eNewsletter | July Edition
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In this month's edition:
- Strategic Plan 2021-2024 released
- We're hiring a Program Assistant - applications due July 30!
- NEW LandSmart Grazing program funded in Sonoma County
- Input needed: Community Wildfire Protection Plan
- Shallow Wells and Streamflow - what you need to know PDF guide
- Petaluma Groundwater Sustainability Agency needs your help!
- North Bay Forest Improvement Program application clinic Aug 4
- Community workshops and more resources for you
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Strategic Plan 2021-2024 to guide RCD's impact |
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The purpose of this Strategic Plan is to guide the RCD’s high-level decisions for the next three years. Our approach with the Plan was not to identify every activity the RCD will carry out in service to our mission, but rather to identify the greatest opportunities to grow and improve how we deliver on that mission.
Sonoma RCD sees a future where the natural resources of Sonoma County are abundant and available for the benefit of all people, agriculture, ecosystems and the economy.
Bridging the needs of the community and natural resources by empowering people through reliable expertise and action to strengthen the resilience of Sonoma County.
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Seeking a Program Assistant to join our team! |
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The Program Assistant position offers an incredible opportunity to gain valuable experience working with innovative landowners and partners to address Sonoma County’s most pressing natural resource concerns. This unique position allows for a diverse workload both in the office and field. The Program Assistant will work alongside other staff to provide support for all RCD program areas, in pursuit of multiple resource goals such as water quality, drought and fire resilience, soil heath, and climate-beneficial farming. The individual must be highly motivated, enjoy working in a team environment, have strong attention to detail and organizational skills, be flexible to changing workload priorities, have strong written and verbal communication skills, and have an ability to execute assignments efficiently and in a timely manner. To view and download the full job announcement click here, please share!
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NEW LandSmart® Grazing Program for Community Resilience |
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Gold Ridge and Sonoma Resource Conservation Districts have created LandSmart® Grazing, a program designed to fund the partnership between landowners and contract grazers in the hopes of reducing the risk and rapid spread of wildfire.
LandSmart Grazing is a targeted grazing program designed to support interested neighbors or community groups to utilize grazing as a way of reducing fuel load and making their communities safer in the face of wildfires. In addition to reducing fire risks, this type of vegetation management and community-supported targeted grazing can improve biodiversity and provide a carbon-friendly method of vegetation management. LandSmart Grazing also aims to serve previously burned properties in order to remove invasive weeds and reduce fuel load in preparation for future post-fire recovery activities.
The RCDs plan to connect contract grazers to landowners with the help of the U.C. Cooperative Extension's program Match.Graze in the hopes of facilitating a smooth and effective reduction of fire-fuels. Additional information about this program, including an application form, will be sent out over email soon. Keep an eye on your inbox if you think you might be interested in applying!
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Input needed: Community Wildfire Protection Plan
Shared from Permit Sonoma
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For the decades following the 1964 Hanley and Nuns fires, there were few large damaging wildfires in Sonoma County. This abruptly changed 2017 when the Sonoma Complex fires forever changed our county. Since then, every fire season has brought traumatic and devastating fires, and wildfire has become a day to day reality for county residents. In order to address this reality the County is undergoing the process of updating our Community Wildfire Protection Plan.
- Sonoma COunty Community Base Map
- Sonoma County Wildfire Hazard Index
- Public Input Map
- How to use the Hub Site and much more!
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What is a Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP)? |
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Defined in the United States Congress Healthy Forests Restoration Act (2003), the goal of the CWPP is to enhance efforts to protect communities, watersheds and other at-risk lands from catastrophic wildfire. A CWPP is not a regulatory document, but provides wildfire hazard and risk assessments, community descriptions, options for addressing issues of structural vulnerability to wildfire (Home Hardening), and provides a prioritized list of projects which, if implemented, can serve to reduce wildfire hazards.
A CWPP is one of the best tools we have to take strides to adapt our county to a wildfire-prone environment. The CWPP will contain hazard and risk analyses and, using a collaborative model, will suggest projects that can efficiently reduce risk of loss of life, property loss, and environmental damage. Read the 2016 CWPP at Fire Safe Sonoma.
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Forest Improvement second round of applications due July 31st |
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The purpose of the California Forest Improvement Program (CFIP) is to encourage private and public investment in, and improved management of, California forest lands and resources. The program scope includes the improvement of all forest resources including fish and wildlife habitat, and soil and water quality.
