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Home , Bennett Mountain, Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Mountains

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 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 , 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 , the winds the population has gone up in her 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 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 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 . 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 and fled from, also provided our human touch . 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 2018: 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; ; For all of us, it’s a challenge to step aside of our mountain; help people develop a water; 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 , 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. The plan Pat Eliot on the mountain Eliot Family time the next edition of the Journal is out. was the subject of much back and forth negotiations but may be nearing an Tributes her quarterhorse D2 until her 87th year. agreeable form for all. SMP led the effort to transfer the upper The other main issue has been the timing Pat Eliot 600 acres of the Sonoma Developmental and phasing of public access. This too SMP Founder Center to State Parks, a task that took seven years. An ordinance shaped to appears to be nearing an agreeable form. A year ago we lost a woman whose protect the view shed of the mountain When I wrote this, massive fires were enduring passion to preserve Sonoma was adopted by the County supervisors. burning on the back side of Sonoma Mountain began when she took a job at the It now also protects Taylor Mountain and Mountain. The catastrophic damage done Jack London Guest ranch run by the London the that frame to large swaths of Santa Rosa have put a family during WWII. She brought along . temporary hold on the mediation, just as her horse and explored the Mountain for we were approaching the final stages. several summers. The work of the SMP continues, with plans to declare 2018 “The Year of the Patricia Peters Eliot was 7 when her family Mountain”, and with the publication of came to . She led a full and a book about this place that serves as a adventurous life with her husband Ted, a backdrop for 250,000 people. Both the foreign service officer. They were posted book and the activities next year will serve in Sri Lanka, Germany, the Soviet Union as a tribute to Pat Eliot. and Iran with several years of residence —Mickey Cooke in Washington DC. There, with four small children at home, Pat earned a concurrent John Barinaga: Another of SMP’s Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in founding and long-time members, John education at American University and Barinaga, passed away in April, 2017. John taught in challenging schools in the District. was a leader in opposition to the Galvin Their last stop was in Kabul where Ted Ranch, a Sonoma Mountain ridge-top served as Ambassador in the 1970’s. Here development proposed in 1996. Thirty- Pat honed the diplomatic skills valuable four homes would have been visible from when working in organizations and both Petaluma and Sonoma, requiring bureaucracies and she led and set goals for amendment of the County General Plan. many! Thanks to John and many others, the In their mid sixties, Pat and Ted built development was rejected. John was a a home high on Sonoma Mountain. curious person who always had a twinkle Lafferty Ranch from Petaluma. Scott Hess The mountain had much changed. The in his eye. We miss him. Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org  All the parks shown on this map have re-opened after the fires and are again welcoming visitors. (though portions of Annadel remain closed.)

Fairfield Osborn and VanHoosear Preserves offer limited public access.

FIRE MAP

Sonoma Mountain and the Fires of 2017

Cartography by Arthur Dawson Baseline Consulting, Glen Ellen, CA Fire Perimeters courtesy of CALFIRE Base map courtesy of Sonoma County 2013 LIDAR coverage

Devastation, Refuge & Healing mountain offers us a place thathasn’t Douglas fir and redwood groves. As things changed. Driving up to Jack London State were, they still are. The well-trod paths Continued from page 1 Park, the smell of wet black ash gives that welcome us into autumn woods and compounds our personal losses from way to the sweet aroma of oak and bay remain shady and cool. the fire. leaves melting back into the earth; fire- When the fires of 2017 singed its edges, The literature on recovering from gutted homes are replaced by buildings Sonoma Mountain provided shelter and trauma—and virtually everyone in the which have stood for 135 years; and in the safe haven. Now that those fires have county has suffered it at some level— place of brown leaves and dead trees are passed into memory, it offers a place for recommends seeking out the familiar. The green oaks, madrone and maple, ranks of us to heal from the burn as well.

 Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org lot of open grass and grazing land on the the jumbled overgrowth, I got buckets, Fighting the Fire: properties more or less across from Jack shovels and a chainsaw. Luckily, my A First-hand Account London Village, on what is called Meadow brother, nephew and his friends showed Steve Lee Lane. That’s where they put up a fight, up just then, and we all went down there using multiple trucks and a bulldozer. together and managed to tamp down the NOTE: Steve lives on a knoll at the foot flames. They were over 10-feet high in of Sonoma Mountain, across from Jack Thankfully, the fierce winds started to places! London Village and above Arnold Drive drop off. As dawn broke, I was by myself running the tractor and had hoses Another flare-up happened later that Up until about 4 a.m., when my family ready; there were still embers landing morning and the fire started raging uphill evacuated, fire personnel were not doing on our property. I was able to get them toward Jack London Park. One flank much to halt the fire’s advance. They were out and kept my eyes on the flames headed to the creek further upstream in a simply trying to save lives and protect visible through the trees below as they 250-yard line of flames fed by wind gusts. structures where they could. The winds approached Asbury Creek. A friend, John Powell, John’s tenant and I were just too strong. fought that for an hour and stopped it just The fire crews moved on to the next big But just before dawn, they made their first before it reached the overgrowth of the fight, leaving open fires burning.I watched attempt to stop the advance of the flank creek canyon. them spread into the creek in a few of the fire that blew over Warm Springs places. When they started to flare up in All day and night and throughout the Road and through Glen Ellen. There’s a next day, me and a few neighbors—Will Hopper, Scott Lindquist, Matt Smith, Join Us in 2018! Neil Shepherd and others—assisted For our quarterly meetings on January 24; April 25; July 25 & October 24, 1:30 to 3:30, by fire crews hailed down on Arnold at the Sonoma Ecology Center, Sonoma Developmental Center campus. Guest Drive at three critical times, kept the speakers in 2018 include folks and Quinton Martins on the fire from crossing Asbury Creek canyon. Mountain Lion Project. (Call 996-9967 for directions) Had it crossed the canyon it would have Donate entered the never-burned SDC lands and P.O. Box 1772, Glen Ellen, CA 1772 spread unabated up Sonoma Mountain www.sonomamountain.org. (Paypal/credit card) and across to the communities of Keep Up with Issues and Events Morningside, Sobre Vista and Diamond A. SMP on Facebook: www.facebook.com/sonomamountain Another flank of the fire came at us from Development Issues on the radar: www.votma.org/pub/htdocs/issues.html the east as it burned through the Regional Map of structures destroyed in the 2017 fires:http://sonomacounty.ca.gov/Public- Park. This was mostly halted before Safety/Press-Releases/Interactive-Map-of-Structures-Impacted/ Arnold Drive, but it did jump the road right below us, between the two bridges, and burned to Sonoma Creek.

It jumped the creek in one place closer to the SDC campus and started heading uphill into the open space. Eldridge Fire got that part under control before it got too high on the hill. That was stressing me out for a while! That was the furthest south it got on Sonoma Mountain.

website

Tom von Tersch von Tom adapted from an article in the Kenwood SMP’s current board, from left: Meg Beeler, chair; Arthur Dawson, Press by Shannon Lee Vice-Chair; Nancy Kirwan, Secretary; Jack Nisson, Treasurer.

Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org  constructed to connect the creek with The Evils in the Hills the main stem of the Laguna de Santa John Sheehy Rosa, ultimately feeding the creek into the Russian River. But the collection of Frank Burton, who settled at the sediment and storm debris that built up northwestern foot of Sonoma Mountain during the winter hindered the channel’s in the 1850s, claimed that the trout in flood control function, contributing to nearby Copeland Creek ran so thick he Copeland Creek’s inclination to jump into the nearby Petaluma watershed, could reach in and catch them by hand. Sonoma County Regional Parks Copeland Creek’s abundance of fish and where it pushed debris and sediment to year-round fresh water made it a valuable the , impeding riverboat Strolling in the Park: resource for Yankee pioneers like Burton, navigation and exasperating flood Walks at Crane Creek but the creek also had a checkered conditions in Petaluma. The channeling reputation for infidelity. In stormy also appears to have brought about a Arthur Dawson conditions Copeland Creek was known to steep decline of trout in the creek. With its rolling landscape of oaks and jump watersheds, venturing from its usual In 1872, Copeland Creek became a streambed in the Russian River watershed primary water source for Petaluma, along bordering Crane Creek, Crane to the nearby Petaluma River watershed, with two other year-round creeks that Creek Regional Park offers a variety of where it contributed to the periodic flowed down Sonoma Mountain’s west leisurely walks. You can ramble along the flooding of Petaluma. slope, Adobe Creek and . A Creek Trail accompanied by the sound of Calls for imposing flood control on the diversionary dam was built midway up flowing water or make the brief climb to wayward creek began over a century Copeland Creek that piped roughly half an expansive view of Taylor Mountain and ago with the Petaluma Courier’s plea to of the creek’s flow to Petaluma the Cotati Plain at the top of the Sunset “remedy the evils in the hills.” Those calls reservoirs. Even so, come winter Trail. were raised again this past winter, after Copeland Creek failed to change its evil One of the park’s pleasures is to stroll with Copeland Creek jumped its banks along ways. State engineer reports in 1896 and Lichau Road in Penngrove, spilling into 1902 called for remedies for shoring up no particular destination, choosing your an already-flooded Petaluma. As in the its banks, but ranch owners responded path at each trail junction as you go. There past, they were met with concerns over by threatening the city of Petaluma with are at least a half-dozen loops within regulations, private property rights, and trespassing lawsuits. park’s five miles of trail. Whenever you decide to return, the parking lot is never questions about where the money would In 1914, the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers much more than a mile away. come from. recommended the construction of a Copeland Creek originates from Elphic restraining wall on the creek, but the The Pressley fire (page 4) touched the Spring near the summit of Sonoma Cotati Land Company, a large landholder northern edge of Crane Canyon Park. On Mountain, naturally flowing onto the in the southern Santa Rosa Plain, sued the Sunset and Fiddleneck trails you will Santa Rosa Plain at the southern edge of Petaluma, arguing that such a wall find blackened grassland and some oak would result in flooding their farmland. the Russian River watershed. While winter and bay trees which also burned. Even so, Heavy rainfalls in the late 1920s brought storms annually drop an average 23 inches life is returning full force—watered by the of rain on the plain, the top of Sonoma repeated flooding to the chicken ranchers early rains, grass is sprouting and among Mountain, its 2,464-foot elevation literally of both Petaluma and Cotati. Citizen its green blades, tree frogs are already scraping the rain from passing storm petitions for flood control were met with starting to sing! clouds, averages 50 inches. Prior to the a deaf ear by the Petaluma City Council. 1870s, rainwater flowed down Copeland New calls by Petalumans this past Creek’s bed of basaltic armor and fanned summer were met with the usual hurdles out into a large seasonal lake across parts of private property concerns, state and of current day Cotati and Rohnert Park, federal regulations, funding sources, providing a for egrets, herons, and the creek’s protected habitat for ducks, amphibians, and trout. threatened steelhead trout. Not so long The increasing development of farms ago they ran so thick as to be caught by on the plain in the 1870s led to the land hand. reclamation of Copeland Creek’s seasonal Arthur Dawson wetlands. A nine-mile channel was  Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org 5000 Pressley Rd, Rohnert Park. Hours: 7AM to sunset. Parking: $7 per vehicle • Walking & equestrian trails • Gravel, wheelchair-accessible trails • Biking permitted • No drinking water available • Picnic tables • No fires or barbecues allowed • Restrooms at trailhead • Dogs: on 6’ leash, license required

Map courtesy of Sonoma County Regional Parks

Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org  PRSRT STD US POSTAGE PAID O’DELL

Thanks to Our Recent Donors Ann Teller Helga Andereck Peter & Diane Swanhuyser Arthur & Jill Dawson Irwin Keller Peter Poullada & Nancy Sheppard Barbara Morrow Jack & Hope Nisson Raleigh Elliot Carol Vellutini James Fontanilla Richard & Elizabeth Dakin Carol Williams Joan Geary Robert & Nanci Mathison Catherine Stoney & T. Engebreton Joe & Elaine Lieber Steven & Barbara Doyle Chuck Levine & Elisa Stancil John Branscome Susan Peterson Cooper Family Charitable Trust* John Sheehy & Laurie Szujewska Susannah M. Schroll* David & Janet Cain Jonathon Hayden & Dominique Bayart Tameera Honeybourne* David & Vicki Stollmeyer* Judy Scotchmore & Roland Gangloff Teri Shore Diamond A Homeowners Association* Kathleen Mugele Terry & Chic Gast (in honor of John Barinaga & Pat Eliot) Kevin & Donna Wilson Toby Rosenblatt Diane Cooke Kim & Tracy Batchelder* Tom & Rike Grasshoff Diane Dakin Linda & Gary Felt Vivian Rodriguez Doug Hanford Matt Maguire Whitney Evans Elaine Weihman Margaret Spaulding Wilhelmina Batchelder-Brown* Eldridge Mounted Posse of Son. Co. Marilyn Goode William Larsen Emil & Kathleen Hewko Meg Beeler & Tom von Tersch Eugene & Rosemary McCreary Nancy & Kyle Kirwan* *individuals or trusts who made donations to Grace Pratt Nancy Dakin & David Woltering support publication of the book on Sonoma Greg Wittenmeier Nancy Lily Mountain at the Mountaintop or Headwater Harry Koch Pat & Ted Eliot* Levels (see page 2). Helen & Michael Bates Pat Smith  Go to our website: www.sonomamountain.org