Sonoma County Environmental Resource Guide

[Katy]

Hi,

I'm a senior at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm, and this was my senior thesis project, writing: The Sonoma County Environmental Resource Guide. I hope you will take a few moments to open the pdf and read the guide. It is an informational booklet on current environmental issues occuring here in our county, and offers the resources necessary to contact most local organizations in the environmental/conservation fields.

Please enjoy it. I put a lot of work into this. Any, all and more comments, feedback and criticism would be appreciated. I am trying to get some information for my thesis paper on how this guide has impacted the community. If you could tell me, that'd be great.
If you would like to add this guide to your website, please contact me first, and I will decide whether it is appropriate or not. Thanks!

It will begin appearing in bookstores, cafes and some local shops in about 2 weeks. Please pick up a copy if you'd like, and leave or send in a donation! I decided not to charge for the book, but would really appreciate any financial support. Although the printing of this guide was done for free from Barlow Printing Inc., in west Cotati, additional costs were incurred, which I'd like to cover.

Thank you all very much,
Katherina Haug
My thesis presentation will be on Saturday, March 17 at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm, 655 Willowside Rd. Santa Rosa. Please call the school for details. Thanks!

Please go to this website to see the first online version of this guide.
https://owlfoundation.net/index.htm

[Or you can click on the image of the guide at the right and it will take you right there! :goodjob: , Katherina! - Barry ]

["Mad" Miles]

Beautiful Job Katy!

If you were my student you'd be getting an A+++ and a recommendation for a full scholarship to the environmental resources and/or graphic design program of your choice.

I forwarded the URL for your .pdf file to all of my lists (where it would be appropriate) earlier today.

Congratulations,

Mr. Mendenhall (as I'm known in educational institutional settings)

aka "Mad" Miles

:okay:

[lynn]

Hi Katy...

I recently saw your post about your thesis on the Wacco board...and as a native Californian, and long time resident of Santa Rosa...I would write an 'Environmental Resource Guide' for Sonoma County, the State of CA., and the whole Southwest in basically one sentence...

Stop allowing overpopulation, stop building!...IT's about the WATER!...And the rest of the Plants and Creatures too!"...

(Skimmed over your thesis a bit)...I can tell you did a lot of work and are learning a lot...That's good...We need a lot of young people right now who are going to care and hopefully do something about improving the biodiversity of nature...what is left of it anyway...

That said....I have some particular points of view...That most of the so called 'environmental movement' has failed and is still failing'...
And this is why....

Big Beef # 1...I noticed you skimmed over the 'population issue'....and used that nice 'politically correct' term - population growth...and not overpopulation...I notice that a lot these days - it's a major oversight in my book...This is one of THE major biggies, at least in CA. and the Southwest many people are not willing to address...We can't afford to skim over it anymore...(The environmentalists, after having been labelled 'racists' from what I understand, 'wimped' out on this in the 70's)...

One cannot address the environmental issues without addressing overpopulation...This, for one thing, could entail stopping illegal immigration, repeal the ability for people to come here and have 'anchor babies', be very, very picky about who gets to stay here, and greatly limiting legal immigration...Not easy, super-politically charged, and I figure won't happen...But that's a bit of what would need to be done if we are to help this area not 'consume' so much as to continuing the depletion of water resources and help the rest of nature out a bit...And there's hardly anybody willing to address this issue...It involves changing the economic system, punishing employers that hire illegals...(the cheaper the better for these employers - while it screws wages for many other citizens here)...This cheap labor is also creating havoc on some 'African - American' communities from what I hear.

The other thing that could be done is to do an education drive to educate the people here, encourage all people to have only two children...And give free college education to families (legal) with only one child...

If adults want children to have limits...Then why is it so hard for adults to limit themselves?...When it comes to adults putting limits on themselves, it seems to be a whole other ballgame...

Big Beef # 2...Building.- Growth...The only 'sustainable growth' at this point is no growth at all...And I'm not a big supporter of 'smart growth' either - I call much of it - Big, ugly, dull growth....They often build these big, or even huge homes in these tidy looking little communities...Very sterile and boring....

You mention 'infill' in the guide...Infill, is a nice idea, but more people are still using up the water - NOT good at all...And the city continues to allow building of thousands of new units where I live, paving over much of the the open space...It is NOT infill...And the city did not require this land in a nice way either...They jerimandered some of it, after people kept voting to stay out of the city limits...Some other homes they Eminent Domained for more of this private development...

