Photo: A spawning male coho salmon navigating shallow waters.
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In this month's edition:
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RCD Updates: Coho salmon releases & Eating Our Way to a Healthier Planet - Zero Foodprint's new grant program "Restore California"
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Staff Highlight: Noelle Johnson, Program Manager
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Publications: The Press Democrat covers the RCD's efforts to conserve western monarchs and their habitat
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Workshops & Activities: 4th Annual Soil Health Symposium + Karuk Tribe 2021 Training Series
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Partner News: Community hazards survey & Russian River coho update
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Thank You For Your Contributions!
A message from our Executive Director
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Thank you to those who have generously donated to the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District. We could not do this work without a community that cares.
Your contribution fills our hearts with hope and gratitude. With your gift, we will continue to prepare our community for wildfire and drought, locally adapt to and mitigate climate change, enhance habitat for sensitive wildlife like salmon and monarch butterflies, promote healthy soils, and educate our youth about the value of environmental stewardship.
We appreciate your confidence in our work, and we look forward to reporting back on our shared successes throughout the year.
Sincerely,
Brittany Jensen
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The RCD Assists with Coho Salmon Releases
Thousands of fish released into the Russian River watershed
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Keeping up with annual tradition, the US Army Corps of Engineers, in partnership with agencies like the USACE, CDFW, NOAA, California Sea Grant, and Sonoma Water, released thousands of young coho salmon into the Russian River Watershed. "This past fall we released approximately 120,000 juvenile coho salmon into the RR watershed and roughly one-third (~40,000 fish) were released into tributaries within Gold Ridge’s district," says Ben White, Supervisory Fish Biologist from the US Army Corps of Engineers.
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Among these tributaries in the Gold Ridge district, salmonids were released in Redwood Creek, Dutch Bill Creek, Willow Creek, Purrington Creek, and Green Valley Creek. Gold Ridge RCD staff members, Sierra Cantor and Adriana Stagnaro, assisted with these releases (see pictures above).
Looking Forward...
According to White, thousands of pre-smolt salmonids will be released into Green Valley and Dutch Bill Creeks in the coming months to continue efforts to foster a sustained wild population. Let's all hope for more rain soon!
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Eating Our Way to a Healthier Planet
By William Hart and Adriana Stagnaro
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“Whether you call it carbon farming, regenerative farming, or conservation agriculture, we appreciate your interest in turning bad atmospheric carbon into good soil carbon. And we’d like to help cover the cost of creating all this public benefit.” This is the statement Zero Food Print makes about its new grant program, Restore California, which pays farmers for their ambitious adoption of climate-smart practices.
Restore California receives funds from restaurants and other businesses participating in the Zero Foodprint program, as well as charitable contributions. These funds provide grants for the implementation of Healthy Soil Practices, enhanced natural resource management, and climate change resilience and mitigation on working lands. Learn more at: zerofoodprint.org
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How you fit in – There are at least two great ways to participate:
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First, eat at a ZFP restaurant and opt to pay the 1% charge on your meal. The proceeds go to farms instituting climate beneficial practices. Find participating restaurants here, more being added all the time: zerofoodprint.org/find-zfp
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Second, if you’re a farmer with a plan in mind for reducing carbon emissions, you can apply to get funded for your actions. All managers and owners of agricultural operations in Sonoma County are eligible to apply. The program will have $300,000 in funding available for on-farm climate smart agriculture practices, such as hedgerow planting, silvopasture, compost application on grassland, and 25 other eligible practices. Learn more: zerofoodprint.org/apply
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Gold Ridge and Sonoma RCDs are here to help you apply to the Restore California Program. We are providing full one-on-one assistance to complete all steps of your application including technical advice and mapping. We will serve as many folks as we can but will prioritize those who contact us first. Please email:
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Staff Highlight: Meet Noelle! |
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Noelle Johnson (Program Manager) joined the Gold Ridge RCD as a Conservation Planner in 2008, bringing a unique mix of experiences in conservation, sustainable agriculture, and natural resource management. After earning a B.S. in Nutritional Sciences from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Noelle travelled to Burkina Faso in West Africa to work as a Community Health Extension Volunteer through the U.S. Peace Corps. This work led her to seek an M.S. from the International Agricultural Development program at the University of California-Davis, including thesis field research in northern Thailand. She then returned to Burkina Faso, and later Rwanda, to manage food security programs through Catholic Relief Services.
