Volume 14, no. 1 December 2014 This year’s Journal highlights the Sonoma Developmental Center at a Crossroads Sonoma Developmental Center— John McCaull, Sonoma Land Trust its past, present and future. How often does a place inspire the Report recommends a course us to slow down? Venturing off that threatens closure and possible Inside Highway 12 near Glen Ellen, the sale of the facility. Sonoma Developmental Center— Dreaming Large or SDC—has that time-out-of-time Surplus Property Shifting Visions character. Green lawns, ball fields If SDC is sold as “surplus” property, and shady spots beckon us to the loss to our community will be Grazing for Biodiversity take a walk, or have a picnic. The profound. What will happen to forests on Sonoma Mountain can the current 400+ residents and SMP Successes be explored on trails linked to Jack others who need its facilities? If the London State Park. The Valley floor’s property is sold for development or Mountain Birdlife oak woodlands and grasslands vineyards, what will become of the are accessible through Sonoma wildlife and open space? SDC is the Protected Areas Map Valley Regional Park. Because the heart of the Sonoma Valley Wildlife property is state-owned, it’s easy to Corridor, a crucial wildlife passage The first peoples of southern assume that SDC is protected and for the entire North Bay. The property Sonoma county, the Coast not facing any threats of imminent has an abundant water supply, Miwok, placed oona-pa’is change. But in reality, the future of tremendous habitat value, and the — Sonoma Mountain — at the SDC is at a crossroads. center of the world, imagining capacity to serve an array of health, economic, social, environmental, its summit as an island in Developmental centers are the primordial ocean at the recreational and aesthetic needs expensive to run and serve a beginning of time. for the region. The state’s track dwindling resident population. record of closing developmental Geologists tell a similar story — Legal mandates require that centers is one of top down politics, that Sonoma Mountain’s layers most clients be transferred to with very little public input. How of volcanic and sedimentary community-based care. A 2014 can we convince the state to give rock, pushed upward by Health and Human Services tectonic forces, rose from the our community a voice and listen to Agency report concluded that depths of a shallow sea. creative ideas and and scenarios Developmental Centers will need they may not be considering? to transition “to a new model.” The “new model” for SDC is unclear, but The SDC Coalition Lend the Mountain a Hand In order to serve as an We’re looking for: organized voice for local and • Sonoma Mountain photos regional interests, Sonoma • “Why I Love the Mountain” stories County Supervisor Susan Gorin, • Assistance with updating county agencies, Sonoma FaceBook • Someone to post blogs in Land Trust, Sonoma Mountain WordPress Preservation, Sonoma Ecology • Blogs about the mountain Center, Parent Hospital (anything you find interesting!) Association and others formed • Someone to oversee referrals the “SDC Coalition” in 2012. from County PRMD continued on page 4 Go to our website: sonomamountain.org 1 with the broader community’s need a group, members shared many of for more open space, presenting a the resources on their communal powerful, united front to negotiate land. However, rights to the Letter acorns from a particular oak, or from the the best possible outcomes with the State. As a long-time organizer and fish from a certain pool, were often held and passed down by a Chair change advocate, it is exciting for family. Repeated use established me to see such deep cooperation such rights and could be lost if a within the community! resource was not used regularly. You’ll notice that the enclosed Dreaming Large Landscape-scale decisions, such as envelope asks for your email the common practice of intentional Meg Beeler address. In the long run, we are burning, were made communally. looking at distributing the Journal Sonoma Mountain Preservation has Others, like deciding when to prune electronically. More immediately, or fertilize an acorn-bearing oak, been working behind the scenes we’d like to notify you quickly when were up to the families that held for over 21 years, helping preserve the SDC process needs broad the rights to those resources. Before the scenic, agricultural and natural community input and support. Europeans arrived, the resources resources of Sonoma Mountain. at SDC were probably managed in a patchwork of recognized family Lately, we’ve been dreaming big and communal rights. dreams: imagining all the 800 acres Shifting Visions of SDC wildlands being transferred Arthur Dawson Another vision of ownership to Jack London State Historic Park appeared in 1579, when Sir and Sonoma County Regional Like cloud shadows