Sonoma RCD: Annual Report 2021-2022

A letter from your RCD

Dear Friends of the RCD,

The past year has been eventful as ever. Our team celebrated both professional milestones and personal adventures. We said bittersweet goodbyes and joyfully welcomed new staff and board members. And true to form, we accomplished important conservation outcomes on the ground and in our community.

It’s been over a year since we adopted a new strategic plan. That planning effort focused not on the details of our multi-faceted work, but rather on our opportunities to adapt and grow stronger, both in our community impact and in our health as an organization. This year has been marked by our commitment to those goals and strategies that represent our growing edge.

The pages of this report reflect some of our major strategic efforts over the past year: expanding our reach in the community, helping build resilience across the landscape, and leveraging farms to fight climate change. At the same time, we’ve been doing “internal” work: planning future staffing to grow our team’s capacity and resilience, recruiting new board members, and strengthening internal systems to provide a more solid foundation for all our efforts.

We’re so grateful to have each of you as part of our community and honored that you’ve found your way to this annual report. We hope you’ll stay a while, learn something new about conservation in Sonoma County, and get inspired for what’s next. Our community is filled with creativity and dedication that can outmatch any challenge we face. Let’s keep growing forward, together.

In partnership,

John Nagle, Board Chair

Valerie Quinto, Executive Director

Sonoma RCD | Annual

Cover photo by: Ari DeMarco Project Manager

SUCCESSFUL CONSERVATION TAKES A TEAM

IMPACT REPORT SUMMARY

Number of people supported by free technical assistance in 2021-2022

Total revenue for conservation planning, on the ground projects, and education

Number of community members reached through events, workshops, and webinars on soil health, fuels management, water conservation efforts, planting for pollinators and more

98 individuals $3 million 453 people

Total amount of funding secured for vegetation management, community resiliency, and forest health projects $1.2 million

Thank you to our dedicated followers and partners on Instagram 1,352 followers 2,523 subscribers

Number of subscribers to our monthly eNewsletters where we share the most up to date information about our programs, success stories, funding opportunities, and ways to get involved with your RCD

Finalized LandSmart conservation plans supporting rangeland, vineyard and forestland properties 19 plans

Our Mission | Bridging the needs of the community and natural resources by empowering people through reliable expertise and action to strengthen the resilience of Sonoma County.

Promoting a shared culture of conservation

Strategic Plan Implementation: Year 1

Utilizing our Strategic Plan to guide our conservation priorities we have diligently and thoughtfully made progress on several strategies in all four goals. We aim to serve our communities most pressing needs and watershed concerns as they align with our values, strategic goals, and funding availability. RCD staff and board have convened Strategic Plan subcommittees to support the implementation of goal strategies and track progress on each goal.

Our commitment to service

As we strive to foster a culture of inclusivity in conservation program development and delivery, we are actively evaluating historic gaps in our service and cultivating an array of partner relationships to better serve our community. In spring 2022, our team met with six local partners: Sonoma County Office of Equity, Kitchen Table Advisors, Petaluma Bounty, Conservation Works, Community Alliance with Family Farmers, and Latino Service Providers to hear first-hand about their work on the ground and the challenges faced by our diverse urban, rural communities, and historically underserved producers, and how the RCD can be an ally in service. We are grateful to the representatives who spoke with our team.

With the finalization of our strategic plan in winter of 2021, we established a JEDI committee to ensure that all strategic goals are met that work to address Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) externally and internally. Our team is dedicated to learning from our community and ensuring our actions reflect our values. In addition to our local focus, a representative from our district participates on the California Association of RCD’s (CARCD)JEDI Committee to drive and support statewide change.

At the close of the fiscal year, the RCD was a subawardee for a collaborative grant submitted by CARCD to the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) Equity Conservation Cooperative Agreements to expand the delivery of conservation assistance to farmers who are new to farming, low income, socially disadvantaged or military veterans. The RCD is diligently working to identify barriers and strategies to overcome them to improve conservation assistance to historically underserved farmers and ranchers in our district. Supplemental funding from the National Association Conservation Districts has already enabled our team to build relationships with existing programming and community partners.

