The future of passenger service on the rail line through Sonoma County depends on North Bay voters next month, while the resumption of freight trains should happen sooner, regardless of the election's outcome.

   NCRA Exective Director Mitch Stogner

While the prospect of renewed freight service on the southern portion of the NCWA tracks is drawing close, Mitch Stogner says the process for moving forward with the rail line north of Willits will involve an entirely separate series of studies and hearings.

The North Coast Railroad Authority (NCRA) was created in 1989 under the North Coast Railroad Authority Act with the purpose of developing and ensuring a railroad transportation system for Northwestern California. You can read their full history here .

There's a map of the full NCRA rail line below.

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.

A unique affordable housing project in Sebastopol is combining a new co-housing community with the self-help or "sweat equity" approach to building it.

Tom Kuhn, the Sequoia Village project manager for Burbank Housing, explains the co-housing aspect of the development.

As future Sequoia Village homeowner Lee Logan sees it, this co-housing process has been different than most.

Sequoia Village in Sebastopol, a new family co-housing development offered through Burbank Housing Development Corp, was facilitatied by the late Michael Black (left)   who was the architect for the Two Acre Wood co-housing project in Sebastopol (pictured below). 

To learn more about co-housing, visit  Planning for Sustainable Communities here.

The Solar Sonoma County program, which got its official kick-off last night, may make our area a model for other rural regions that want to expand their use of solar power.

Click here to see a detailed 2-page fact sheet on Solar Sonoma County. (pdf)

John Lushetsky from the federal Department of Energy, where he is the manager of the Solar Energy Technologies Program. As more and more solar panels collect electricity, there will be increasing demand for batteries to store and save that power. John Lushetshy says his agency will soon turn its attention to that aspect of energy independence as well.

Ives Pool in Sebastopol is an example of a local public facility that has installed solar panels to hold down energy costs.