Major Changes for North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park
Please Join the BVCA or Renew Your Membership Master Plan for North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park The Tale of a Lion
Livestream Chat: Rogers Fault on Sonoma Mountain
Grange Road Greatly Improved
A Call to Action for Faster Internet Covid Shutdown Affects Bennett Valley Community Events 2020 BVCA Election Results
BVCA Meeting Schedule and Contact Information Tognozzi Elected Director of Sonoma County Fire District
The BVCA and YOU! Join. Engage. Support.
BV Guild Contact Information
Major Changes for North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park Only two weeks left for public input
Anyone can join and everyone has equal time to voice their opinion. We have zoom meetings every Sunday at 4-5 pm (we start & end on time). Register and join us.Zoom registration
Please fill out the quick survey seeking your input.
Contact Rebecca (707-888-7960) or Jennifer (707-321-9210) for more information
Please Join the BVCA or Renew Your Membership by BVCA Board of Directors
Between a lengthening and frightening fire season and COVID-19, we yearn to return to more normal times. As discussed in Bennett Valley Community Events below, for now we still are not holding any meetings.
Bennett Valley has a fascinating history, and is a bucolic oasis. The Bennett Valley Community Association (BVCA) was established to keep residents abreast of proposed zoning and other changes that would affect our valley. We hope to resume holding events and hosting live speakers in 2021. As we celebrate our fiftieth anniversary, your participation can help us to preserve and enhance our unique Bennett Valley community.
The BVCA is a non-profit organization. All board members volunteer their time for quarterly meetings and fundraising events. Please join in our efforts by renewing your membership in the BVCA or joining for the first time. Our dues are $20 per year plus any additional contribution you may choose to make. You will help fund our many activities and stay informed via the VOICE newsletter which is sent to members at least four times per year. Together, we can strengthen our corner of the world.
Send checks to BVCA, P.O. Box 2666, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 or pay online at www.bennettvalley.org by choosing “Join/Renew: BVCA Membership." For questions about dues contact Larissa Goliti at lgoliti@hotmail.com or 578-3453. For questions about paying online, contact Bill Finkelstein at bill@bennettvalley.org.
Thanks so much for your support!
Master Plan for North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park Should Sonoma Mountain Become a Campground?
by Craig S. Harrison, VOICE Editor
Sonoma County has proposed a master plan for North Sonoma Mountain Regional Park and Open Space Preserve which will direct future public use in the park. The May 2017 public meeting that is guiding this process occurred before wildland fires began to dominate our lives, and seems not to take this into consideration. Study the plan and tell the county parks department what you think. In normal times, the BVCA would host a presentation by the Sonoma County Regional Parks Department and invite a discussion of this plan at the Bennett Valley Guild Hall.
The county proposes three plans with varying levels of recreation and amenities. There are new trails, facilities for overnight stays, an event center, and more parking. The county’s framing of the three alternatives avoids addressing a fundamental issue: should the park be an overnight destination at all? All three alternatives include bunkhouses and camping, and two alternatives include cabins. While individual campfires are not allowed, the county proposes BBQs and ranger-led group campfires. Any overnight stays will usually involve cooking, and we all know that whatever rules park officials adopt will be very difficult to enforce. The county notoriously has a very poor track record of enforcing any of its regulations or permit conditions. A debate has raged on Nextdoor whether overnight use inherently poses fire risks not only to Bennett Valley, but also to all communities near Sonoma Mountain: Penngrove, Petaluma, Glen Ellen, and Sonoma Valley. Winds could blow a fire on Sonoma Mountain in any direction, and result in another round of devastation to communities in the county.
The county proposes nine miles of new trails to add to the six miles of trails already open. Most residents will probably support additional day use and modest increases in parking to accommodate that use. Some trails will allow dogs on leash, horses, and mountain bikes as well as hikers. Whether these uses are compatible on the same trails is an open question.
