The Sonoma County Water Agency is taking a close look at the energy-producing potential of wave power off the Sonoma County coast.

The first step in the process of determining the potential for wave power energy off the Sonoma County coast is conducting a series of baseline studies of the possible locations for such facilities. That, explains Cordell Stillman, SCWA's Capital Projects Manager, is what these federal permits will enable.

The "sea snake" seen at left  is one type of wave power generator already installed and operating off the northern coast of Portugal. Several others are also in development, including the "aquabouy" shown below.

Preliminary estimates suggest that wave power off the Sonoma coast could generate as much as 200 megawatts of electricity. Stillman says that represents a sizable portion of the county's current energy consumption.

 You can post comments regarding the study permits for each of the three locations shown above at the website of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

Sonoma County's main dump, seen from the air at left,  has been closed since 2005, but its future continues to be hotly debated.

Operating a landfill anywhere in northern California is a difficult prospect in today's regulatory climate, observes Assemblyman Wes Chesbro, and even a well-funded private company must surmount those obstacles.

A proposed Materials Recovery Facility (MRF) for Sonoma County could eventually be able to sort out and reuse as much as 90% of the region's waste stream. Alan Strachan, one of the backers of that project, suggests that through composting or other processes, even most of the remaining 10% could someday be reused.

Longtime recycling advocate Mike Anderson is one of many voices taking up the call for setting a goal of zero waste.

 The March 30th forum on the future of the Sonoma County landfill was co-hosted by the Climate Protection Campaign and the  Leadership Institute on Ecology nd the Economy.

The entire public forum was recorded and will be broadcast at the following times on Community Media Channel 26 in Santa Rosa:

 More information and background about Ecoleader .

To learn more about the Landfill.

A Sebastopol-based non-profit has gotten a big boost from the MacArthur Foundation.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation has awarded the Conservation Strategy Fund  $400,000  over the next three years in support of their efforts to build natural resource economics skills to sustain biodiversity conservation in the Southern Tropical Andes, an area that spans southeastern Peru and northern Bolivia.

John Reid is the founder and president of the 10 year old Conservation Strategy Fun. The North Bay Report previously focused on CFS in December of last year.

The simple glyph we know as "the Peace Symbol" has become so universally used and recognized that it may come as a surprise to learn that it was actually created specifically as an emblem for nuclear disarmament exactly 50 years ago this year.

That half-century history, including the debut of the peace symbol at a historic march against nuclear disarmament in England in 1958 (pictured below) is the subject of the recentbook, Peace, the biography of a symbol, co-written by Forestville author and activist Ken Kolsbrun. He talks about the book in this North Bay Report:

Ken Kolsbrun has collected more stories about the peace symbol here .