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You have to get up pretty early to capture the pure sounds of nature… and get a long way away from the rest of the noisy human race.
Gina Farr of Wild Sound Stories in Marin County finds a poignant significance in these recent recordings, because the changes they document tell a story of losses that will not be recovered.
This is one of her summer 2009 recordings of birds in the Grand Tetons of northwest Wyoming: 
Tom Rusert, an avid birdwatcher and the volunteer director of Sonoma Birding, joined in the June workshop to see firsthand how the sounds now increasing featured in birding guides were being collected.
Hundreds of shorebirds were covered in oil after the Cosco Busan oil spill in the San Francisco Bay. Many died, but some were saved. Here, International Bird Rescue Association volunteer Tom Rusert releases one of the very first stricken shorebirds back into the wild after being cleaned.
Global warming poses a real and serious threat to California’s wine industry, but vineyards throughout the state—and other agricultural lands—can also take steps to blunt the pace of climate change.
It is increasingly clear, says Ted Lemon (right) , co-owner of Littorai Wines in Sebastopol, that the dominant business model in American agriculture, needs to change.
Monoculture farming has not succeeded in feeding the world. Lemon observes, so a new approach is clearly needed.
The Littorai Winery is an informal demonstration site for the practical application of principals of agroecology. The Wine Institute of California has also intiated a proactive program in support of sustainable vineyard practicies, which you can read about here.
Daily Acts, a Petaluma-based dedicated to sustainability and transformation, works, its founder says, by exercising “the freedom to act without having all the answers.”
As the impacts from Daily Acts ripple outward from the North Bay, founder and Executive Director Trathen Beckman says they are looking for new ways, and new partners, to help expand their influence.
From conservation to graywater reuse to designing and installing permaculture landscapes, many Daily Acts projects now are focused in one way or another on water. Which, when you think about it, is only natural.
This was the postcard invitation to the fundraising (and networking) breakfast on Thursday, Nov. 5. Part of the program was a informational video about the organization, created by local filmmaker Eve Goldberg. You can also see it here:
[video:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6_BIsoVNOk 300x300]
The Redwood Empire Food Bank has seen their client base grow by 40% over the past two years, and has added some innovative new ways to serve them.
The development of the Redwood Empire Food Bank’s new “3 Squares” prepackaged meals, explains Executive Director David Goodman, grew out of a large donation of a single ingredient.
The “3 Squares” meals are now being offered in three flavors: Black Bean Chili, Pasta with Marinara Sauce, and Spanish Rice. They were deliberately made not to be microwavable, Goodman adds, but to reinforce the idea of dinner as an event for the family to share.
Sonoma County inventor James McElvaney (right), has developed a system to convert organic waste into energy and other beneficial byproducts, one that creates the energy that powers it in the bargain.
Bob Hillman, McElvaney's partner in their start-up, Bioconverter LLC, sees their new technology as a tool to capture greenhouse gases while also combating invasive, non-native plants, such as the Ludwigia, or Creeping Water Primrose, now prevalent in the Laguna de Santa Rosa.
The company offers a more comprehensive explanation of their processes on the FAQ page of their website, but you can read an overview here.
The primary process of bioconversion takes place in a series of vertical tanks, such as those seen at left. In addition to the environmental benefits of bioconversion, Hillman notes that it has the economic potential to actually fund some of those productive outcomes.