Remember the recent Supreme Court case in '05?...."Stevens's opinion provoked a strongly worded dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote that the ruling favors the most powerful and influential in society and leaves small property owners little recourse. Now, she wrote, the "specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

O'connor was mostly right...Because that's exactly what Santa Rosa was doing for years, and what they hurried up to do here in case the Supreme Court would have voted differently...Very disgusting...The city has been evil in that way, and I don't hear 'environmentalists' here confronting that at all either...

Why aren't people who already live in a community where growth is being implemented, part of the design process?....Also...Why aren't we going back to smaller sq. footage?...That was fine for people before...But not now?...People are still hung up on big, and I'm very sick of it...Where are the eco-homes, the green-driveways?...There's been so much new building in so many places the traffic is horrible where it didn't use to be just 10 yrs. ago...And with all this new building I haven't seen even one green-driveway, and no eco-villages at all...But, I sure see a lot of those big, ugly things...

Solar panels is a nice idea - but why are people stopping at that?...If people are going to build...Then let's demand smaller energy efficient 'eco-homes', eco-villages with green pathways, driveways...etc. etc...And I sure wish we could do something about those big, ugly things I see all the time...

Big Beef # 3...Just like the cities, you encourage people to 'conserve water'...Sounds nice, but this is the problem...The so called 'environmental' movement here in Sonoma Co. hasn't been able to stop Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma from doing all this insane building while asking everyone to conserve, conserve, conserve water...It's insane...The 'environmentalists' maybe could have given the cities and developers a run for their money...IF they had challenged them and gotten enough people to make a stand that they were NOT going to conserve water unless the cities do their part in conservation themselves and stop building, or at least make better (much lower-growth) general plans....and quit allowing the building of such big, ugly homes...

THE big point here that people DON'T point out is this....The more people conserve water...then the more the citites are encouraged to build...The whole ranting from cities to conserve, conserve, conserve...scams us regular folks, (those not on the boards of local government offices) and keeps putting $ in the bought -off-politicians and developers pockets...Complete insanity...

This is a major reason I don't bother to 'conserve' water...

Big Beef # 4....I'm a complete nature lover who is going to drive to my hearts content, and not give a hoot about my 'carbon footprint'...Why?...Because I don't use squat compared to people like Al Gore and so many people in this whole 'climate change' hooplala...All these people are out there yackin' about 'carbon offsets'...While I don't here anybody, Al, on the news or anywhere trying to stop these NAFTA highways from going through - which are going to destroy farmland, pave over huge swaths of land, and therefore add huge amounts of carbons to the atmosphere...They want little ol' you and me to watch our carbon offsets while thousands (or maybe even millions?) of acres of land are paved into oblivious greyness...Yeah right...

I'll start to consider how much I drive when Big Al, adopts some children, or quits living in his Mansion and donates it to five single mothers who could use a place to live...Gets on a serious bandwagon to change the NAFTA treaty, and stop the NAFTA highways, and starts addressing the 'growth as god' model we're all living in - worshipping and suffering in...Starts advocating more economic justice, so millions of people don't need to try and escape their homeland for 'a better life'...Starts advocating for more 'eco-design', and starts traveling by sailboat to get around instead of jet-setting it everywhere...

On the local level, as I stated before, I'm not going to bother cutting down on my driving (accept where it helps me in the pocketbook) while I watch thousands of more housing units being put up, which puts thousands of more cars on the roads right here in my own backyard, and most likely several more rude drivers.

Big Beef # 5...The word 'environmentalist' or 'environmentalism' itself....Most people use this word 'environmental' to mean our 'natural' surroundings, or our 'ecological' surroundings...But everything around us is 'environment'...There is a big disconnect in our modern society about so many things which creates and/or encourages insane, and simply just rude behavior...

We have our 'inner environment' , our bodies and how it relates to and absorbes the 'outer environment'...Everything outside our skin is the 'outer environment', other people, buildings, streets, cars, phones, tables chairs...etc..etc...When talking about 'the environment' we do not do ourselves, nature, or our day to day living experience and environments justice by dividing things up into particular categories...'nature', cities' 'buildings', 'cars' etc....This division, along with the reluctance to address the topic of spirit, soul, and beauty in our everyday lives, and how nature nurtures that, is another major point that keeps allowing us to look at 'nature' simply as a 'resource' and nothing more, and to keep destroying and using it up without much wise, heartfelt-managed care, and to keep building big, ugly things.