playing over Francis Drake claimed California Parks…looking forward to walking Sonoma Mountain, many dreams for England under the “Right of two new trails on the mountain’s have come and gone on the lands Discovery” recognized in Europe. East and North Slopes…and of the Sonoma Developmental By 1823, California was a Mexican Center (SDC). Picture the place celebrating the late 2014 opening territory and Father Altimira came before humans arrived—a mosaic here seeking to establish a new of Sonoma Mountain Regional Park of redwoods, grasslands, oak mission. His explorations took him & Open Space Preserve near the woodlands, with lush alders and across the SDC lands. Gazing at summit, comprised of 738 acres we willows along Sonoma Creek. Sonoma Mountain, he saw it both helped preserve. Creatures from freshwater shrimp for what it was and what it could to grizzly bears made it their home. be, describing it as “well covered To help realize these big dreams, Rich with life, it was not subject to with trees fit for building a pueblo.” we’ve created a social media human visions of what it should or presence with a new FaceBook could be. It just was. It was General Vallejo who realized page for timely posts (over 225 likes Altimira’s dream. As the mission already!). On our updated web We can’t know what dreams the page we have a PayPal link so you First Peoples brought. Certainly they can donate directly if you like, and recognized the place as abundant; we’ve been running a “Why I Love enough so that several villages were established nearby. How did the Mountain” campaign, posting those individuals and communities blogs from community members. share the resources and lands Check them out, send your own of the future SDC? According to blog, and, of course, like us! historian William Cronon, native communities claimed “not the As part of our preservation land, but the things that were on work, two Steering Committee the land.” members—Mickey Cooke and Pat Eliot—have been your Neighboring groups recognized representatives at the monthly SDC each other’s right to hunt, fish Coalition meetings. The Coalition is and gather in specific territories. weaving the concerns and issues By agreement, these boundaries of SDC families and employees were generally respected. Within 2 Go to our website: sonomamountain.org children. Frances Bentley Grazing for Biodiversity and Julia Judah dreamed Pat Eliot and Nate Chisolm of a place where such children could be cared Sonoma Mountain Institute for. Passionately lobbying (SMI) comprises 400 acres of politicians and influential woodland and meadow high on citizens, they eventually the southwest flank of Sonoma convinced the California Mountain. Owned by Susannah legislature to designate Schroll, SMI is carrying out a grazing public funds for the idea experiment on the former Moon system was dismantled, Vallejo in 1889. Hill’s ranch was Ranch. The project, certified by claimed the 66,000-acre Rancho chosen as the institution’s the California Certified Organic Petaluma, including all of SDC permanent site. Farmers, provides organic grass for west of Sonoma Creek. In 1839, he grazing while also restoring health At that point, SDC lands built one of the first lumber mills in to the soil. California nearby. Redwoods and returned to a form of communal The Institute’s methods mimic Douglas fir from the slopes of SDC ownership—held in trust by the the behavior of wild ungulates were cut and milled into lumber for State for the benefit of the clients and are designed to restore the pueblo of Sonoma. and broadly, for all Californians. The vision included a measure of the land to its former pristine In the wake of logging, people self-reliance—the patients would condition. Electrically-fenced with a different vision arrived; be “trained to usefulness” while lanes retain herds of 100 cattle in American pioneers. Among them the institution strove to be “self- small paddocks for short periods. were Charity Asbury and her family, provisioning” with a dairy and This encourages light grazing and who settled SDC’s upper lands, cattle operation, vineyards, and diminishes hoof impact while purchasing 640 acres from General orchards. removing thatch and keeping Vallejo. Others came with the manure sparse. The earth is left same idea—to establish small, self- Even as that vision came to pass, open and pliant, ready to benefit sufficient farms. They worked hard, times were changing. Forty years from winter rains. but turning that dream into reality ago, 162 acres of SDC’s former Only 90% of the pasture is grazed; was difficult—the mountain slopes grazing lands were transferred in areas which are not grazed, the were not favorable for agriculture. to the county and became the earth is actually less productive. Sonoma Valley Regional Park. Many sold or abandoned their The Herder Boys: Nate’s View property.