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Category: Environment

  • Why an Unubstructed Delta Breeze Is Critical for California

    And how the proposed California Forever project threatens livability in Davis and other parts of the Central Valley

    By Dr. Glen Holstein

    Covering 18,000 square miles, California’s Central Valley is the largest nearly flat valley on earth.  It is almost entirely surrounded by mountains and consequently prone to very high temperatures since winds blowing downhill from mountains compress and heat air.  That is why Death Valley, completely surrounded by mountains, has average July temperatures higher than those of any month anywhere else on earth.  Its mean July temperature is 100.9 degrees F while the mean July temperature of Aswan deep in the Sahara Desert but not surrounded by mountains is 91.8 degrees F.  Death Valley even set the all-time scientifically accepted high temperature record of 134 degrees F in 1913.

    But the Central Valley is not entirely surrounded by mountains.  They open up at the Golden Gate to permit a cooling air flow from the Pacific Ocean called the Delta Breeze to significantly lower summer temperatures in the center of the Central Valley but much less so in its northern part called the Sacramento Valley and its southern part called the San Joaquin Valley. 

    The Delta Breeze’s origin is the cold California Current flowing southward from Alaska.  Disturbance where it encounters obstructions like Point Reyes and the Monterey Peninsula causes upwelling from depths that cool coastal water even more.  

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  • Our Revolution seems to have quietly rescinded its endorsement of Eric Jones

    They should state their un-endorsement explicitly and explain their reasons for it

    By Roberta Millstein

    As I documented in a past article, Eric Jones is not a progressive.  Now it seems that Our Revolution, which Wikipedia calls “an American progressive political action organization founded as a continuation of Senator Bernie Sanders’s 2016 presidential campaign,” has finally figured out the same thing.  Having previously endorsed Eric Jones in his run to unseat Mike Thompson in CA-04, Our Revolution seems to have quietly withdrawn that endorsement.

    I want to be clear: this is not a critique of Our Revolution. I consider myself to be a progressive and I generally support their mission. I contributed to Bernie Sanders’s presidential campaigns, voted for him twice, displayed the swag. But organizations can make mistakes.  So it is no surprise to me that they would withdraw their endorsement once that they had the complete picture of who Jones is.

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  • Sierra Club and Tuleyome summer potluck & presentation on Wed, July 22, 7 PM

    The Future of Cache Creek Gravel Mining Restoration – A New Pathway Forward

    (From press release) What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group and Tuleyome are sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and conversation on Wednesday, July 22 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. (Doors open at 6:45 pm). Unfortunately, a Zoom option will not be available.

    Cache Creek looking west into the Capay Valley in the 1970s
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  • Eileen’s Update

    No on Measure V Campaign Gratitude

    The No on Measure V campaign would like to express our sincere gratitude to the many Davis voters who voted to reject the Village Farms proposal for the many reasons we explained in our articles, literature, and online at our NoOnMeasureV.org website.

    It is unfortunate that this project divided the community, but ultimately, the majority of voters understood that the project was unacceptable due to its many impacts, including toxics, flooding potential, massive traffic, enormous infrastructure costs, habitat destruction along Channel A, as well as endangerment of the vernal pools and the endangered species of Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp, and especially due to the unaffordable market-rate housing and the seriously inadequate affordable housing plan. The housing proposed would have been unaffordable to parents of young kids and would not have yielded hundreds of kids, and the and the long timeline of at least 15+ years did not coincide with the School District timeline, so it would not have helped the schools.

    This issue is now behind us, and hopefully we can come together as a community and work on solutions instead of school closures. This process needs to start now, and the School Board needs to move forward and approve the formation of a parent-based subcommittee, as recommended by California Best Practices, to work on solutions with the School District to avoid school closures without delay.

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  • It’s Right There In Your Backyard

    By Bertie Brouhard

    Yes. Your backyard; figuratively and maybe literally. Some reading this may not have a backyard. Most with a family unit I suspect do. But like mine it’s California and rather small and fenced in. It might have a pool; likely not. But certainly it has possibilities for some summer fun; perhaps badminton, ping pong,  croquet, your hacky sack, horse shoe or cornhole area or an archery (yikes) range. In my youth I tried it all including a makeshift baseball batting cage that did not even slightly improve my hitting.

    As for your family I envision two parent figures and two youngsters and while I encourage everyone to read on, this column has these four in mind.

    One of my granddaughters once asked me “Were you ever four?” She was curious. I must have looked ancient to her. I smiled and told her it’s a wonderful age. About that time 1950 C.E. or so mine and other parents of my buds let us sleep outside in someone’s backyard on warm, humid, star studded Nebraska summer nights. I don’t recall tents but remember the many mosquitoes, the sound of UP freight trains and back porch lights and our flashlights. Feigning sleep around ten I suppose we were off on our bikes roaming the many streets, parks, construction sites and gardens in our small town. We knew where the best melons, apples, rhubarb and strawberries could be picked and where others; especially girls our age, might join us for our jaunts. It all went well until our neighbor, the ever vigilant spinster, Mrs. Pierceson, ratted us out. She caused a month’s pause in our adventures, having told my dad, “I saw your son and a couple of his “ruffian” friends downtown last night. (Just what is a “ruffian?”)

