Where there's fire there's smoke, and on Spare The Air days that's not a good thing.

 

The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has adopted new rules that prohibit district residents from using wood burning stoves or fireplaces on specified Spare the Air Days during the winter months.

 

You can subscribe to an automated email notification system for "no burn: days here. There is also an automated telephone notification system. The Spare the Air Winter alerts are also available by calling 1-877-4-NOBURN (1-877-466-2876).

Most of Sonoma County is part of the Bay Area Air Quality District, and subject to the new rules.The coastal and northern parts of the county which lie outside the  District are not covered by its regulations, and compliance in these areas is voluntary..To see a list of cities and counties covered by the Spare The Air no-burn rules, click here .

 

 

 

 

 

 The oldest and perhaps only wireless telegraph station on the west coast is still beaming Morse code out to the world from its original outpost overlooking Tomales Bay.

 

By continuing to use the restored antique electronics at the Marconi station, Richard Dillman (the operator in the photo above) says they are practicing a form of living history.

 

The Maritime Radio Historical Society applied for and received a new commercial telegraph operators license for the Marshall station, which they now use to keep the signal actively operating on the weekends.

 

 

 

The Marconi Conference Center will host an open house displaying historical pieces of radio once used for both military and merchant ships coming into the bay. Located in Tomales Bay, the center will display the relics and provide stories of what it was like on the coast during the radio era.

 

The Radio Maritime Radio Historical Society is the driving force for the event, to visit their website click here .

 

 

The USDA is preparing to adopt standards defnining exactly what can be labeled organically farmed fish. Not surprisingly, that's prompted a big debate behind the scenes.

 

 A typical "open pen" at a commercial salmon farm. These pens are usually arranged in larger groupings (such as the one shown in the photo below) , linked by walkways that are used by the staff.

 

This commercial salmon fishingoperation is in a deepwatercoveoff Lucas Bay, Alaska. Most of the world's salmon farming is done in the cold northern Pacific and Atlantic waters off North America.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Urvashi Rangun (right)  is a senior scientist and policy analyst for Consumer's Union, which is advocating for rigorous new standards for farmed seafood to be labled "organic."

 

Now that scientists have figured out what causes "Sudden Oak Death," they're trying to get the word out on how to curtail the spread of the tree disease.

This magnified image shows the P. ramorum spores on the underside of a California bay laurel leaf.

In addition to prevention efforts, the California Oak Mortality Task Forces is also developing some best practices for dealing with those forests where large numbers of oaks are already dead or dying.

 

 

This photo shows diseased and  tanoaks on Mount Tamalpias, one of the first areas where Sudden Oak Death appeared.

There's a map (pdf)  showing areas of oak death in Northern California here.

Or link to the Sonoma County Sudden Oak Death Strategic Reponse Plan (83 pages, pdf) here .

 Dr. David Rizzo, a leading Sudden Oak Death researcher at UC Davis, offers a summation of what is currently known about the disease, the pathogen that causes it, and how it is transmitted in a 30 minute video that can be seen here.

 

Noise pollution from big ships is a growing problem under the sea along the California coast, especially for the whales who share the sea lanes.

 

 Seaflow, a nonprofit organization that works to protect marine life, is advocating for ships to reduce speed once entering the marine sanctuaries.

To view the website of Seaflow, click here .

 

 

 

 

 

To read about the Marine Mammal Protection Act, click here.