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:

Monday, March 30 (LIVE)	8am
Wednesday, April 1st	5pm
Thursday, April 2nd	12pm
Friday, April 3rd	5pm
Saturday, April 4th	6am
Sunday, April 5th	5pm
Monday, April 6th	8am
Wednesday, April 8th	5pm
Thursday, April 9th	12pm
Friday, April 10th	5pm
Saturday, April 11th	6am
Sunday, April 12th	5pm

 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.

In the eventual recovery from the current economic crisis, there will be geographic winners and losers-and the Bay Area is well positioned to be among the winners.

Richard Florida, is a researcher, educator and the author of several books, including Beyond Mass Production and The Rise of the Creative Class. He also wrote the cover story for the current issue of  Atlantic Monthly, which is titled, "How the Crash Will Reshape America."In it, he explains that some American cities will be much harder hit by the current economic downturn than others.

But in both the regions that prosper in the new economy, and those that will continue to decline, Florida says the Ameircan citizenry will have no choice but to evolve new lifestyles.

You can read Florida's full article in The Atlantic here. The magazine has also prepared online interactive maps showing how population, income an, as a measure of innovation, the number of patents issued, have changed over the years between 1975 and 2002.

Richard Florida's most recent book is Who's Your City,  which is subtitled How the Creative Economy is Making the Place Where You Live the Most Important Decision of Your Life.  In it, he ranks American cities  by their suitability in terms of life-stage, rating the best places for singles, young families and empty-nesters.  Santa Rosa shows up well in both the first and last of those categories.

 

Just about everyone agrees that preserving California's productive agricultural lands is a good idea, even if there have been some highly charged disagreements over the best means to accomplish that objective. Sidestepping these policy debates, California FarmLink is working directly with farming and ranching families to help them decide what they want to do with their lands from one generation to the next, as reported on today's North Bay Report:

Shrinking real estate values in California are prompting some ag families to re-evaluate their plans for their land. But Steve Schwartz, Executive Director of California FarmLink, says the shifting economic climate also holds some unexpected opportunities for new farmers to get established.

California Farmlink is hosting a series of regional conferences in Sonoma, Humboldt and San Luis Obispo counties titled Sowing the Seeds of Farm Succession:  Planning the Transition to the Next Generation of Family Farmers. the next session in Sonoma county will be held on Saturday, Feb. 21 at SRJC's Shone Farm, 6225 Eastside Road, Forestville. Click here for registration information.