Sonoma RCD

Rainwater rebate with Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership

In spring 2022, through the Sonoma-Marin Saving Water Partnership, the Sonoma and Gold Ridge RCDs, Daily Acts, County of Sonoma, and the California Department of Water Resources, offered rebates for both small and large rainwater capture systems. Rebates were provided to Sonoma County residents based on a limited-time, first-come, first-served basis through a simple application process and proof of installation. This program was designed to reduce the barriers to installation by increasing the affordability of these systems and providing technical assistance for system design, installation, and troubleshooting.

Monarch and pollinator conservation

RCDs across California have risen to meet the call to action to help save the iconic Western Monarch Butterfly developing dynamic pollinator partnerships and diverse community interests. As a species in severe decline, conservation efforts are evermore needed to ensure their future population and the health of other pollinator species we depend on. In partnership with Gold Ridge RCD, we have continued to share educational resources and provide native milkweed species and other nectar plants to our urban and agricultural land stewards.

see a future where the natural resources of Sonoma County are abundant and available for the benefit of all people, agriculture, ecosystems, and the economy; however, we cannot do this work without leveraging our collective action across our region and state. Empowering our network through reliable technical support and action will enable us to strengthen the resiliency of our landscapes, health of our natural resources, and adaptiveness of our communities as we face the impacts of a changing climate.”

Christine Kuehn Education & Communications Manager Sonoma RCD

“We

Welcoming TEAM Students Back to the Farm

TEAM stands for Teaching Environmental and Agricultural Memories, and its mission is to give elementary students a positive and lasting experience on a working Sonoma County farm.

The Sonoma and Gold Ridge RCD staff and education consultant Stephanie Lennox of Envirichment, led a total of 125 elementary students to our newest farm learning site Duckworth Family Farm, a U-pick organic blueberry farm located in Sebastopol. Students explored the farm via three guided learning stations. Students toured the farm and used binoculars to identify wildlife and farm features in the landscape, experienced various natural fibers and wove class rag rugs on antique looms and had an opportunity to investigate structures and functions of blueberry plants. Farm owner and operator Lorri Duckworth and family served up a homemade sweet treat at the end of each trip, which was a welcome surprise for our students. For many classes this was their first field trip in person since the COVID-19 shutdowns in spring 2020.

This unique program is supported in partnership with Ag + Open Space. Ag + Open Space partners with local organizations through innovative programs that get young people outside to explore nature, science, agriculture, and environmental stewardship in their communities, which is made possible by the voters of Sonoma County who fund the work of Ag + Open Space with a quarter-cent sales tax. Transportation support was key in connecting students with the land this spring. However, without the wonderful landowners and stewards of these farms and ranches our program would not be possible. Learn more about the program and how to get involved.

Students journal at Duckworth Family Farm in the blueberry field observe plant structure and function, pollinators, and growing berries.

PRIORITIZING WATERSHED ADAPTABILITY AND HABITAT ENHANCEMENT

Coastal watershed communities lead the way

The Sonoma County Coastal Rainwater Catchment and Forbearance project was funded by the California Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) and was managed by the Sonoma RCD, with the support of our community liaisons. With the dedication of our contractors and coastal community members we were able to develop 21 rainwater catchment systems as an alternative water source, leaving more water in the creeks and ground for the endangered Central California Coast coho salmon. Streamflow in small creeks and tributaries is critical for juvenile fish, which remain in the creeks during the hot summer months. Direct diversions from creeks, springs, and groundwater pumping draw from the same watersheds that juvenile coho rely on to survive.

The rainwater catchment tanks will collect rainwater off roofs during the winter, to be used during the summer months for irrigation and other outdoor non-potable uses. A total of 240,000 gallons of water will now remain in the watersheds annually which adds up to 4.8 million gallons of water over the 20-year life of the project. The rainwater will offset the existing water source (well, spring, or creek) during the driest time of year, leaving this water in the aquifers and streams when it is most needed.

The project also provides rural residents with additional water security during the uncertain times of drought and climate change that our communities face now and in the future. In addition to offsetting pumping and encouraging landowners to be more aware of their water use, the stored water may also be used for fire protection, an invaluable resource in our county. Since the completion of this grant on the coast, the RCD has secured two additional contracts to support similar work in the Mark West and Mill Creek watersheds because of the success of this project. Click here to view the project video.