As we know on some level, but find it easier to ignore or become numb to - is how it's all connected....Therefore because of lack of 'seeing' this, or just failing to address this, in my opinion the 'environmental movement' has made a few little inroads here and there, but on the larger scale has failed, and is currently failing...Of course, what are the defined goals in the first place?...I guess it might depend on who one is talking to...That's a big problem too...

Well, those are some of the problems I see in the so called 'environmental' movement...Feel free to respond, ask questions whatever...

Here are some sites and articles I recommend reading and taking a look at, that deal with some of what I have written about here...These are some of what I would have listed in a 'Resource' report...

have fun...
lynn

Growth is Madness...
https://growthmadness.org/

California, overpopulation
https://www.susps.org/

'Idols of Environmentalism'...
https://www.orionmagazine.org/index....es/article/233

'Compromise Hell' by Wendell Berry...
https://www.orionmagazine.org/index....s/article/147/

On Architecture...
https://www.patternlanguage.com/
https://www.patternlanguage.com/leveltwo/ca.htm
https://www.calearth.org/

[nicofrog]

Well WEll Well;
Hi lynn, I read your lengthy post and I AGREE with it 100% (accept for the smirks about Al Gore)HOWEVER I believe, like my Dad(Bless his dear departed sole) that you are rightWRONG!! not like write on!
What I mean by that is like a small terrior,you chomp at the ignorant heels of society,then turn around and snap angrily at those who would rally to help your cause. If it was more fun, or some how connected to positive outcome.like good leadership.people would all rally to help you bring things to light.Perhaps serve tea and cookies.
I can see you at city council meetings causing those Lawyers and Realtors to cringe in their socks,till they go home and deposit more
wine country checks in the bank,It's all good baby ,soon macdonalds will be touting sustainability,and wendy's will sell global cooling burgers.
Towne houses called eco-village,hydrogen vehicles called a good idea.
hey if you want a better world with cleaner energy go nuclear!
It's an imperfect world with imperfect environmentalists,including myself
and if we all attack each other,nothing will ever be accomplished,accept we may all think we know who's fault it is. good ol'
rumi " somewhere,beyond the forest of right-doing and wrong-doing there's a meadow,I'll meet you there."
Nice environmental guide,may we all support each other in trying.there isn't time to get it just right ,let's just get it..and if a wine growing,townehouse building,s.u.v.driving lawyer-realtor wants to help out ..GREAT,I'll ride in his rig,drink his wine, throw away(To toxics)his round up, and little by little convince him to change driveways...
by the way..can those eco-driveways pass county code yet?? I think the paving co. is directly connected to the building inspectors office, it's like an umbilical cord or something right?
Hey anyway nice rant, but if you want to win,,,lighten up a bit
check out traythuns bad spelling approach and let a little luv in yer lyfe!
It's ok everybody's got it wrong ,how else can we work together TO GET HER mother earth is waiting while we rant.Oh and right on to no debate,thanks young folks for stepping UP.
Nico

Hi Katy...

I recently saw your post about your thesis on the Wacco board...and as a native Californian, and long time resident of Santa Rosa...I would write an 'Environmental Resource Guide' for Sonoma County, the State of CA., and the whole Southwest in basically one sentence...

Stop allowing overpopulation, stop building!...IT's about the WATER!...And the rest of the Plants and Creatures too!"...

(Skimmed over your thesis a bit)...I can tell you did a lot of work and are learning a lot...That's good...We need a lot of young people right now who are going to care and hopefully do something about improving the biodiversity of nature...what is left of it anyway...

That said....I have some particular points of view...That most of the so called 'environmental movement' has failed and is still failing'...
And this is why....

Big Beef # 1...I noticed you skimmed over the 'population issue'....and used that nice 'politically correct' term - population growth...and not overpopulation...I notice that a lot these days - it's a major oversight in my book...This is one of THE major biggies, at least in CA. and the Southwest many people are not willing to address...We can't afford to skim over it anymore...(The environmentalists, after having been labelled 'racists' from what I understand, 'wimped' out on this in the 70's)...

