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A fish-friendly vineyard with a healthy riparian (stream) corridor.
Photo by Laurel Marcus
The California Land Stewardship Institute is evaluating experimental approaches to providing frost protection to vineyards to reduce springtime water diversions in the North Bay. Future efforts will develop best management practices (BMPs) from the successful approaches and promote the BMPs to vineyard owners. Reducing stream diversions for frost control should help maintain stream flow levels that are vital to young fish during very vulnerable stages in their development. This project will result in increased public awareness of fish-friendly vineyard BMPs. For more information on fish-friendly farming, see http://www.naparcd.org/greencerttext.htm.
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Ten years ago, Laurel Marcus enlisted a few vineyards in the Russian River watershed into her Fish Friendly Farming (FFF) environmental certification program. FFF now includes 120,000 acres in Mendocino, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano Counties; all of Beringer's 6,000 acres have been certified. Marcus has helped 260 growers develop, and get government approval for, farming plans aimed at conserving and improving salmon and steelhead habitat. FFF is now part of a new nonprofit, the California Land Stewardship Institute, which received a grant through the Estuary Partnership recently to develop more f... READ MORE |
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Beyond pioneering the Fish Friendly Farming program in the North Bay's wine country (see "Good Grapes," August ESTUARY NEWS), California Land Stewardship Institute founder Laurel Marcus has taken on a new challenge. Last March, the Institute was awarded $123,500 through the San Francisco Estuary Partnership's Estuary 2100 program to study ways of reducing stream diversions for frost control in vineyards, a practice that can jeopardize young salmonids.
Frost in early spring can severely damage the tender buds of grape vines, risking the loss of the whole crop. Air quality concerns pr... READ MORE |
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This project is funded by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's San Francisco Bay Water Quality Improvement Fund.
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