The park’s stated goals seem contradictory. From a wildlife perspective, the land is a relatively undisturbed island in the wildland-urban interface, barely larger than a square mile (820 acres). It is not part of or adjacent to a large wilderness. Many of the proposed activities would interfere with the goal of preserving large undisturbed tracts of land for wildlife and its movement, because the park itself is the large and relatively undisturbed tract of land that it hopes to keep undisturbed. Trails inherently open up corridors for exotic invasive plants.
The Tale of a Lion by Quinton Martins, Ph.D., Director and Principal Investigator
Living with Lions, Audubon Canyon Ranch Photos and graphics @Audubon Canyon Ranch /egret.org/living-with-lions
My first impression of her was one of reverence as she expressed absolute calm in the cage when approached. Using a blow-pipe to immobilize her, she didn’t even snarl when the dart hit her rump and discharged. A truly composed and regal cat. Soon after placing a GPS collar on her and tracking her movements, we realized that she had two rather large sub-adult cubs—a male and female—in tow. A month later we managed to catch and collar her 1yr old daughter P2. We never saw the male again and are yet to determine his fate.
For another month we watched as P1 and daughter traversed her 50 square mile range in Sonoma Valley, till late in December when the two suddenly parted ways. What caused this rift was to become evident to us 3 months later, when on the 7th April, I found P1 had a litter of 3 ten-day old kittens in a thick clump of pampas grass less than a 150yrds from a Glen Ellen home. Using the 90-95 day gestation period of a lion, P2’s dispersal was evidently linked to a nuptial engagement between P1 and the dominant male P5. Our subsequent genetic results confirmed P5 as being the father.
It has been rewarding and a pleasure to track and learn more about mountain lions in our study area. P1 has stood out as being the real “Mama” who with grace and calmness has weathered my obstinate efforts to keep her collared, and investigate her day-to-day activities.
Apart from the invaluable scientific data collected on her movements during this time, what followed over the following 4 years has been a journey overflowing with feelings of excitement, amazement, sadness, frustration, and sometimes absolute futility.
Four months after I found her 2017 den, we found one of her 3 kittens (P7) killed by another predator. Her second kitten died of unknown causes between 7 and 8 months old. In December 2017, a not-uncommon depredation event resulted in P2 from her first litter we monitored being killed after having attacked 2 unprotected sheep. With only one of three kittens left in the second litter, survival rates were not looking good. Nevertheless, P1 managed to ensure the survival of this kitten, P6, to dispersal age. Having collared P6 on the 28 Feb 2018, we were able to document this young females dispersal from her mom P1 on the 17 April. We had a good sense of what was going to happen next. I located another P1 den with 2 kittens in Glen Ellen on the 22nd July 2018. This exciting event was soon overshadowed by the last cub of her second litter, P6, being killed on the 26 July due to preying on a goat in Kenwood.
End of the road
Many of you living in Bennett Valley would have heard of the female mountain lion P1. GPS tracking of mountain lions in San Francisco’s North Bay began with the Living with Lion’s capture of this, our first female, on the 5th October 2016. Having followed 2 litters of her cubs, in 2019, we began tracking her 3rd litter. Within the first year, she had only one cub left, conforming to general lion survival rates of 50% in the wild within the first year. The remaining offspring, a male (P19), was collared and tracked hanging out with his mom till he was 18 months old when finally, on the 24th February this year, the lumbering teenager headed out on his own to find his place in the wild. A few unprotected livestock succumbed to his eager spirit and big appetite along the way.
