If the local economy relies, in part, on tourism, and tourism is dependent on fossil fuels, what happens if — or when — gas prices head past $5 per gallon? The Eco-Odyssey is a new effort to demonstrate a carbonless alternative form of eco-tourism.

Gasoline prices were down around $3 per gallon when planning for the Eco-Odysseys began. But Rick Coats, Executive Director of the sponsoring EcoRing, was already thinking ahead to prices even higher than those at the pump today.

The procession of small rail cars (shown at left)  known as "speeders" on Saturday and Sunday will be the first public traffic in many years on the tracks between Santa Rosa and Petaluma. Coats says it wasn't easy to get the necessary access for those trips.

Beyond being a beautiful building material, redwoods hold promise for carbon sequestration as well as pest resistance. The trick is unlocking that potential.

Redwoods propagate in two ways, explains UC Cooperative Extension Ag advisor Greg Giusti, one that mixes genetic material, and one that's a natural sort of cloning.

The case for thinking of and using redwood forests as a vehicle for carbon sequestion is outlined in this video.

Sonoma County's innovative program to charge energy-saving home improvements against future property tax bills is two years old, and growing.

The projects in the SCIEP program can be as small as $25,00 with no upper limit. Property owners can elect to repay the amount loaned over 5, 10 or 20 years. Beginning this July, participants will be required to submit before and after utility bills, to more accurately track the resulting benefits. But SCEIP manager Liz Yeager says she's confident that additional reporting will confirm a desirable outcome.

Because the loan is attached to the home or building, rather than a debt held directly by the owner, Yeager adds, the criteria for qualifying for participation are less complicated that most other types of financing.

According to a UCLA report, some 20,000 Sonoma County residents regularly go hungry. But the director of our local food bank says that number is wrong. It's too low.

All figures in this story have been taken from the Redwood Empire Food Bank report, Hunger in Sonoma County/2010. Read or download the full report (16 pages) here.

David GoodmanThe Redwood Empire Food Bank provided 93,000 meals to grade school aged children in Sonoma County last summer. They don't have the mechanisms in place to count the number of children who partook of the program, but REFB Executive Director David Goodman is certain they met only a fraction of the actual need.

Although the food bank has touched tens of thousands of lives, few of those beneficiaries are willing to be publicly identified. And as much as it could help his efforts to recruit resources and support to meet the ongoing need, Goodman understands the sense of shame associated with being unable to provide food for one's self or family.