Restoring habitat in the Laguna Sonoma RCD staff began the first phase of a native revegetation project in the Laguna de Santa Rosa watershed with assistance from the Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation, which builds on previous riparian planting projects installed by the Foundation further downstream. Located on the City of Santa Rosa’s Brown Farm property, a total of 625 trees and shrubs will be installed along approximately 930 linear feet (1.68 acre area) of a tributary of the Laguna de Santa Rosa referred to as Gravenstein Creek. The project objectives are to increase riparian corridor extent and quality to benefit local riparian species and aquatic organisms, increase the abundance of native riparian plants, and enhance cover, complexity and buffering of the riparian corridor via revegetation with genetically appropriate native plant material. Phase ll of the planting will take place in winter of 2022 in partnership with Point Blue Conservation Science’s STRAW Program.

Collaborative planning for watershed wide adaptation

The Petaluma River Watershed encompasses 146 square miles with 56% of the watershed made up of upland hilly areas, 33% valleys, and 11% salt marsh. The mainstem Petaluma River is 19 miles long and drains to the San Pablo Bay, which is part of the San Francisco Bay-Delta Estuary. The headwaters and ephemeral tributaries of Petaluma River begin on the steep southwest slopes of Sonoma Mountain, the southern slopes of Mecham Hill, and the eastern slopes of Wiggins Hill and Mt. Burdell. At 4,191acres, “despite two centuries of diking and filling in many parts of estuary, Petaluma Marsh remains the largest and least disturbed remnant of the vast areas of brackish and saline tidal marsh that historically existed in the San Francisco Estuary.” (Petaluma Valley Historical Hydrology and Ecology Study, 2018). Yet, a wide range of factors continue to threaten both natural and human communities over the coming decades that relay on the watershed due to climate change. It is our community’s responsibility to ensure the conservation, ecological and productivity values of our watersheds.

In 2019, the Petaluma River Watershed Collaborative, a watershed group formed to engage local stakeholders currently working in the Petaluma River Watershed to coordinate with one another on leveraging past and ongoing efforts. The group was tasked with completing a comprehensive planning effort for the watershed to work towards implementing on-the-ground and watershed management projects through a participatory process that would foster the sustainability of such efforts.

The planning project was funded by the Bureau of Reclamation and actively supported the goals of the agency’s Cooperative Watershed Management Program (CWMP). Through the Petaluma River Watershed Collaborative, the RCD and environmental consultant Kate Reza updated the RCD’s existing Draft Petaluma Watershed Enhancement Plan 2015 and drafted an Action Plan for the watershed that prioritizes the most critical projects for watershed sustainability and guides the efficient investment of collective resources. This planning effort would not have been possible without the investment of time from the member stakeholders and Tribal review from the Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria.

Concurrently, the RCD has worked alongside the Sonoma Land Trust, San Francisco Estuary Institute, and Point Blue Conservation Science to prepare an Adaptation and Resilience Plan for the Petaluma River Baylands, which is slated for completion in 2023.

Katie Robbins Project Manager Sonoma RCD

“The health of our watershed is ultimately tied to the health of our community.”

Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership

Pioneering positive change through collaboration for over a decade.

2022 marks the end of a chapter for the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership, an effort that the RCD has proudly been part of since its inception in 2009. Salmon are a keystone species, inextricably linked to the health of our coastal ecosystems, yet over the past two centuries their populations have experienced devastating declines. Central California Coast coho salmon and steelhead are at a fraction of their historic abundance. Rigorous species recovery efforts were launched in the late 1990s to prevent the extirpation of Russian River coho salmon, including a conservation hatchery program and broad-scale habitat restoration. While these actions prevented coho from local extinction, our endangered salmon and threatened steelhead still face a formidable bottleneck — insufficient streamflow.

In response to this need, a motivated group of watershed restoration practitioners, water rights specialists, and scientists formed the Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership (Partnership) in 2009 with funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and Sonoma Water. Our goal is to increase streamflow in salmon-bearing streams, while improving long-term water security for local communities.