P19 became the first male lion we were able to document dispersing from his natal range. Knowing from the literature that male lions disperse long distances, even as far as 2,000 miles, we were really excited to see where P19 was going to end up. We also knew, that his chances of survival would be low considering the innumerable threats he would face over the next 2 years before becoming sexually mature. Anthropogenic threats including amongst others, conflict with humans due to killing pets or livestock, car strike crossing roads, lack of habitat connectivity due to human development and poisoning due to injudicious use of rodenticides. These threats are compounded by the natural threats faced such as intraspecific conflict with local, territorial lions, as well as starvation due to lack of experience finding sufficient food. P19 made a good go at it though – we tracked him leaving his natal range in Sonoma early in the year, crossing Napa, Solano and Yolo Counties on his mission. He crossed the 80 interstate twice, visited UC Davis, scoped out the Lake Berryessa area, and seemed to find the Winters/Putah Creek area good for a while. Unfortunately, a combination of factors led to his untimely demise, as on the 1st August, I tracked him down near Vacaville where he had died not two hours before. A full necropsy revealed that he had contracted Feline Leukemia Virus, and as a result of a compromised immune system, a combination of bacterial infections including salmonella poisoning, led to his death. This is a story not too uncommon for these iconic and far ranging apex carnivores, highlighting the struggles and efforts that can to be made to minimize the risks to these animals to ensure future survival.
Visit the Living with Lions website https://egret.org/living-with-lions for more information on the project, and call me if you have any lion-related issues on your properties. Always try be in contact as soon as possible after an incident so that signs can be investigated most effectively.
The Disney Conservation Fund recently announced a generous grant to ACR’s Living with Lions as part of its initiatives to save wildlife, protect habitats, and inspire community conservation action. It will help bring awareness of the important role of mountain lions in our local ecosystem. Using rigorous science, Living with Lions also teaches children and adults about the importance of living side-by-side with our wild neighbors.
—Craig S. Harrison, VOICE Editor
Rogers Creek Fault on Sonoma Mountain: A livestream chat with the U.S. Geological Survey Wednesday, October 21, 2 PM
Did you know a major Bay Area fault runs right through Bennett Valley? Is it true wells and aquifers do better the nearer they are to faults? Did you know that our Rogers Creek fault has the highest probability of another earthquake in the Bay Area (a magnitude 6.7 or greater earthquake between 2014 and 2043 on major active faults in the San Francisco Bay region at 33%)? Did you also know we have our own fault, known as the Bennett Valley fault?
If recent events have taught us anything, it's that being prepared is essential. Please join us October 21st at 2pm for a livestream interview with Dr. Suzanne Hecker, staff scientist at the Earthquake Science Center at the US Geological Survey. Dr. Hecker has published the latest research into the Rogers Creek fault. She will discuss her latest research on our nearby faults and answer your questions live. Link to RSVP a spot (limited to 100), pre-registration required.
Grange Road Greatly Improved by Craig S. Harrison, Save Our Sonoma Roads President
Ghilotti Brothers Construction, on contract to the County Transportation and Public Works Department (DTPW), recently completed a 1.3-mile full depth reclamation project on Grange Road between Bennett Valley Road and Peracca/Guenza roads. Full-depth reclamation reconstructs a road by reusing the old pavement and base materials. The materials are pulverized, mixed, and treated with a stabilizing agent to produce a like-new road base. The roadway is then re-surfaced with an overlay of new asphalt. Funding for this $1 million project is partially the result of the advocacy of SOSroads and its members.
The BVCA expressed its appreciation for repairing Grange Road to like-new condition to DTPW Director Johannes Hoevertsz and Supervisor Susan Gorin. Two years ago, DTPW repaired Grange/Crane Canyon roads from Peracca Road to Inverness Avenue. This east-west artery is part of the county’s 200-mile primary road system, and many Bennett Valley residents use it daily. The only rough segment of the 3.8 mile stretch between Bennett Valley Road and Petaluma Hill Road is between Inverness Avenue and Petaluma Hill Road. It was damaged by trucks hauling debris from over one hundred destroyed homes on Bennett Ridge to the county landfill after the Nuns Fire. The BVCA has asked Supervisor Gorin to use some of the $140 million in settlement funds from PG&E to repair the road.