Witnessing firsthand the close ties between ecosystem health and that of the human populations it supports, Noelle returned to California in 2004 to begin a career in natural resource conservation. She began by managing ecological restoration projects for the Windsor-based Circuit Rider Productions, where she developed a more in-depth understanding of Sonoma County’s native plant communities and our local watersheds, along with the funding and regulatory structures and social considerations of natural resource management. Since joining the RCD she has managed a variety of projects designed to improve riparian health, improve climate change resiliency, promote water conservation, and protect endangered species such as coho salmon and western monarch butterflies.
Becoming a mother in 2012 has deepened her passion to forge a more sustainable future. An avid outdoorswoman, Noelle loves taking her 9-year-old son Charlie hiking, backpacking, kayaking, mountain biking, and traveling to the world’s most beautiful places. Homebound like everyone else during the pandemic, she is currently trying to make the best out of third-grade distance learning by teaching backyard science lessons on native plants and pollinators at their home in Santa Rosa’s West End.
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The Press Democrat covers the RCD's efforts to conserve western monarchs and their habitat
Original PD article by Stephen Nett, January 2021
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“'Everyone’s pretty heartbroken about the count,' Noelle Johnson said last week. Johnson is a conservation planner with Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District and program manager for its Sonoma Coast Monarch Overwintering Site Protection and Enhancement Project. She is one of a dedicated corps of local scientists, conservationists and volunteers working with the newly funded project to try and head off the butterfly’s extinction...
The Gold Ridge district’s project is sharply focused on the critical key factors identified by researchers: protecting and restoring overwintering sites, providing nectar resources along the migratory flyway and increasing the availability of early-season native milkweed. Sonoma County residents are being encouraged to plant native milkweed inland, so the butterflies have nearby places to lay their first-generation of eggs. That first set of caterpillars and butterflies, scientists say, is key to the entire year’s population."
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4th Annual: Vineyard Soil Health Symposium
A virtual event hosted by the North Coast Soil Health Hub
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Free Symposium, March 11-12, 2021 |
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This event will bring together growers, vineyard managers, scientists, agency representatives, and others to provide an overview of vineyard soil health and potential climate change impacts and to discuss the cutting-edge practices and the latest data from the field.
The first day will focus on Climate Change and Soil Health on the global and regional scales, as well as an overview of the North Coast Soil Hub project.
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The second day, “Shop Talk: Soil Health in the Field,” will feature growers and researchers discussing undervine management practices improving soil health, compost and the soil biome, and the benefits of integrating livestock into agricultural systems. We will end the day hearing about how soil health factors into a business’s economics and marketing. |
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Karuk Tribe 2021 Training Series
Burning Across Boundaries Trainings
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Free Online Trainings, January 19th - June 29th |
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The Karuk Tribe invites all tribes, interested members of the public, and non-governmental organizations in the North Coast region to participate in training as part of the Karuk Tribe “Burning Across Boundaries” Regional Forest & Fire Capacity demonstration project. The trainings are intended to support collaborative planning to enable tribes and partners to work together to utilize prescribed fire as a tool to achieve long term forest and ecosystem health. |
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Community Hazards Survey
The Gold Ridge RCD invites you to complete this survey today!
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The County has started the process of updating the Countywide Hazard Mitigation Plan, this time undertaking a Multi-Jurisdictional approach to develop a cohesive plan. As a part of this process, a community survey has been launched to help us better understand residents’ knowledge of and preparedness levels for local hazards including floods, fire, and earthquakes.
The survey takes 8-10 minutes to complete, and we encourage you to share this notice with your friends and family living in Sonoma County!
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Get involved! We want to know what Sonoma County residents know about hazards like wildfires, floods and earthquakes.
Take the short survey at the following link to help us plan for the future:
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¡Involúcrese! Queremos saber lo que los residentes del Condado de Sonoma saben sobre peligros como incendios forestales, inundaciones, y terremotos. Tome la encuesta corta a través del siguiente enlace para ayudarnos a planear para el futuro:
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*For more information about the Plan update and partner jurisdictions you can visit the project website.
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Scientists monitor the 2021 salmon migration
California Sea Grant, January 19th
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An excerpt from California Sea Grant's latest Russian River coho update:
"As of January 14th, we estimate that a total of 205 adult coho salmon have returned from the ocean and entered the Russian River. Although the fish were released as juveniles into a number of different tributaries, the majority of the PIT tag detections have been in the mainstem of the Russian River and in Dry Creek, with only nine individuals detected in lower Green Valley, Mark West and Mill creeks combined... The low number of detections in the tributaries is likely explained by the minimal rain which has left many streams with flows too low for adult passage, and in some cases completely disconnected from the river."
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Follow the Gold Ridge RCD on Social Media!
Follow us on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on our latest efforts and projects, and track our hashtag, #GRRCD.
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