Thinking Like a Watershed
Anderson Valley Resilient Lands Symposium
by Barbara Goodell
Anderson Valley and the Navarro River Watershed are an ecological microcosm endowed with resplendent redwood forests, undulant hills with grassy oak woodlands, and the largest coastal river basin with a residual salmon habitat in Mendocino County. Last year, Anderson Valley Land Trust (AVLT) celebrated 30 years of work protecting 2,700 acres in 29 perpetual conservation easements. With an active, engaged community, AVLT has continued to expand their conservation efforts during the pandemic by Zoom and by golly.
Given this momentous anniversary year, they paused. The board wanted to determine what their conservation role would be over the next 30 years. AVLT Board President Yoriko Kishimoto asked, “How can Anderson Valley bolster the resiliency of the land with its basic elements: earth, air, water, and fire?” With the challenges of serious drought, wildfire susceptibility, food security, a growing population, and widespread climate change, they floated a question: How can land and resource conservation in Anderson Valley expand to address those challenges while still providing for other community needs, including housing and job opportunities? What emerged was the idea of gathering Anderson Valley landowners, residents, businesses, and non-profits together to explore and address these concerns.
Thus, the idea of the Resilient Land Symposium was born. The goal of the gathering is to encourage identification of Anderson Valley’s needs, and to inspire the successful creation and implementation of potential solutions—regenerative agriculture, sustainable logging, local food production, fish-friendly farming, dry farming, a thriving watershed, a healthy fishery, and winter water storage. The symposium will also address California’s 30 x 30 legislation, enacted to protect 30% of California’s wildlands, coastal and inland waters, and open spaces in order to build climate resilience, biodiversity, and outdoor access for all by 2030.
AVLT, with co-sponsors the Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association’s Environmental Committee and the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District’s Navarro River Resource Center, as well as a long list of supporting partner organizations, will offer an overview of Anderson Valley and its watershed, looking at its history, its present, and potential future.
For inspiration, Obi Kaufman will be one of the featured speakers. Some of you may have met him when he came to Boonville to share his California Field Atlas. He is a gifted illustrator and author and has dedicated his life to studying California’s natural world. He has also published The State of Water, as well as Forests of California, and Coasts of California. Obi blends science and art to enhance our understanding and appreciation of the web of life. Other speakers will offer their expertise, and panel discussions will follow, annotated with resource materials to help participants understand the overlapping issues and, ideally, plan next steps. Afterward, Q&A conversations will continue to explore topics in greater depth, and there will also be time to mingle for more cross-pollination of ideas.
By sharing information and best practices, and learning from leaders and peers, the symposium will identify top initiatives and locate the gaps, opportunities, and challenges Anderson Valley faces in addressing and redressing them. What is Anderson Valley not doing today that it should? Is a periodically dry Navarro River the new normal? How are cumulative effects making an impact on quality of life, natural resources, and long term economic viability? What further collaborative opportunities can be formed beyond the community’s individual efforts and boundaries to advance land and resource resiliency in Anderson Valley?
By bringing together people from different sectors of the Anderson Valley community, each possessing their own issues and priorities, the symposium hopes to begin crafting a shared vision for how we can move forward together into a future that will demand creative thinking, deep understanding, and ongoing resilience. While AVLT values environmental protection and land conservation, they by no means bring preconceived notions for the specific form that vision should take. That is for the participants to discuss in order to collectively respond to the issues which threaten the health and wellness of Anderson Valley’s land, natural resources, and people.
Two Events this October: The Symposium and a Tour of Filigreen Farm
The Resilient Land Symposium will take place at the Philo Grange on October 15, 2022 from 9:00am - 3:30pm. A farm-to-table lunch will be offered. The symposium will also be recorded/live streamed as much as possible.
A special AVLT tour of Filigreen Farm, the regenerative, conserved, biodynamic property farmed by Chris and Stephanie Tebbutt, is scheduled for October 16, 2022.
Separate pre-registration is necessary for these events before September 10, 2022, and both will have registration limits. Call (707) 895-3150, email avlt@mcn.org, or go to AndersonValleyLandTrust.org for more current information about the symposium speakers and panels or to register or ask questions about symposium or the Filigreen Farm tour.
Anderson Valley Land Trust is a 501(c)(3) non-profit dedicated to the preservation and restoration of Anderson Valley’s unique rural landscape, protecting forests (including working forests), agricultural land, oak woodlands, water courses, and open space. AVLT hosts educational events including outdoor interpretive events—visit the website for details.
Anderson Valley Winegrowers Association (AVWA) was established in 2005 to promote and protect the unique grape growing region of Anderson Valley. They have recently formed an Environmental Committee to encourage regenerative soil and water best practices for their membership. Go to AVWines.com for more information.
Navarro River Resource Center is a part of the Mendocino County Resource Conservation District and is a non-regulatory, public agency providing conservation leadership for voluntary stewardship of natural resources on public and private lands. Their mission is to conserve, protect, and restore wild and working landscapes to enhance the health of the water, soil, and forests in Mendocino County. Learn more at MCRCD.org.
Barbara Goodell is a retired teacher and curriculum writer who moved to Anderson Valley in 1978 with her family to establish a permaculture homestead. She is on the AV Foodshed committee, AV Adult School Steering Committee, and is an AV Land Trust Board Member.