Oak woodlands destroyed for more wine.

Tree Cutting Moratorium now! Oaklands destruction approved by County

With over 80% corporate consolidation of wine industry, (with profit leaving County) to stop this destruction juggernaut of environmental destruction and resource extraction during a megadrought. We need supervisors who will defend our quality of life, not corporate interests.

Current County Rules allowed this massacre….mostly mature native oak woodland (approx. 11 acres) approved for clearing in the Laguna uplands.  Staff had no tools to stop this.  Much change is needed across the board.



Since 2005, the oaks in the Laguna have been considered by scientists a rare community type (Merelender et al).
As we know, other developers are in the process of legally destroying more. upto 199 -acres of oaks by one owner,  in the County.  There is currently no way to stop this without a substantial re-thinking of the important role mature trees play in reversing the climate crisis and the many other important services that trees provide the people, the community, and the watersheds upon which we rely.
We are going for an across the board, across zones, and across species approach based largely on the short time we have to reduce GHGs.
The thinking is not new.    Did you see that Petaluma is the first city in the US to ban future gas stations. – in the US?  With moves like that and serious  tree protection (science tells us we need both) , we will be getting somewhere.
The primary principle being that we must avoid trading cutting for some future mitigations….With very limited exceptions. (e.g. fire safety around homes and communities, very low income housing, and real food farming) mature trees should be spared the bulldozers and the chain saws.
We don’t need to model another community’s vision but be the visionaries again.
Please support these common sense efforts….Go Sonoma County!