Sonoma Mountain Journal 2017
Volume 17, no. 1 December, 2017 This year’s Journal highlights the DEVASTATION, REFUGE & HEALING ON THE MOUNTAIN stories and effects of the 2017 Arthur Dawson wildfires on Sonoma Mountain On the night of October 8th, a fire started residents who checked the fire’s advance Inside in the Mayacamas, just three miles (see Steve Lee’s account on page 5). northeast of downtown Glen Ellen and Letter from the Chair Like those firefighters, the mountain the base of Sonoma Mountain. Pushed itself played a protective role. It shielded Lafferty Ranch Update by ferocious winds, the blaze swept Petaluma from blunt force of the winds southwest, consuming homes on Nuns Tributes: Pat Eliot & John Barinaga which drove the fire in its early days. It also Canyon, Dunbar, Henno and Warm Springs served as a refuge for animals escaping A First-Hand Account Roads. My own home was among those the conflagration. Nancy Kirwan, who lost. When the firestorm reached O’Donnell lives near Carriger Creek, reports that The Evils in the Hills Lane, next to Sonoma Creek, the winds the coyote population has gone up in her Crane Creek Regional Park were strong enough to move several cars. neighborhood—their howling serenades, No one witnessed it, but such a feat would which used to happen occasionally, are have required tornado-force winds. now a nightly occurrence. The first peoples of southern After crossing the creek, the fire raced up Likewise, another resident noticed a Sonoma county, the Coast the lower slopes of the mountain, igniting marked increase in owl calls in her area.
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