The Partnership unites a wide range of expertise from the following organizations: Trout Unlimited, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, California Sea Grant, Occidental Arts and Ecology Center’s WATER Institute.

The experience of working collaboratively in dynamic, complex natural and social systems for over a decade has allowed us to develop the enduring relationships, innovative approaches, and adaptive strategies required to work effectively to reduce impacts to streamflow in the face of increasing climate volatility. The Russian River Coho Water Resources Partnership is a collaboration of experts dedicated to improving water reliability for fish and people. Read the Partnership’s Final Report here.

“Partnership flow enhancement projects have proven to be an effective tool for enhancing drought resilience in some of our most critical coho salmon rearing streams. The Partnership has devised an innovative approach to enhancing streamflow for people and fish, building a long-term, successful collaboration that can serve as a blueprint for future efforts in California.”

David Hines Senior Environmental Scientist CA Department of Fish & Wildlife

SUPPORTING CLIMATE-SMART AGRICULTURE

Cultivating crops, raising livestock + farming carbon

The RCD’s conservation planners have worked in partnership with producers to catalog existing best management practices (BMPs) and make recommendations to support carbon sequestration and soil health for forage productivity, wildlife habitat, with consideration ot the operator’s bottom line. So far, carbon farm plans alone account for 3,600 acres in our district with an additional 2,900 acres are in progress. These plans are tailored to vineyard and rangeland properties.

Carbon Farming is a whole farm approach to optimizing carbon capture on working landscapes by implementing practices that are known to improve the rate at which CO2 is removed from the atmosphere and stored in plant material and/or soil organic matter. Carbon farming practices are management practices that are known to sequester carbon and/or reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

A few of these practices include compost application, cover cropping, hedgerow installation, changing tillage practices, and manure management strategies. At least thirty-five of these practices are identified by the Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) as conservation practices that improve soil health and sequester carbon while producing important co-benefits, including increased soil water holding capacity, hydrological function, biodiversity, and resilience. (Carbon Cycle Institute, 2022).

Carbon farming practices can help to reverse greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and other industries. Agriculture can play a vital role in sequestering carbon to aid in meeting state and federal greenhouse gas goals.

Sonoma RCD

“Carbon farming is one of our best opportunities to achieve our climate goals in this county. Farmers and ranchers are already being part of the solution, and that’s only going to increase.”

Valerie

Quinto Executive Director Sonoma RCD

Collaborative compost application pilot project

This pilot aims to revitalize healthy soils and enhance resilient agriculture throughout Sonoma County. The application of compost to agricultural lands has been shown to increase long-term farm productivity, soil and plant health, and resilience to extreme weather, flooding, and drought. Compost is a generic term used for a product generated from the composting process. It can be defined as organic material that has undergone controlled biological and chemical decomposition, resulting in a stable substance that is resistant to further decay. The majority of composts contain nutrients and satisfactory numbers of bacteria which help to improve soil nutrient levels and biological health and result in positive growth responses.

The Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority (RCPA) will work in coordination with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, Zero Waste Sonoma, Sonoma Resource Conservation District, Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, Carbon Cycle Institute, Daily Acts, and several additional community partners to increase carbon sequestration through the application of compost on multiple properties in both agricultural and community settings throughout the county. Potential co-benefits of this project include soil water retention, erosion control, an increase in soil organic matter, and the ability for the County and other local jurisdictions to meet SB1383 requirements for the purchase and use of recovered organic waste products. Success will be measured by acres of land treated, tons of compost applied, and number of residents engaged through project implementation and/or community education. Implementation of this project will take place in the 2022-2023 fiscal year.

North Coast Soil Health Hub expands

The North Coast Soil Hub is an agriculturally focused network that addresses region-specific needs, successes, and challenges. Our coordinating and advising team is made up of RCDs, Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Field Offices, University of California Cooperative Extension Farm Advisers & Researchers, Santa Rosa Junior College educators, the Carbon Cycle Institute, industry organizations and associations, and most importantly North Coast agriculturists. At its inception the Hub was focused on soil health practices in vineyards and was regionally focused on Sonoma, Marin, Mendocino, and Napa counties. This last year, we’ve expanded to include Humboldt County and are working to better integrate field trials and soil health practices benefitting range and pastureland, as well as orchards and diversified crop production.

