Greenbelt Alliance's recently published Smart Infill: A practical guide to creating vibrant places throughout the Bay Area  was written to inform decision makers about the benefits of these policies, and cite examples where they have been successfully employed. One of them, says Daisy Pistey-Lyhne, is the Town of Windsor.

Sonoma County has been a leader in adopting community separators or Urban Growth Boundaries for its cities. Those are a key first step in redirecting growth away from sprawl patterns back into urban infill.

For more information about the Sonoma County branch of Greenbelt Alliance, click here .

Greenbelt Alliance also regularly hosts hikes throughout the BayArea. You'll find a list of upcoming events here.

California voters will decide the fate of two ballot measures that say they would promote alternative energy production in the state. But a long-time solar advocate says for both issues, appearances can be misleading.

Gary Gerber, President and CEO of Sun Light & Power, has been a life long advocate for solar power. But he is opposed to Proposition 7 on next week's California ballot.

Proposition 7 sets a statewide goal of making California 50% energy efficient by 2025. However, it is opposed by a wide range of  stakeholders , from PG&E to the Sierra Club. Proposition 7  is mainly supported by Peter Sperling who has donated over $7 million dollars, becoming the biggest contributor. To read the complete proposition, click here.

Proposition 10 is another measure about alternative energy. To view the website that supports Prop 10, click here.

Opposition to Prop 10 says the new law would cost Californians heavily, but not decrease the use of fuel.

No matter where you go, insects have people hugely outnumbered. But there are far more beneficial bugs than harmful ones.

This is a close-up look at a snowy tree cricket. You can see if you recognize its call here.

Planting a mixed landscape  provides a diverse habitat for the insects that prey on garden pests.

Encouraging beneficial insects is a year-round endeavor, and a key component is planting sources of nectar that will be in bloom as the desirable bugs are emerging.

For more information about the workshop on"Garden Allies: Beneficial Insects and Other Helpful Garden Denizens" on October 25^th at SSU, click here.

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.