Related to this repair, DTPW, the Bennett Valley Guild, and Ghilotti Brothers worked together to remove and replace the undersized culverts beneath the driveway to the Guild hall. They clogged during storms and spewed large volumes of water across Grange Road, resulting in accidents when vehicles hydroplaned. Ghilotti replaced two 12-inch culverts with 18-inch high density polyethylene culverts before paving the apron for the driveway. This solved a major water runoff issue during heavy rainfalls.
Guild Driveway Culvert Before The ProjectGuild Driveway Culvert After The Project
Who Wants Better, Faster Internet? A Call to Action
by Robert Stephens, BVCA President
Bennett Valley needs better, faster broadband options. If we've learned anything during the pandemic, is that decent broadband is crucial for families and businesses. We're putting together a small group of motivated neighbors to examine ways to increase broadband options in Bennett Valley.
AT&T is essentially halting all new DSL deployments. Comcast is unavailable to most homes in Bennett Valley. 5G is unlikely to be deployed in rural areas like ours. But there is hope: smaller ISPs like R-Tech and CDS are offering high speed-internet via microwave, but coverage is spotty. SpaceX this week launched their 775th satellite of 12,000 for their upcoming StarLink broadband. AT&T is now offering "fixed wireless" to some residents on Enterprise Road.
This group will work to document and research ways to expand our broadband choices and get more information about what we can expect, as well as what we can do to help bring more broadband options to Bennett Valley. Please contact Robert Stephens if interested in helping. Call or text at 415-735-6987.
Covid Shutdown Affects
Bennett Valley Events
To comply with the State and County Public Health Order, the Guild Hall is closed for all activities until further notice. All meetings, rentals, and other events are currently cancelled but may be rescheduled. Because of this, the BVCA board of directors meeting in October will take place by conference call. If you want to join this call, please contact President Robert Stephens.
The BVCA and the Guild still plan to host a talk on bears by ecologist Meghan Walla-Murphy whenever the BVCA can again hold meetings. Ms. Walla-Murphy has launched the North Bay Bear Collaborative to study the bears' movements. The highest density of black bears in the contiguous United States is in Mendocino and Humboldt counties, and they are slowly migrating into our area. From wildlife cameras placed in the vicinity of Sugarloaf State Park, black bears have recently become residents of Sugarloaf and the Mayacamas. We hope to be able to reschedule this talk early next year.
2020 BVCA ELECTION RESULTS by Jean LaCombe
The three sitting board members up for re-election this year are Larissa Goliti, Jamie Burkart and Craig Harrison, all of whom have consented to serve another three year term. No challengers submitted Candidate Statements by the August 30, 2020 deadline which results in the three possible positions being retained by the current Board members. No Official Ballot will be mailed to the BVCA membership, and our three Directors will be Appointed as if Elected for the term beginning January 2021. To review the candidates' past statements, please refer theBVCA web site.
The Certification of Election Results will be submitted to the BVCA Board of Directors for the October meeting.
BENNETT VALLEY COMMUNITY ASSOCIATION
MEETING SCHEDULE
The forthcoming Bennett Valley Community Association (BVCA) Board meeting will be held Thursday, October 29, at 4:30 PM by Zoom conference call due to the covid situation. Prior to covid, the BVCA Board convened at the Bennett Valley Guild Hall locatedat 4145 Grange Road, Santa Rosa on the last Thursday of every third month (January, April, July, October). Until further notice, meetings will be held by video teleconference at 4:30 PM and are open to members and non-members alike by contacting the president for access. We normally invite and encourage public attendance. The current BVCA Board meeting schedule through calendar year 2021 is as follows:
Thursday, October 29, 2020
Thursday, January 28, 2021
Thursday, April 29, 2021
Thursday, July 29, 2021
Thursday, October 28, 2021
The Board meeting Agenda opens with public discussion, with each presenter invited to address the Board for up to three minutes with their name, address, and concern. Following public input, the Board will receive a report from the Treasurer, and reports of any official notifications from the County. Additional topics of discussion will include county roads, VOICE, the BV Fire Protection District, new directions for the BVCA that would encourage wider participation, and potential speakers for coming meetings. Minutes from previous meetings of the BVCA Board are typically posted on the BVCA website soon after they are approved. You can find an archive of meeting minutes here. The July 23, 2020 meeting was held by Zoom.