To meet the demand for knowledge about how to build and maintain healthy soils, the North Coast Soil Hub is a network that includes farmer-to-farmer workshops, long-term experimental demonstrations, technical services, educational resources, and a website that serves as an informational sharing platform. We are dedicated to advancing regenerative agriculture in California’s North Coast region.

Spreading Knowledge (and Compost) with the Sonoma Mountain Institute

Partners in regenerative agriculture.

When the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) announced the Healthy Soils Program, Byron Palmer knew he wanted to participate. The Healthy Soils Program promotes the development of healthy soils on California’s farms and ranches. It aligns perfectly with the goals of the Sonoma Mountain Institute (SMI), where Byron works as a Grassland and Grazing Manager. However, for busy land managers like Byron and his colleagues, the barriers to submitting and managing a grant of that magnitude can be overwhelming. That’s where the Sonoma RCD comes in. Over the course of three years, the Sonoma RCD partnered with the SMI to spread more than 3.5 million pounds of compost across 53 acres, a practice known to improve soil health and sequester carbon on SMI’s land. The project seeks to demonstrate carbon sequestration on a working rangeland through compost application.

The benefits of this partnership extended beyond the land in Petaluma, where the demonstration project took place. Together, SMI and Sonoma RCD hosted three demonstration field days to invite other agricultural professionals to view their progress and learn about their project protocols. Kari Wester, Project Manager at Sonoma RCD, summarized the importance of gathering on-site to share lessons learned: “During demonstration events, we provide updates on these projects. But we are also bringing together farmers and ranchers so they can share their stories. They can have their own conversations and ask questions among themselves in a comfortable space.” These conversations can be a critical springboard for farmers and ranchers to engage in carbon farming practices and connect to the resources to make it possible.

Beyond a daunting grant with rigorous data collection requirements, the two organizations had to navigate relationships with contractors, coordinate delivery of truckloads of compost shipments, administer project management oversight and quality control, and everything in between to bring this project to life. It took diligence, creativity, hard work, a good sense of humor, and humility. Kari says she leaned on Bryon as much as he says he relied on her, “I probably learned more from Byron from this project. He is a powerhouse of knowledge and reviews and reads everything. We [the RCD] brought a technical part, navigating the grant requirements and accessing the funding, but we really learned a lot together throughout the process.” See the full story on the Resource Conservation Network.

Sonoma

“The RCDs are an absoulutely essential partner in these local communities. They are the local fixer. They know the programs, the people, and have the necessary stamina to put their shoulders into the bureacracy to make it all happen.”

Palmer Grassland and Grazing Manager Sonoma Mountain Institute

Byron

INVESTING IN LANDSCAPE RESILIENCY AND FOREST HEALTH

LandSmart Grazing program launched

Community resilience to wildfire requires an intentional shift toward community adaptation given the inevitability of wildfires, insufficient resources, and need to protect the environment. There are varied efforts underway in Sonoma County for fuels reduction through vegetation treatment prescriptions that focus on reducing fire hazard, improving defensible space, and increasing forest resilience. Targeted grazing or prescribed herbivory is also used for vegetation management and is beneficial for air quality, noise, proximity to structures, steep slopes, and areas with noxious weeds. Grazing can also be the most financially accessible and easiest to implement due to lack of permit requirements compared to other fuel treatments such as hand crews, mowing, masticating or prescribed burns.

Grazing reduces flame length and fire intensity and can therefore shift grasses from a highly flammable and effective fire spreader into a natural fire barrier. LandSmart Grazing is a pilot 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. This project also aims to serve previously burned properties to remove invasive weeds and reduce fuel load in preparation for future post-fire recovery activities.

Connecting grazers with at risk communities is the focus of the Sonoma County RCDs’ new incentive program LandSmart Grazing for Community Resilience, funded through a $184,600 grant from Ag + Open Space’s Vegetation Management Program and in partnership with UC Cooperative Extension’s Match.Graze—a free online tool that connects contract grazers to landowners throughout California. The pilot program launched last year and funded six community grazing projects countywide.