One cannot address the environmental issues without addressing overpopulation...This, for one thing, could entail stopping illegal immigration, repeal the ability for people to come here and have 'anchor babies', be very, very picky about who gets to stay here, and greatly limiting legal immigration...Not easy, super-politically charged, and I figure won't happen...But that's a bit of what would need to be done if we are to help this area not 'consume' so much as to continuing the depletion of water resources and help the rest of nature out a bit...And there's hardly anybody willing to address this issue...It involves changing the economic system, punishing employers that hire illegals...(the cheaper the better for these employers - while it screws wages for many other citizens here)...This cheap labor is also creating havoc on some 'African - American' communities from what I hear.

The other thing that could be done is to do an education drive to educate the people here, encourage all people to have only two children...And give free college education to families (legal) with only one child...

If adults want children to have limits...Then why is it so hard for adults to limit themselves?...When it comes to adults putting limits on themselves, it seems to be a whole other ballgame...

Big Beef # 2...Building.- Growth...The only 'sustainable growth' at this point is no growth at all...And I'm not a big supporter of 'smart growth' either - I call much of it - Big, ugly, dull growth....They often build these big, or even huge homes in these tidy looking little communities...Very sterile and boring....

You mention 'infill' in the guide...Infill, is a nice idea, but more people are still using up the water - NOT good at all...And the city continues to allow building of thousands of new units where I live, paving over much of the the open space...It is NOT infill...And the city did not require this land in a nice way either...They jerimandered some of it, after people kept voting to stay out of the city limits...Some other homes they Eminent Domained for more of this private development...

Remember the recent Supreme Court case in '05?...."Stevens's opinion provoked a strongly worded dissent from Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, who wrote that the ruling favors the most powerful and influential in society and leaves small property owners little recourse. Now, she wrote, the "specter of condemnation hangs over all property. Nothing is to prevent the State from replacing any Motel 6 with a Ritz-Carlton, any home with a shopping mall, or any farm with a factory."

O'connor was mostly right...Because that's exactly what Santa Rosa was doing for years, and what they hurried up to do here in case the Supreme Court would have voted differently...Very disgusting...The city has been evil in that way, and I don't hear 'environmentalists' here confronting that at all either...

Why aren't people who already live in a community where growth is being implemented, part of the design process?....Also...Why aren't we going back to smaller sq. footage?...That was fine for people before...But not now?...People are still hung up on big, and I'm very sick of it...Where are the eco-homes, the green-driveways?...There's been so much new building in so many places the traffic is horrible where it didn't use to be just 10 yrs. ago...And with all this new building I haven't seen even one green-driveway, and no eco-villages at all...But, I sure see a lot of those big, ugly things...

Solar panels is a nice idea - but why are people stopping at that?...If people are going to build...Then let's demand smaller energy efficient 'eco-homes', eco-villages with green pathways, driveways...etc. etc...And I sure wish we could do something about those big, ugly things I see all the time...

Big Beef # 3...Just like the cities, you encourage people to 'conserve water'...Sounds nice, but this is the problem...The so called 'environmental' movement here in Sonoma Co. hasn't been able to stop Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Petaluma from doing all this insane building while asking everyone to conserve, conserve, conserve water...It's insane...The 'environmentalists' maybe could have given the cities and developers a run for their money...IF they had challenged them and gotten enough people to make a stand that they were NOT going to conserve water unless the cities do their part in conservation themselves and stop building, or at least make better (much lower-growth) general plans....and quit allowing the building of such big, ugly homes...

THE big point here that people DON'T point out is this....The more people conserve water...then the more the citites are encouraged to build...The whole ranting from cities to conserve, conserve, conserve...scams us regular folks, (those not on the boards of local government offices) and keeps putting $ in the bought -off-politicians and developers pockets...Complete insanity...

This is a major reason I don't bother to 'conserve' water...

Big Beef # 4....I'm a complete nature lover who is going to drive to my hearts content, and not give a hoot about my 'carbon footprint'...Why?...Because I don't use squat compared to people like Al Gore and so many people in this whole 'climate change' hooplala...All these people are out there yackin' about 'carbon offsets'...While I don't here anybody, Al, on the news or anywhere trying to stop these NAFTA highways from going through - which are going to destroy farmland, pave over huge swaths of land, and therefore add huge amounts of carbons to the atmosphere...They want little ol' you and me to watch our carbon offsets while thousands (or maybe even millions?) of acres of land are paved into oblivious greyness...Yeah right...

