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: Written by: Marc Albert and Greta Mart; Published: 27 January 2023

According to Santa Rosa's mayor, SMART rail should reach Windsor by 2025 and Healdsburg by 2026.

Friday morning, Mayor Chris Rogers said in a Twitter thread that a ruling this week by California's supreme court means $40 million dollars in funding specifically for the extension of the SMART train will soon be available.

Ending a five year legal struggle, the California Supreme Court Wednesday let stand an appeals court decision, essentially ending a case that sought to reclassify voter-approved bridge toll increases as special taxes, which would have required a two-thirds majority.

The case, brought by the Howard Jarvis Taxpayers Association, has resulted in nearly half a billion dollars in tolls being held in escrow, rather than being spent on transportation projects.

The money may soon be released.

The Regional Measure 3 lawsuit left a number of projects in limbo, including the promised SMART extension to Windsor and Healdsburg.

Rogers says $120 million dollars is expected to be raised for Sonoma County transportation projects by the measure. North Bay state Senator Mike McGuire says $100 million in funding is designated for improvements to Highway 37.

: Written by: Olivia Wynkoop/Bay City News; Published: 27 January 2023

More trees are dying and drying out in California's forests due to a hotter temperatures and prolonged droughts, which is causing more severe wildfires and a mass altercation in how forests store carbon.

That's according to Cal Fire-backed researcher Marissa Goodwin at a research webinar Wednesday. Goodwin, a graduate student at the University of New Mexico, serves as project manager for the Teakettle Ecosystem Experiment, a long-standing study that tests how repeat burning and thinning affects an experimental, old-growth forest in the Sierra Nevada.

Goodwin said the recent increase in size and severity of wildfires in California partially has to do with a legacy of fire suppression in forests, which has caused both an increase in fuel density and an altercation in how much carbon a forest would naturally contain with regular burning.

California forests that have not had regular, healthy burns to clear out dead trees and debris have become heavy carbon pools, which makes big wildfires that much more devastating to the environment, said Goodwin. She referred to this excess carbon stored in forests as carbon "owed to the atmosphere."

"We've altered the natural disturbance regime through fire suppression," Goodwin said. "As a result, over the past century, there hasn't been that regular fluctuation in the live tree carbon stock from wildfires, and instead there's been a steady increase in the amount of carbon that's stored in these ecosystems, and overshoot of the carbon-carrying capacity results in what we call a 'carbon debt.'"

Prolonged, warmer temperatures are also lengthening the fire season, and unpredictable precipitation patterns are drying out forests, which in turn is causing the majority of carbon in forests to be in dry, dead brush and trees, rather than living vegetation with a higher moisture content. Goodwin said that in mixed conifer forests, dead fuel usually has moisture content of 10 to 50 percent, while live confer trees range from 110 to 150 percent.

"Dead fuels are inherently drier than live fuels, and they now are becoming even drier with climate change. As these dead fuels dry out, they become more readily available to burn, and will release more energy as heat when wildfire occurs," Goodwin said. "Because the energy released plays an important role in wildfires spread, fires that occur where there's a lot of dead and dry fuels can produce mega fires that are characterized by high intensity and high rates of spread."

There's also another large contributor to drier fuels in forests, she said - a vapor pressure deficit in the atmosphere, which is the strength in which the atmosphere pulls moisture from soils and plants. Years of below-average winter snowpacks and increased temperatures have caused deficits in the atmosphere to increase, which causes fuel loads to become drier.

"As a result, we're witnessing hotter and drier droughts that occur more often and last longer," said Goodwin. "We've seen this dynamic play out over the past decade in California, starting with the occurrence of the 2012 to 2016 drought, which was the worst drought period to occur in the state over the past 1,200 years."

There's also unusual way that changes in climate lends itself to higher tree mortalities; for example, higher temperatures led to an increase in bark beetle outbreaks, and with trees already stressed due to unusually hot and dry weather conditions, this can cause more killer infestations.

She said bark beetle outbreaks from the 2012 to 2016 drought were responsible for killing 58 percent of trees in the Sierra National Forest.

Goodwin and other Teakettle researchers examined two wildfire events from the 2020 wildfire season to investigate how tree mortality and climate work together to affect fuel dryness and the energy released during fires.

Upon examining the Cameron Peak fire in the Colorado Rocky Mountains and the Creek Fire in the Sierra Nevada, Goodwin and her team concluded that a decrease in fuel moisture content over the past two decades resulted in higher energy values from wildfires, up to two-fold, and a greater proportion of easily burnable biomass.

"Our results suggest that the abundant dead and dry fuel loads that are produced by climate driven tree mortality and climate driven fuel aridity may result in wildfires that are perpetuated not only by available fuels, but also by the substantial amounts of energy these fires releases heat," Goodwin said.

Goodwin also highlighted a study that Teakettle researchers conducted between the 2012 to 2016 drought that examined how climate change is impacting how much carbon is released in forest management techniques, like thinning and burning.

She concluded that fire officials may have to rethink conducting prescribed burns in forests heavy with dead trees, as both managed and unmanaged forests are expected to have more of their carbon makeup in dead fuel, as drought events continue to worsen.