Upper Mark West Fire Resilience Project

Through the 2021 Vegetation Management Grant Program administered by the Sonoma Ag + Open Space District, the RCD received $515,861 to implement this project. The RCD and contractors were able to implement 100’ defensible space around 60 homes in the Mark West Creek watershed and managed vegetation on 3 miles of existing fuel breaks used by CalFire and local firefighters in previous fires. A Defensible Space Walking Tour was hosted by the Upper Mark West Fire Safe Council and Sonoma Ecology Center at the close of the fiscal year to provide community understanding of vegetation management needs and methods. The neighbors were instrumental in the project’s success, including volunteering their time to create and burn debris piles from the 3-mile fuel break. This work would not be successful without the watersheds dedicated and resilient land stewards.

GoatSmart pilot project to target post-fire invasives

As the land began to heal post-fire, one of the concerns that our team continuously heard from landowners was the number of invasive weeds that quickly established themselves due to the lack of competition. Invasive plants can quickly reproduce and spread, causing harm to the environment, economy, and can reduce habitat for wildlife species and generate higher fuel loads then native plants. Invasive weeds can overtake rangeland forage and crops and may even be toxic to livestock.

The GoatSmart Program was funded and implemented as a model for future grazing opportunities for landowners after fires and become part of the RCD’s arsenal for assisting with post-fire activities. In this pilot project, three different pastures were identified for goat grazing totaling 11.4 acres in the Mark West Creek Watershed. The contracted goats targeted yellow star thistle and grazed to reduce additional fire fuel sources.

North Bay Forest Improvement Program

The North Bay Forest Improvement Program (NBFIP) is an innovative incentives program funded through CAL FIRE’s Proposition 68 Wildfire Resilience and Forestry Assistance Grant. Resource Conservation Districts (RCDs) in Sonoma, Mendocino and Napa Counties have partnered with Rebuild NorthBay Foundation and the Clear Lake Environmental Research Center (CLERC) to form the North Bay Forest Improvement Program (NBFIP) to help private non-industrial small forest landowners (between 5 and 500 acres) implement non-commercial forest improvement activities such as thinning, planting, pruning, and fuel hazard reduction. In 2020, North Bay Forest Improvement Program was awarded $1.5 million from a CAL FIRE Wildfire Resilience and Forestry Assistance grant, which will provide three years of funding to develop and manage an incentives program to mitigate wildfire risk and improve forest health in this highly fire-prone region. Projects funded by NBFIP occur on forestland consisting of oak woodland, redwood forests, mixed evergreen, and ponderosa pine. As of fiscal year 2021-22, a total of fourteen landowners were engaged with the program in Sonoma County. In total, the partnership will support forest stewardship activities across at least 40 projects in the four counties with 20 percent of the program’s dollars benefitting disadvantaged communities identified in the 2010 census. Possible treatments within project areas include planting site preparation, tree planting and protection, forest thinning, pruning, and woody fuels reduction.

Collaboration to Plant the Next Generation Post-Fire

Leveraging resources to get good work done on the ground.

In January 2022, Sonoma RCD successfully procured and assisted in the implementation of post-fire tree planting efforts in the Russian River watershed. During reconnaissance of the 2020 Glass Fire area, Sonoma RCD forester Jason Wells identified significant areas that he felt, without intervention, were at risk of ecosystem type conversion. Specific concerns were focused on Douglas-fir forest types situated in north facing slopes and drainages that are well suited to their habitat, but burned at unusually high severity due to the timing and conditions of the fire. Due to this concern, Sonoma RCD worked with partners at CAL FIRE, US Forest Service, El Dorado RCD, and One Tree Planted, a non-profit tree planting organization, to grow 20,000 tree seedlings to re-plant strategic locations within the burn area. The order was enough to re-forest approximately 130-200 acres of Douglas-fir forest.

During the course of a year, while the speculative order trees were growing in nurseries across the state, the RCD reached out to several foresters that had been working in the area after the fire to try and connect landowners with tree seedlings; unfortunately we couldn’t immediately find any interested landowners. As we are learning, in the immediate aftermath of catastrophic wildfires landowners are faced with making many large and difficult decisions. Understandably, it can take time to get to issues such as reforestation.

