When we first moved to the Sonoma Valley in 2002, I had a naive view of the town of Sonoma and the valley. I thought with chickens on the plaza, small locally owned shops and restaurants, it was a place frozen in time, different from the San Francisco we had just left. I thought people were ecologically conscious and understood the threat of climate change.
Over the years my view has changed, bit-by-bit, year-by-year. Little things built up. The massive use of gas-powered leaf blowers, herbicides, pesticides and anticoagulant poison by my neighbors revealed itself to me. I saw vineyards labeled as “sustainable” blasted with Roundup. I witnessed my neighbors making little or no attempt to even do the simplest of tasks for recycling or separating compostable materials in trash. As my neighbors’ trees succumbed to sudden oak death, we hired an arborist on contract, attempting keep our beautiful large oak trees healthy. He advised not to water around them in summer or blow leaves off the soil, but instead spread leaves to let them naturally decompose. He told us our neighbors’ issues were caused by blowing all organic matter away, creating hard packed soil that was thus unable to retain moisture. Also noted, they trimmed trees so severely that the leaf canopy could no longer support photosynthesis the trees needed to survive and not succumb to disease.
Since the 2017 wildfires, people are convinced that, to protect their homes, they must double down on their tree-killing and make sure not a speck of nature remains. At one point, an insurance company asked us to remove half of the leaf canopy of a massive heritage oak. We asked the arborist what to do. He told us he would write to the company explaining, if he trimmed it in that way, the tree would die and most likely fall on the house. I guess it was a miracle, but his letter got the company to sign off on the trimming he recommended and still protect the house in a fire.
We came here to live in nature, yet it seems we are in a battle with everyone around us as we try to protect our Mother Earth, and the very plants and animals that share our space and are now vanishing one by one.
The other day, we hiked up to Fern Lake on SDC land, now under State Parks’ care. We saw an informed effort to work with our Mother Earth to remove dead trees, cut lower limbs of trees, and remove underbrush. Trees were left with the amount of canopy, and naturally decomposing material, needed to survive and address fire danger in our ever-warming climate. I heard they had worked with an indigenous adviser.
The question becomes, how do we as private-property owners, balance our fear and our need to protect ourselves and our homes, with the larger issue of addressing and mitigating climate change? If we continue our current killing practices, we destroy beneficial insects, pollinators, wildlife and plants, the carbon sinks that will save us. The path we are on accelerates climate change, higher temperatures and more fires. How do we save our mother, our Earth, if we continue doing this? And last, how do we not forget our Mother Earth, in a time when our entire society is under attack from those who care only about themselves, their wealth and power?
Thank you for writing your observations. Quite necessary.