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. Miwok, placed oona-pa’is homes just above central Glen Ellen and — Sonoma Mountain — at Another saw unusually large flocks of Band- the center of the world, threatening Jack London State Park and the Tailed Pigeons roaming the lower flanks of imagining its summit as Sonoma Developmental Center (SDC). That the mountain. Golden-Crowned Kinglets, an island in the primordial same night, the Adobe Fire (which later which typically inhabit conifer forests in the ocean at the beginning of merged with the Nuns Fire) burned through time. Mayacamas and Annadel, were spotted at the edge of Kenwood and up the east slope Sobre Vista after the fire. Driving Sonoma Geologists tell a similar story of Bennett Mountain. Jumping Bennett Mountain Road in late October, I noticed —that Sonoma Mountain’s Valley Road the next day, it climbed up that where you once would have seen six layers of volcanic and Sonoma Mountain and reached the edge or eight small birds perched on the utility sedimentary rock, pushed of the North Slope Regional Park. Another upward by tectonic forces, lines between two poles, there were now rose from the depths of a fire, just south of Grange Road, burned to dozens and dozens of them. shallow sea. the edge of Crane Canyon Regional Park. Far to the south, a fourth fire blackened The places where those animals lived, Sears Point, where the Sonoma Mountains and fled from, also provided our human touch San Pablo Bay. community with open space, recreation, natural beauty and relief from the busy Lives and hundreds of homes were world. Now burned, these places have tragically lost in these fires, which covered not only become strange and unfamiliar The mission of Sonoma Mountain about 50,000 acres. Other fires blackened but many are officially “off limits” and Preservation is to preserve the an additional 50,000 acres of the county. inaccessible too. Glen Ellen’s Sonoma mountain’s scenic, agricultural In the face of this devastation, it is striking Valley Regional Park presents a scarcely and natural resources; expand how much of the mountain was spared recognizable black and white version of its recreational opportunities there; (map, page X). Flames licked at the base of former self, fallen leaves adding sepia on Sonoma Mountain but never spread into and provide a forum for top of scorched and blackened grasses. Its the SDC or Sobre Vista. Great credit for this constructive discussion of issues closure leaves a hole in our community goes to the professional firefighters and relating to the mountain. Continued on page 4 Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org Our mountain stands, vibrant and alive. We humans stand too, full of resiliency Letter as we face transformation and begin from the rebuilding. A Book for the Mountain Chair As work has progressed on Where the With compelling photographs and World Begins: Sonoma Mountain in Stories text, Where the World Begins: and Images—to be published in the fall Sonoma Mountain Stories & of 2018 (see sidebar)—a wonderful idea Images will explore and celebrate the emerged. natural and cultural value of Sonoma 08: Mountain and its unique place in the THE YEAR To build public focus, engagement, and landscape of Sonoma County. OF interest in the mountain, we’re naming 2018 the Year of Sonoma Mountain, Gathering together diverse voices ONOMA OUNTAIN S M We’re working with our many open space, and perspectives from the past and Meg Beeler parks, and arts partners to plan special present, Where the World Begins Sonoma Mountain-focused events for will present the mountain through We’re preparing this Journal a few weeks 2018. With these joint events, we will raise a variety of lenses, including: First after our fires. awareness of the beauty and diversity Peoples; pioneer history; geology; For all of us, it’s a challenge to step aside of our mountain; help people develop a water; habitats and ecosystems; from the fire losses and keep going. deeper connection to and sense of place; conservation and preservation; Grief and devastation face us at every and encourage people to explore the visionaries, writers and artists turn. Our Vice-Chair Arthur Dawson, treasure and jewel of a mountain that is associated with the mountain; and who lost his home in Glen Ellen, models our most prominent landmark. Come play the future. #SonomaStrong: he thanks everyone on the mountain! The book and related events during he sees for the love and support that the Year of Sonoma Mountain will Welcome Our New Secretary surround him and his family, despite “bring the mountain to the people,” minute-by-minute adjustment to what is, Nancy Kirwan, who grew up spending her fostering greater public awareness, and what is no longer. summers on the mountain and recently appreciation and stewardship of the moved back, has graciously agreed to Focusing on how Sonoma Mountain mountain. become our new Board Secretary. Her was affected by the fires, how individual energy and curiosity are wonderful heroes stepped up to help save additions. Welcome, Nancy! neighborhoods and the whole mountain, and what lessons we might find for We Need Your Help! the ecosystem seemed natural. Yet it More than a quarter-million people live is hard to make sense of things. We within a dozen miles of Sonoma Mountain. see pathways—where the fires swept Urban residents of Petaluma, Sonoma, through—but no clear reasons why one Rohnert Park and Santa Rosa see the house burned and another still stands. Contributors will include regionally mountain daily. We want to help them As the ashes rained down, I thought of and nationally-known writers Kenneth deepen their connection. You can help by them as pieces of lives and memories Brower, Greg Sarris, Rebecca Lawton using your donation envelope or PayPal on spreading across the land. Tracy Salcedo and Arthur Dawson, our website (link): Our gratitude that the mountain was who will be the primary author. • Order copies of the book in relatively unscathed knows no bounds. advance, $35 per copy. Photographers include Scott Hess, Sonoma Mountain’s public open spaces, well known for his Sonoma County from Jack London SHP to Crane Creek • Make a special donation for the landscapes and Sonoma Mountain Regional Park, were left intact. It is book ($100 or more includes a resident Ed Cooper, who has a possible that the mountain’s height, and copy). national reputation for his mountain western flank of grasslands, protected • Include your regular donation to photos from around the world. Petaluma from the fires. SMP so we can carry on the rest of our work advocating for the Publication Date: Fall 2018. $35 mountain. Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org pressures of development were alarming. WILL LAFFERTY BE THERE In the 1993 Pat and local activists formed HEN E ET HERE Sonoma Mountain Preservation(SMP). W W G T ? Pat served on its board for over 20 years, Matt McGuire working tirelessly to achieve the goal of Friends of Lafferty Park preserving what was special about the mountain. Typically, she shunned the The almost three-decade effort to open presidency, but as secretary organized Petaluma’s Lafferty Ranch may actually the agenda and kept the group’s focus on come to fruition in our lifetimes, some the preservation of agricultural land, open of us proponents are finally beginning to Copeland Creek Scott Hess space and trails. Pat rode the mountain on believe. Thankfully, the fires never climbed over The arduous, painstaking mediation the ridge to destroy our mountaintop between the Friends of Lafferty Park, jewel; Lafferty Ranch survived intact. With the City of Petaluma and the adjacent the delay, the mediation will take a little neighbors appear to be bearing fruit. The longer to resolve. Will the parties finally, negotiations have always centered around finally reach an agreement on access and the level of access and the protection of timing so that the public can enjoy Lafferty the natural resources. After it was agreed at long last? by the parties to hire a trails expert and We hope and pray that we will have a a biologist to review the property, a positive answer to this question by the draft usage plan was created.