We were able to connect with landowners whose properties burned in the Tubbs and Kincade fires who had more time since those fires to consider re-foresting or improving species diversity within burned fire footprints. We connected with Heather Morrison, a consulting Registered Professional Forester operating out of Fort Bragg, who had clients wanting to plant trees and the RCD was able to work with a few landowners who had recently developed LandSmart Forest Management Plans calling for reforestation practices following fire. Heather was able to connect with a reforestation crew capable of doing the job, and she took on the role of coordinating implementation on both her client’s properties and the LandSmart Forest Management Plan properties.

With project areas and available contractors in place, we were able to find suitable homes for all 20,000 tree seedlings. We used funds donated to the RCD to obtain a U-haul truck to pick up trees from nurseries in Placerville and Davis and drop them off at project locations in Sonoma County where they were picked up by the reforestation crews and planted. A great win for Sonoma County forests, made possible by the hard work and generosity of many partners.

Registered Professional Forester, Jason Wells installing Douglas fir on a post-fire impacted property.

FINANCIAL HIGHLIGHTS

2021-2022

Sonoma Resource Conservation District is a special district of the State of California, and, as a government entity, is an exempt organization under the provisions of IRC § 115 and contributions to the district are deductible under the provisions of IRC § 170(c)(1). The condensed financial data for the year ended June 30, 2022 presented below is subject to audit.

THANK YOU TO OUR GENEROUS DONORS

Anonymous

Barbara Moulton Bruce Abelli-Amen

Frances Knapczyk Harold Appleton Harriet Buckwalter

Heidi McClean

Julie Groves Justin Tulloss

Marjorie Greene Sandi Potter

Yamakawa Living Trust

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We are grateful to the partners and community members who value the RCD’s unique role in restoring, protecting and ensuring the resiliency of our landscapes for all. Our work truly is a team effort, extending beyond our Board and staff to our organizational partners, funders, contractors, participating students, teachers, and community members. And of course, our work would not be possible without the land stewards who work side by side with us in conservation.

RCD Board

John Nagle, Chair

Bruce Abelli-Amen, Vice Chair

Vickie Mulas, Director

Ron Rolleri, Director

Ariana Reguzzoni, Director

Beth Bruzzone, Director

Isaac Jenkins, Director

Dennis Murphy, Associate Director

Fred Euphrat, Associate Director

Steve Worrell, Associate Director

John Gorman, Associate Director

Christine Peterson, Associate Director

Delmar Friedrichsen, Emeritus Director

Earle Cummings, Emeritus Director

Walter Ryan, Emeritus Director

Thank you for your service to our community

Jennifer Kuszmar, Past Director

RCD Staff

Valerie Quinto, Executive Director

Adrienne Pettit, Director of Finance

Wendi Asuncion, Staff Accountant

Kari Johnson, Administrative Coordinator

Christine Kuehn, Education & Communications Manager

Aaron Fairbrook, Program Manager

Keith Abeles, Soil and Water Specialist

Jessica Pollitz, Engineer

Tom Hammond, Engineer

Jason Wells, Registered Professional Forester

Genevieve Tarino, Forestry Technician

Kevin Cullinen, Project Manager

Kari Wester, Project Manager

Katie Robbins, Project Manager

Ari DeMarco, Project Manager

Shannon Drew, Program Assistant

Robert Heim, Program Assistant

Karen López, GrizzlyCorps Fellow 2022-23

Fond farewells from our team

Anya Starovoytov, Past Project Manager

Erica Mikesh, Past Partner Engineer

CONNECT WITH US

BOARD OF DIRECTORS MEETINGS

Fourth Thursday of every month 10:45 AM at the RCD office (unless otherwise posted) Meetings are open to the public Board meeting materials can be found online

CONTACT INFORMATION

Sonoma RCD Office

1221 Farmers Lane, Suite F Santa Rosa, CA 95405 707-569-1448 info@sonomarcd.org sonomarcd.org

Natural Resources Conservation Service

Sonoma-Marin Office

5401 Old Redwood Highway, Suite 100 Petaluma, CA 94954 707-794-1242, ext. 3 FOLLOW US ON SOCIAL MEDIA FOR THE LATEST

Sonoma

FARMS Leadership students participate in thinning projects at post-fire impacted forestland property.