I'll start to consider how much I drive when Big Al, adopts some children, or quits living in his Mansion and donates it to five single mothers who could use a place to live...Gets on a serious bandwagon to change the NAFTA treaty, and stop the NAFTA highways, and starts addressing the 'growth as god' model we're all living in - worshipping and suffering in...Starts advocating more economic justice, so millions of people don't need to try and escape their homeland for 'a better life'...Starts advocating for more 'eco-design', and starts traveling by sailboat to get around instead of jet-setting it everywhere...

On the local level, as I stated before, I'm not going to bother cutting down on my driving (accept where it helps me in the pocketbook) while I watch thousands of more housing units being put up, which puts thousands of more cars on the roads right here in my own backyard, and most likely several more rude drivers.

Big Beef # 5...The word 'environmentalist' or 'environmentalism' itself....Most people use this word 'environmental' to mean our 'natural' surroundings, or our 'ecological' surroundings...But everything around us is 'environment'...There is a big disconnect in our modern society about so many things which creates and/or encourages insane, and simply just rude behavior...

We have our 'inner environment' , our bodies and how it relates to and absorbes the 'outer environment'...Everything outside our skin is the 'outer environment', other people, buildings, streets, cars, phones, tables chairs...etc..etc...When talking about 'the environment' we do not do ourselves, nature, or our day to day living experience and environments justice by dividing things up into particular categories...'nature', cities' 'buildings', 'cars' etc....This division, along with the reluctance to address the topic of spirit, soul, and beauty in our everyday lives, and how nature nurtures that, is another major point that keeps allowing us to look at 'nature' simply as a 'resource' and nothing more, and to keep destroying and using it up without much wise, heartfelt-managed care, and to keep building big, ugly things.

As we know on some level, but find it easier to ignore or become numb to - is how it's all connected....Therefore because of lack of 'seeing' this, or just failing to address this, in my opinion the 'environmental movement' has made a few little inroads here and there, but on the larger scale has failed, and is currently failing...Of course, what are the defined goals in the first place?...I guess it might depend on who one is talking to...That's a big problem too...

Well, those are some of the problems I see in the so called 'environmental' movement...Feel free to respond, ask questions whatever...

Here are some sites and articles I recommend reading and taking a look at, that deal with some of what I have written about here...These are some of what I would have listed in a 'Resource' report...

have fun...
lynn

Growth is Madness...
https://growthmadness.org/

California, overpopulation
https://www.susps.org/

'Idols of Environmentalism'...
https://www.orionmagazine.org/index....es/article/233

'Compromise Hell' by Wendell Berry...
https://www.orionmagazine.org/index....s/article/147/

On Architecture...
https://www.patternlanguage.com/
https://www.patternlanguage.com/leveltwo/ca.htm
https://www.calearth.org/

[scamperwillow]

I came across this guide today in a totally different way - I was actually looking for sites that linked to our Solar Sebastopol site. What a coincidence that today I see it being discussed on Wacco. That tells me it is getting out there. I hope it is being distributed to all the local schools.

I wrote to Katy to congratulate her on her fine work. I surely don't see this as a place for a debate but a place for gratitude to a young person that gets it and is working hard to get the word out.

I am very impressed with this work from a high school student and with the school that encouraged it. We need lots more young people with this sort of commitment. Yeah Katy!!

Marty Roberts
Solar Sebastopol

[wellnesshelp]

Hi Katherina,

Great job with the guide.

Regarding to add resources to the guide:

There is a car that with 70 miles per gallon has the lowest pollution emission of ANY other fuel available today, with a max speed of 120mph has a range of 450 miles per tank. However, the cost to fill up the tank is around $3.10.

The site may be related to the guide's sections:
Current Issues "Air Quality and Climate Protection" and
Conserve "Energy"

Let me know if that would be appropriate to add to the guide.
Green Car

Sergio

Hi,
I'm a senior at Summerfield Waldorf School and Farm, and this was my senior thesis project, writing: The Sonoma County Environmental Resource Guide. ...