"Prescribed fire can reduce the risk of wildfire associated with drought related fuel inputs by consuming dead trees and surface fuels," Goodwin said. "But the expectation that carbon emissions will decrease with subsequent management may no longer hold with ongoing climate change, and we should expect to see increases in [carbon emissions] of both initial and repeat management in Sierra Nevada forests."

Goodwin said areas with a lot of dead fuel may have to begin regular burning at smaller scales, based on the rates at which dead trees are becoming surface fuels, and at intervals that can still get rid of these fuels in a timely fashion.

"When it comes to the carbon costs of forest management or the emissions associated with prescribed burning, we need to recognize that the carbon cost of prescribed burning is likely to be a lot higher than it was 10 to 20 years ago, as a result of drought, and bark beetles, tree mortalities, and our policies surrounding the use of prescribed fire," said Goodwin.

The presentation was part of a series of meetings put on by the Forest Health Research Program, a grant project that has distributed over $20 million to 60 projects dedicated to finding a deeper understanding of California forest health. The funds come from revenue made in the state's cap-and-trade program, which makes companies pay allowances to emit a certain amount pollutants.

"It's our intent to fund sound scientific studies that support forest landowners and agencies and fire management organizations within the state," said Tadashi Moody of CALFIRE. "And we importantly want to ensure that the scientific information that we generate from those funded projects gets into the hands of decision makers and landowners and those making policy, so they have good science supporting good policy."

: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 26 January 2023

Responding to years of financial pressure worsened by declining enrollment, Santa Rosa school trustees are pushing ahead with a study on

consolidating ten school districts into one.

The proposal is almost certain to drum up controversy over fears of a loss of local control and the possibility of school closures.

That, and a re-naming controversy raised much ire during a recent school closure and consolidation in west Sonoma County that continues generating disagreement and anger to this day.

"That entire process was managed so very poorly by most of the members of the West County High School Board and their previous superintendent. There was a lack of transparency and communication and an overall unwillingness to work with and truly hear our community. It was painful, it was awful and it's all on Youtube if you'd like to check it out."

Forestville resident Heather Dale Best told the county Board of Supervisors on Tuesday, still bitter about how El Molino and Analy high schools were combined.

In Santa Rosa, a preliminary study projected full consolidation would eventually save almost $45 a year, yet cause an immediate budgetary hole of more than $23 million.

The long term slide in the number of children in the county lies at the base of the conundrum. Enrollment has dropped 16 percent over the last four years, according to the Sonoma County Office of Education. With a slightly larger drop projected by the end of the decade, and funding mainly tied to attendance, that's a problem.

At a meeting earlier this month, Omar Medina, vice president of the board of trustees, dismissed two alternatives aimed at maximizing funding, which would have formed two districts.

"I felt a lot of segregation in our community and a lot of it comes from our school district. And to all be combined as one, it's more than just about the financial perspective."

Some of the small local districts receive more money as property within their borders generate more property tax revenue. A few other small districts receive extra money from Sacramento because they serve students who are English language learners or qualifying for free or reduced-price lunches. If districts were combined, both of those sources would evaporate as a combined district would meet neither metric.

Medina told colleagues a single district was worth studying as the overall benefits may outweigh the trade offs.

"The second part of the study is about the educational outcomes that could be achieved through that, but it's also building a stronger, unified community."

If a plan is eventually adopted, it would be years away. Superintendents and other administrators would be cut loose, and a new school board would be elected, tasked with exploring school closures.

Medina expects contentiousness, rather than smooth sailing.

"I know that this process will be very divisive, but to me it's about what provides equity at a larger level and we could have greater and better educational outcomes for our students."

The process requires a petition signed by a majority of members of each school board, a petition signed by at least a quarter of registered voters and approval by a government body.

: Written by: Marc Albert; Published: 25 January 2023

More than three hundred county workers briefly picketed and rallied in front of Sonoma County's administration building this morning, as contract talks continue.

The rally occurred as county supervisors met inside, and a day ahead of the next bargaining session.

Amos Eaton, a county employee who provides help to the elderly, said many staffers have departed for better pay and benefits elsewhere, leaving those who remain overworked and stressed.

"We are terribly short staffed, there are departments running twenty-five plus percent vacancy, just in our units."

Eaton said stagnant wages have turned Sonoma County into something of a farm team.

"They do two or three years, they get training, they go to another county that pays better, they go to another agency that pays better."

Jana Blunt, president of SEIU local 1021, and a senior specialist at the clerk recorder's office, said county leaders have acknowledged the issue, but haven't addressed it.

"Despite stating that recruitment and retention is a primary priority for them, we're not seeing it come through."

She said salaries just aren't keeping pace.

"The cost of living has certainly exacerbated the issue, with all of the natural disasters we've encountered, not to mention inflation and the job market, things are starting to reach a crisis point."

Andrea Zanetti, a member of the union's bargaining team, said a substantial gulf remains between the sides.

"We are significantly far apart at this point. The union's priorities all have to do with staffing and staffing up and recruitment and retention and the employer, while they say those are their priorities, that doesn't seem to be reflected in their proposals."

SEIU members last walked off the job in 2015, Blunt says. That strike lasted three days.