Mike McGuire and Jill Ravitch  were elected Supervisor and District Attorney  in Sonoma County last night, while the match-ups for November were decided in a number of other contests.

As Noreen Evans has moved up the political ladder, from the Santa Rosa City Council to the State Assembly, and almost certainly to the State Senate in November, she has had a larger population to represent at each step. Her pending move to the far-flung 2^nd State Senate District adds a lot of geography, but she says the key issue throughout the area is a familiar one.

The full roster of results in Sonoma County can be found here. For state offices and ballot measures, go here.

Everything that’s in bloom right now was pollinated by a bee. That’s why we should care about the many threats these beneficial insects face.

California native bees are mostly small, but some are quite good sized. U.C. Davis entomology professor Robbin Thorp  explains he likes to use the familiar honey bee as a metaphorical “bread box” to compare the relative sizes of other bee species.

People who are concerned about boosting the bee populations so they can do their pollinating, can do several things to help them out, Dr. Thorp explains.

 The science salon on bees at the Bouverie Preserve will be Saturday afternoon, June 5, from 2:30 60 4 pm.  with  Ellen Zagory, Director of Horticulture at the UC Davis Arboretum, as one of the featured panelists.  Audubon Canyon Ranch Executive Director Scott Feirabend offers further details on what is intended to be the first in a series of educational events.

To see a previous Report on the conflict between beekeepers and mandarin growers in Central California, go here.

Late rains along the coast and low moisture in other parts of California portend a busy wildfire season in the months ahead.

It’s impossible to predict how much the state will need to pay for fire suppression costs in any give year, but CalFire spokesman Daniel Berlant says we can be confident that, even in the most difficult budgetary years, the money is there.

The lion’s share of that funding goes to staffing the state fire agency, which Berlant explains is a combination of year-round positions augmented by seasonal hiring for the summer and early fall.

The key to sustaining agricultural biodiversity may be as close as the nearest backyard garden—even your own.

It’s easy to begin seed saving, explains Bill McDorman, but not all common garden plants readily lend themselves to the practice.

Seed saving begins in individual backyards, but the idea is tailor-made for scaling up to the community level, McDorman notes, and that’s just what is starting to happen.

Bill McDorman is the founder and  president of the Seeds Trust mail order business, offering "vegetable, herb, wildflower and wild grass seed for a sustainable future." He will be speaking at at the Sebastopol Community Cultural Center annex building in Sebastopol,  425 Morris Street, on Sunday afternoon June 6th from 3-5 pm.