On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, members of the greater Santa Rosa community celebrated the National Day of Service at Paulin Creek Open Space Preserve.  Over 100 volunteers from 4H, local girl scout troops, Youth Connections, AmeriCorps and local neighbors came together to help preserve a critical riparian corridor within urban Santa Rosa. These engaged community members removed invasive French Broom from the preserve and planted native seed. These efforts will help the vegetation return to its natural state, improving wildlife habitat and stream health.

In conjunction with Sorrel Allen from the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (SCAPOSD), this volunteer event was organized by Troy Cameron and Jenna Dohman, AmeriCorps members from the Watershed Stewards Program serving their term at California Sea Grant. The SCAPOSD has ongoing volunteer efforts to protect and enhance the natural resources in this preserve. The Watershed Stewards Program and SCAPOSD would like to thank all the 4H members that participated in this event, helping to protect natural resources in Sonoma County for future generations.

Site Background:
The Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District (SCAPOSD) purchased this land in 2002 when prospective development of two parcels of the land raised public awareness about the property and led to a call for preservation. The Paulin Creek Preserve encompasses 46 acres of land and 9 of those acres are owned by SCAPOSD which are open year-round to the public.

Paulin Creek flows through the middle of this preserve. It flows westward into Piner Creek, then Santa Rosa Creek, the Laguna de Santa Rosa, and finally reaches the Russian River before flowing out into the ocean. The Russian River is a class 1 fisheries stream as it has threatened and endangered salmonid species including Coho, Chinook, and Steelhead. Specifically, Steelhead have been seen in Paulin Creek, so this habitat is very important for the survival of the species in the Russian River system.  The Sonoma County Water Agency also owns a portion of this preserve and on their portion, there is a dam with a flood control reservoir. This holds back water to prevent flooding, but outflows are released throughout the year, so downstream of this dam Paulin Creek has water all year, even through the dry season in the summer. Paulin Creek Open Space Preserve also has diverse vegetation. It is home to a number of native plants including mixed grasslands, mixed oak woodlands (bays, coast live oak, Oregon oak, madrone, big leaf maple, buckeye), understory (snowberry, poison oak, native honeysuckle, native blackberry toyon) riparian woodlands and wetlands.

There are also invasive plants present including the French Broom that was removed during this event! While invasive plants can sometimes be pretty, they can severely outcompete native plants. Because they are foreign to the landscape, they may not have any natural predators in the area. Native plants might also not have defenses appropriate for this new plant. An invasive plant might be aggressive enough to completely dominate an area of land, which decreases biodiversity. As the invasive plant takes over, it can change food webs in an ecosystem. An animal used to eating the plant life in one area may not get the necessary nutrients from this new invasive plant, causing these animals to move to a new location. Similarly, new species of animals may come to eat this invasive plant.

Needless to say, this volunteer effort to remove invasive French Broom will greatly benefit the wildlife habitat on the Paulin Creek Preserve. Thanks again to all the volunteers who took time out of their busy schedules to lend a hand in their community!

If you are interested in learning more, visit Watershed Stewards Program or find them on Facebook: Americorps Watershed Stewards Project.

If you would like to hear about future volunteer opportunities please visit Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, or find them on Facebook: SCAPOSD.

February 10, 2016 
Program, 8am to noon at Wells Fargo Center for the Arts
7am to 8am: Sign-in and breakfast
$40 if pre-registered by Feb. 19; $45 at the door

Sonoma County Grape Day presents research-based topics of interest to grape growers and vintners. This year Pierce's disease, vine mealybugs, spray technology and berry phenolic composition will be addressed.

The incidence of Pierce's disease (PD) in grapevines has been slowly increasing for the last few years and in 2015, vine losses brought back memories of the PD epidemic in the late ninety's. PD is lethal to grapevines and there is no cure. The bacterium that causes PD resides in non-symptomatic ornamental and riparian plants. It is moved into grapevines by insect vectors after they feed on those plants and then feed on grapevines.  Warmer than normal winter temperatures may have changed the relationships between the insect vectors, the bacteria and grapevines which may have resulted in more vine loss.

UC Berkeley researchers and Cooperative Extension advisors have recently started a three-year research project in Sonoma and Napa counties to gain information on vector populations inside vineyards year round, and the incidence of infected versus diseased vines in those sites. The objective is to improve management practices to reduce PD.

