OAK TREES &
VINEYARDS 6:
AFTER THE STORM

I posted this series of articles about the decimation of California's oaks by vineyards about six years ago. The November election, featuring two initiatives which promised to prevent wholesale destruction of oaks, was coming right up. A neighbor threatened to entertain us all with "events" held at his winery. The wineries were covering the county at a pace I could never have predicted. What's happened since?

1. ELECTION NEWS: Both "oak protection" Initiatives failed. Measure K, signed by 19,700 people, would have protected heritage trees, required the County to insure no net loss of trees, set up standards for identifying endangered trees and limited numbers of trees a landowner can cut. Measure K was defeated by a couple thousand votes.

Measure O, drafted by Kendall Jackson Winery's attorney, was signed by six people and put on the ballot by the Board of Supervisors "to give the people a choice", at a cost of $150,000 to the taxpayers. The Measure outlined protections so broad that only trees bigger than any I have ever seen would be protected. The electorate defeated K resoundingly.

Are the oaks protected from vineyards in Santa Barbara County? Not at all.

2. MORE ELECTION NEWS: Although the Initiatives failed, the political process resulted in a change in voting composition among the Board of Supervisors. The Board of Sups had been stacked 3 to 2 in favor of agri/business. This meant that 6 people could go to the Board and get an initiative doing almost nothing to protect oaks put on the ballot days before an election. The citizens elected a new supervisor with different sympathies. Now the Board is stacked 3 to 2 "against" agribusiness.

The new Board passed a grading ordinance which requires anyone doing grading over a certain number of cubic yards to get a permit. Farmers and ranchers are apoplectic over this intrusion of government onto their property rights.

Does this protect the oaks? No. But you have to get a grading permit before 'dozing them.

3. HOW ABOUT THE GUY WHO WANTED THE AMPLIFIED CONCERTS IN A RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBORHOOD?

I went to the public meeting to appeal Bridlewood Winery's being granted a permit to have 12 lighted, amplified "events" a year in a residential neighborhood. My neighborhood, as a matter of fact. A fascinating sociological event. If you read "Drugs, Sex, and Rock'n'Roll", you will know that a new vintner was granted permission to hold these events by the County Planning Commission because no one knew about it! That's right. No one in the four subdivisions behind the winery was notified. Oh, well, these things happen. When we found out-- Oh boy! This public meeting was the one occasion where the entire community came together-- in a jammed church no less-- and condemned the hapless applicant. He was notably shaken and proclaimed before hundreds of people that he would withdraw his application for "events". We went home, feeling a miracle had occurred.

A few weeks later, I heard he'd been granted permission for 6 events a year. I see tour buses and such going in and out every day.

HAS THE ISSUE BEEN SETTLED? Nope. Meetings to discuss another new winery and to clarify County policies about wineries in "intermediate" areas-- not totally rural, but not in town, either-- happen regularly. Other vintner's wanted far more than Bridlewood's hapless owner: one right around the corner wanted 23 events a year, most amplified and all serving wine, with clean up until midnight in some cases. Included in the package were wine tastings 365 days a year, and a grape crushing and bottling plant serving the entire Valley. This would have occurred on the major thoroughfare into town for four residential subdivisions, and the route to and from the local high school. The plan did not go through: the County and its residents continue to struggle with issues and definitions.

Photo: Zoe Nathan

4. WHAT CAN BE DONE? Not much other than attending public meetings. This is the tip of the iceberg. Fess Parker and his wife have recently purchased 1,400 prime acres of oak savanna for a new winery. (They already own one winery in the Valley.) The Parker's have also purchased the hotel the little town of Los Olivos and have obtained permission to build another hotel in the same town. One wag suggested renaming the town "Parkerville." The formerly charming Los Olivos now looks like a wine shop with Realtors' offices. The president of the local cattleman's association just sold his ranch to Kendall Jackson Winery, the folks who ignited the controversy by bulldozing 840 2-300 year old oaks in full view of commuters. See Part 2, Oak Trees: Magic or Weeds?, and Part 3, Lessons In Politics." The drive to Santa Maria, thirty miles north of Santa Ynez, is almost entirely through a corridor of vineyards. The corridor extends, oh, about to Clear Lake, 400 miles away. With a few breaks, for cities and such.

"What's wrong with that?" you may say. Nothing, if it's sustainable and the vintners pay all the costs associated with their operations. Read "Part 4, Lessons in Economics."

AS OF 7/01, WINERIES ARE NOW ON OUR STREET, moving down our access road, and covering Santa Ynez Valley at rates I couldn't have predicted.

5. IS IT ALL ROSY? Beats me. I don't have access to winemakers' financial sheets, but I from what I've heard, some of what I predicted in Oak Trees and Vineyards, Part 4: Lessons in Economics is happening. A friend over in the Santa Rosa Road area of Buellton said that his vintner neighbors didn't bother to harvest their grapes last year, the prices were so low. It's EXPECTATION of profits that's the motivator. People are moved to do things--- invest their life's savings, for instance-- on the expectation of making money. If everyone is doing it-- supply increases, price falls. No profit: so sorry. Resources flow out. Elementary economics.

If this is happening: I did tell you so, not that it's much satisfaction.

Photo: Zoe Nathan

REALLY, WHAT CAN BE DONE?

I've gotten agonized e-mail saying, "They're bulldozing 50 big oak trees down the street. How can I stop them? Isn't there a state law?" No. Maybe a few local ones. Usually not. Lots of money is involved in the wineries. No one can make a living cattle ranching now, so the ranchers sell out. It's in their best interests. Truly. We're seeing the operation of economic forces and greed. Powerful people who need more.

The only recourse is to get political and get some laws and ordinances passed to protect oak trees. This series of articles shows just how hard that is. I doubt any County in the state is more environmentally conscious than Santa Barbara.

After the collapse of the Oak Initiatives, I thought I'd write an upbeat final article for this series highlighting the cooperative approach as the way to protect the oaks. Santa Barbara County's ongoing cooperative effort continues to search for solutions to oak protection. I attended several of the cooperative meetings before getting depressed at the lack of cooperative teeth. But it turned out that they did get some good results. Voluntarily reforesting an area. I don't know that they've kept any oaks from being cut. But still, the cooperative approach seemed the most viable.

As I was about to begin writing, the newspaper ran a story about the last cooperative meeting degenerating into a shouting match. All the strong feelings that everyone had stuffed while they were being "facilitated" and "moderated" erupted. Boom!

They're still meeting.

What is the best approach? Beats me.

WHAT AM I DOING? I'm writing this series, doing my best to get the problem public. I go to meetings. Speak out. I served on the Valley Blueprint Committee, working on guidelines to development in Santa Ynez Valley. Will they be followed? Who knows?

WILL ANY OF IT HELP?

This is a philosophical issue. Humanity seems to be the only species which wantonly destroys its own environment, makes anything and everything into an addiction, and misses or defiles that which is most beautiful.

Can anything help us?

Photo: Zoe Nathan

AUTHOR SANDY NATHAN IS THE WINNER OF EIGHT NATIONAL AWARDS!

SANDY NATHAN
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IT'S OUT! New from SANDY NATHAN!
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