The Definition of Agriculture in Napa County

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An oak savanna at risk of becoming "a great place for a great Cab"

Monday, August 24, 2015, was the last meeting of APAC, the Agricultural Protection Adversary Committee, a committee composed of 17 citizens from various environmental, government, wine industry, and citizen groups, appointed by the Napa County Board of Supervisors. The object was to make recommendations on proposed changes to the Winery Definition Ordinance (WDO) about  visitation and events centers and the inclusion… Read more »

APAC: Nature Holds the Final Card

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An oak savanna at risk of becoming "a great place for a great Cab"

Comments to the Agricultural Protection Advisory Committee, APAC, on June 8, 2015 I am Patricia Damery, and I live at 3185 Dry Creek Road, in Napa County, where my husband and I are growers. I am also a Jungian psychoanalyst in private practice here in Napa. I want to read a quote from the psychiatrist… Read more »

Farming and Politics

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Farming and Politics Farmers have always been independent, grassroots kind of people, at least the farmers that I grew up with, and this meant that they were almost always Republican. It also left them wide open when Nixon’s administration pushed to cut the hedgerows, plow everything, get big. Many of the farmers I knew had… Read more »

In Search of a Land Ethic: The Grand Coalition

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On Tuesday afternoon, January 20, 2015, The Grand Coalition of Napa County met. Fifty of us sat around a square assemblage of tables representing ten citizen groups who have been addressing land use issues in Napa County over these last years. Some have formed non-profits which hired experts and attorneys to address some of the developing problems… Read more »

Comments to the Planning Commission, January 7, 2015

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Comments to the Planning Commission, January 7, 2015 To the uneducated eye, it may look like a good place for vines. But in fact, it is a vital part of an oak savanna and watershed. Yesterday a number of our neighbors went before the Napa Valley Planning Commission to voice our concerns about the incursion… Read more »

Dark Gift of Watershed Issues

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Water on its way to Dry Creek.

Dark Gift of Watershed Issues If life were a current, we have reached a rapids on land use issues in the Napa Valley. As above, so below: how to view these outer issues in a “so below”, inner context?  These issues are also a microcosm of what is happening on our earth. Perhaps the dark… Read more »