILL PARRISH Laytonville If you want to mark a point-of-no-return in the Ander son Valley’s transformation into a full-on satellite of the Napa-Sonoma industrial viticulture complex, as good a choice as any is Duckhorn Vineyards’ takeover of three properties outside of Philo and Boonville in the late-’90s. Founded … Read more
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
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
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
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