Cost-share assistance is provided to private and public ownerships containing 20 to 5,000 acres of forest land. Cost-shared activities include:
· Preparation of a Forest Management Plan by a Registered Professional Forester (RPF)
· RPF Supervision of the following:
· Reforestation
· Site Preparation
· Trees and Planting
· Tree Shelters
· Stand Improvement
· Pre-commercial Thinning or Release
· Pruning
· Follow-up (includes mechanical, herbicide and/or slash disposal follow-up
· Forestland conservation practices / fish and wildlife habitat improvement
See upcoming Application Clinic virtual event below happening August 4, 2021!
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Shallow Wells and Streamflow - what you need to know
Shared from California Department of Fish and Wildlife
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Groundwater is a major water source for many Californians. In addition to being one of the primary sources of agricultural water use throughout the state, approximately 33 million Californians, including most rural inhabitants, use groundwater for drinking or residential uses. Additionally, California contains many Groundwater Dependent Ecosystems -important plant or animal communities that require groundwater to meet some or all of their water needs. Unsustainable groundwater use (i.e., pumping more groundwater than what is replenished) can not only lower groundwater levels, requiring deeper wells and higher pumping costs for landowners, but can also degrade important groundwater-dependent habitat supporting imperiled plants, animals, and fish. One specific mechanism through which these impacts materialize is via streamflow depletion caused by groundwater pumping of shallow, near-stream wells. |
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Petaluma Valley GSA needs your help! |
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The Petaluma Valley Groundwater Sustainability Agency is seeking more information concerning groundwater levels in portions of the Petaluma Valley Groundwater Basin where there are insufficient data, especially the northwest part of the basin and the southwest part of the basin closer to the Petaluma River.
You can help by volunteering your well for use in this study. If selected, the groundwater level in your well will be tested twice a year by trained personnel. It’s that simple. And it’s absolutely FREE – there is no cost to you! You will be informed of the water level below your property and will help ensure that localized conditions of you and your neighbors are included in the study. Please note that this program does not measure the amount of water being used by the property, only the changes in groundwater level elevation. Your participation will be kept confidential.
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NBFIP Virtual Application Clinic - RSVP for August 4 |
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Looking for assistance in applying to the North Bay Forest Improvement Program? Join us for a virtual application clinic to answer your questions about the program and application process. Applications for this round are due September 30, 2021.
The Forest Improvement Program: Rebuild NorthBay Foundation (RNBF), in partnership with the five Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) of Sonoma, Mendocino, Lake, and Napa counties and Clear Lake Environmental Research Center, is offering the North Bay Forest Improvement Program to forest landowners across the four-county north bay region. This three-year pilot program is made possible thanks to $1.5M in Proposition 68 funding awarded via a CALFIRE Wildfire Resilience and Forestry Assistance grant.
This program brings critical resources to treat wildfire hazards on private properties throughout the region, with a focus on serving disadvantaged communities. The North Bay Forest Improvement Program (NBFIP) supports planning and implementation of projects on private forested lands to reduce risks of wildfire and promote forest health. The program provides financial incentives to landowners to conduct this critical work.
Application Clinic:
Wednesday, August 4, 6:00-7:30pm (Q&A 6:30-7:30)
Where: On Zoom. Meeting link will be sent to registrants RSVP here!
What: Assistance to applicants of the North Bay Forest Improvement Program. Panelists will discuss resources and take questions about the program and application process.
Before you attend: This clinic should be attended only after interested applicants have reviewed the following materials:
Applicants must have a forest management plan.
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Wildfire Fuel Mapper: new community resource from our partners |
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Maps, resources, and information to help Sonoma County residents and land managers reduce fire fuel hazard. In Sonoma County and across the west, fires have grown larger and more destructive. Our communities need a coordinated, regional approach to manage fuels and protect people, ecosystems, and infrastructure. Pepperwood Preserve, University of California Cooperative Extension (UCCE), and Tukman Geospatial,collaborated to develop a Wildfire Fuel Mapper – an online application that supports forest management efforts, with a focus on reducing hazardous wildland fuels that threaten lives and homes in the wildland-urban interface. This project was supported by PG&E, the Thornton Foundation, and CAL FIRE.
The Mapper helps landowners to:
· Understand vegetation types
· Understand the need for fuel treatments in Sonoma County
· Obtain information on planning and implementing fuel treatments in Sonoma County
Obtain maps for their property or watershed
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Attend a technical workshop to receive the latest science-based information on how to best manage your soil, water and wildlife on
your property.
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With a tax deducible donation you can support conservation projects that protects water resources, improves soil health + restores habitat for endangered species.
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Sign up to receive our monthly newsletters and hear about innovative projects, read our newest publications, funding opportunities and upcoming events.
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Conservation at Work with LandSmart®
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