Vine Mealybugs

The take-home messages will be presented on a long term study that controlled mealybugs in vineyards for the purpose of reducing grapevine leafroll disease (GLD). Mealybugs are insect vectors of grapevine leafroll virus that causes GLD. Leafroll disease is not lethal; however fruit on diseased vines does not ripen normally and eventually yields are reduced.

Dr. Kaan Kurtural is the new UC Cooperative Extension Viticulture Specialist at UC Davis and is based at the UC Oakville Station. Most recently he was a professor at California State University in Fresno. His research interests include vineyard mechanization for optimizing crop load, yield efficiency and sustainability. He will present the outcome of research projects that investigated the development of anthocyanins astringency as affected by canopy management and irrigation amounts.

The invited speaker is Dr. Andrew Landers from Cornell University who is an expert in sprayer technology that has greatly increased spray coverage on the target and not off the target. He will discuss how to improve spray deposition on canopies in narrow vine rows that are common in the North Coast.

View the agenda and register at: www.ucanr.edu\scgrapeday

 

Mary Engebreth was presented with one of the Sonoma County's highest honors, a Gold Resolution from the Board of Supervisors. Mary was presented with the Gold at the State 4-H Leaders Forum by Louise Silacci, "As President of the CA 4-H State Leaders Council, I wanted to recognize one outstanding leader at our convention, and that one leader was Mary. One of her most important contributions came this past year when we were approved to start a new program called "Discussion Meet." We follow the Young Ranchers and Farmers outline with a 4-H twist. Mary wrote the project manual and I can't say enough wonderful things about her."

From the Gold:

"Mary Engebreth's countless hours of volunteerism,
the leadership of a successful youth program
and her continuing spirit to help our youth succeed,
should be noted as a model for
our community to celebrate."

Mary Engebreth started her 4-H career in 1969 as a project leader for Sewing and a project called Beginning Boys for new 4-Hers. Little did she know that 46 years later she would still be a vital part of the organization.  Although she started at the club level, she took on greater leadership roles.

• Sonoma County Club Council officer 1980-88, president 86-88
• North Coast Section officer 1986 including Policy Secretary & President
• Sonoma County All-Star adviser 92-93
• California Diamond Star program adviser 92-94
• National 4-H Conference 94 & 97
• Western Regional Leadership Forum 93-present
• National 4-H Camping Institute 98-02
• Developed California 4-H Camping Institute 2000, president 00-02
• Discussion Meet committee charter member 2012-present

Mary has created innovative programs:

• Started the Countywide Wildlife Project in 1987 and continues to be the project leader of this non-traditional project, the project was awarded the Golden Clover earlier this year;
• She partnered with the six counties that use Los Posadas 4-H Camp to create CAMP (Create a Memorable Program) staff training weekend;
• She founded CAL Conference (Create a Leader) for North Central Section youth leadership weekends;
• Began WHEP (Wildlife Habitat Evaluation Program) with a team of specialist and teachers - WHEP is a takeoff of a National Program that focused on California habitat.

And if that wasn't enough, she was an integral part of the re-write of the original State Presentation Day Manual and State Fashion Revue Manual.

THANK YOU MARY for your past, present, and future
contributions to and leadership of the 4-H program

UCCE Berkeley Specialist Dr. Matteo Garbelotto, of UC Berkeley Forest Pathology and Mycology Laboratory, presented recent Sudden Oak Death research results to 53 Sonoma County homeowners, arborists, and tree service workers. The presentation detailed the management practices necessary to protect oaks and the resources available to help.

Garbelotto presented guidelines for California bay tree removal—the first defense in preserving your susceptible oak trees—as well as dosage changes in chemical treatments for oaks.

SODMAP Mobile is an app for tracking SOD. This App calculates the risk to your oaks based on real SOD monitoring data. In Sonoma County, these data are created mainly by the public each spring during the SOD BLITZ, an educational, data-collecting weekend led by the Sonoma County SOD program coordinator, Lisa Bell, and the UC Master Gardeners.

SODMAP Mobile for iPhone 
SODMAP Mobile for Android 

Photo from SODMAP Mobile shows infected trees, marked with red pins, along a road near Freestone, Sonoma County.

Learn more about Sudden Oak Death in Sonoma County.