Tognozzi Elected Director of Sonoma County Fire District
My name is Arnie Tognozzi and I have lived in Bennett Valley since 1985. My lovely wife and I have been married for 38yrs and our 3 sons started their careers at the Bennett Valley Fire Department and are now Firefighter/ paramedics at Santa Rosa, San Jose and Sonoma County Fire District. I was elected to the BV Fire board in 2006 and President of the board in 2017. Fire District board of directors.
One of the most important events to happen in Bennett Valley was Bennett Valley Fire District joining 3 other fire districts and forming the Sonoma County Fire District. By annexing into the new district this allowed for minimum staffing on the Bennett Valley engine to go from two to three fire personnel 24/7. We also gained a larger fire prevention department as well as a superior weed abatement program and a more comprehensive training program for all personnel. The new district continues to grow. This last July, the Russian River Fire District was Annexed into the SCFD which is of importance as this merger will allow the SCFD to put Paramedics on the engines. The first two stations to staff paramedics will be Station 2 (Larkfield) and station 8 (Bennett Valley). There is no firm date on this as the paramedic hiring process has just begun. Right now the closest paramedic comes from Santa Rosa station 4 on Yulupa ave. A paramedic responding out of Station 8 (Bennett Valley) will shorten the time a paramedic arrives on most calls.
As a director I believe being involved is important, I feel it's the only way I will learn and make good decisions that not only benefit the department, but more importantly, the citizens of the district.
At this writing I sit on three committees, the finance committee, capital improvement committee and the ambulance bid committee. I am also secretary of the board and a member of the weekly board leadership meeting.
I have never been more proud to be part of an organization and see first hand the commitment of the Directors, Fire Chief Mark Heine and all the employees.
I'm always available should you have any questions. Please feel free to contact me at arnie.tognozzi@sonomacountyfd.org Hope to hear from you.
BENNETT VALLEY COMMUNITY EVENTS
Sonoma County Fire District Board meetings
The Fire District Board of Directors meets the third Tuesday of each month at 5pm at Station 1, 8200 Old Redwood Highway, Windsor. For now the Board is holding its meetings there as they anticipate major remodel work at many of their other stations throughout 2020. They will revisit their meeting locations in a few months as their facility plan and schedule are developed.
To building a sense of community in Bennett Valley by serving as an open forum for community participation;
To providing information on local environmental and land use issues and encouraging communication between residents and government agencies with the goal of promoting and preserving the rural character and natural environment of Bennett Valley;
To educating and providing resources that encourage disaster and emergency preparedness
Membership Benefits: The Bennett Valley VOICE delivered straight to your inbox! Four times a year, the BVCA will keep you up-to-date on a broad range of topics pertinent to your community.
$20 per household per year = Electronic version of BVCA’s newsletter
Get access to exclusive events, speakers, discounts and plenty of opportunities to meet, greet and broaden your own Bennett Valley “family”.
Pay dues online here, or make checks payable to BVCA, and send to P.O. Box 2666, Santa Rosa, CA 95405. Or if you’d simply like to support the BVCA, a section 501(c)(3) organization, you can do so here. Any questions? Contact Bill Finkelstein at bill@bennettvalley.org. The BVCA thanks you!
Bennett Valley Guild (BV Guild)
Go to http://bvguild.orgto learn more about the BV Guild, including the Guild calendar or, for an article on the early historyof the Bennett Valley Guild.
If you have any questions email Bill/Patty Allen at paddybill@sbcglobal.net.
AT&T is essentially 