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  • Award-Winning Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Presented July 7th

    By Scott Steward

    Kristen Wraithwall is the Manager of the Sustainability Division. The Sustainability Division operates within the Health and Safety Department of our Yolo County. Kristen will present the Update on Climate Action and Adaptation Plan (CAAP) Implementation Progress at this Tuesday’s (July 7th) Yolo County Board of Supervisors Meeting at 9:00 AM.

     Zoom meeting: By PC: https://yolocounty.zoom.us/j/84359964086

    Kristen, her staff, the Climate Action Commission, and the County have made consistently strong progress in climate action despite very difficult budget circumstances. This Sustainability work continues to provide our county with grant-funded programs that Yolo County cities and other California counties look to as models for what can be accomplished in their own jurisdictions. Yolo County’s Climate Action and Adaptation Plan received the Sacramento Valley Section APA Award of Excellence in Resilience and Sustainability (May 2025) and the Beacon Award from the Institute for Local Government (November 2025). 

    Vehicle use remains the #1 source of greenhouse gas emissions in Yolo County, so it is no surprise that 2026-2027 CAAP priorities emphasize transportation, including the implementation of countywide Zero-Emission Vehicle (ZEV) programs. Transportation is followed by building energy efficiency in coordination with Valley Clean Energy, Natural & Working Lands water conservation and carbon soil enhancement, recycling, and public cooling infrastructure.

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  • Living Water, Living Knowledge: Youth Explore Indigenous Stewardship in the Yolo Basin

    (From press release) For thousands of years, Patwin-Wintun peoples cared for the wetlands and waterways of the Yolo Basin using stewardship practices that enhanced biodiversity and sustained one of California’s richest delta ecosystems. This summer, Native, BIPOC, and ally youth are invited to experience these teachings firsthand through the Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) Youth Program.

    Led by Wintun/Maidu educator, naturalist, Fire Boss, and cultural practitioner Diana Almendariz, participants will explore how Indigenous communities lived in relationship with the land, plants, animals, and living water. Through hands-on activities, youth will learn about tule gathering, cultural burning, wetland ecology, wildlife, traditional foods, and Indigenous approaches to environmental stewardship.

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  • Who is Eric Jones?  A summary of the series with a quick wrap-up.

    By Roberta Millstein

    Who is Eric Jones?  I started with one article and didn’t know I’d be writing a series of them, addressing:

    1. Large numbers of maximized campaign contributions from Eric Jones’s former venture capitalist colleagues at Dragoneer Investment Group and other individuals from the high tech industry (link here).  The money comes from out of the district and so does Jones.
    2. Jones’s close connections to a Super PAC, New Leadership Now, that is pouring huge sums of money into his run for Congress (link here).
    3. Some of the Super PAC’s blatantly false claims about Thompson (link here).
    4. An update reflecting that the Super PAC spent $1.1 million on ads, including an Orwellian mailer, although as of May 30 that number exceeds $2.4 million. I have no doubt there will be  more on the way (link here).
    5. The extremely unlikely claim that Jones is a progressive, given his maximized donation to Republican Jonathan Bush, cousin of GW Bush, who is running for governor in Maine, with problematic views on health care, AI, and the environment — views that Jones seems to share. (link here).

    Beyond these articles, there are just a few more points than I want to emphasize:

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  • Village Farms: Too Big, Too Many Impacts, Costs and Unaffordable Housing

    By Eileen M. Samitz

    The Village Farms project, with 1,800 housing units on 498 acres at Covell Blvd. and Pole Line Road, is the largest residential project ever proposed in Davis with the worst impacts. It would take at least 15 years for the buildout, meaning many years of added congestion from construction traffic.

    An earlier version was proposed in 2005 as Covell Village, and Davis voters wisely rejected it because of toxics, the 200-acre floodplain, massive traffic, enormous infrastructure costs, and unaffordable housing. Twenty years later, Village Farms has all the same problems and more.

    The site is seriously handicapped. That is why the current developer, John Whitcombe, and partners including Tandem Properties, acquired the original 386-acre parcel at a bankruptcy auction for a mere $3.2 million. The original Crossroads developers abandoned it because of toxics, floodplain, and unmitigable traffic. Yet, the current developer is again trying to push it through despite the health, welfare, and safety issues, and unaffordable housing.

    Massive traffic and other impacts

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  • Davis needs to do better at protecting its sensitive and endangered species

    There is still a chance to preserve and restore habitats to help native species recover, including at Village Farms

    By Kathryn Calderala

    Environmentalism – Still a dirty word for some. A category Davis has a long history of claiming to embrace when the results show otherwise. As one example (and there are many); Davis used to be the proud stewards of a healthy population of Western Burrowing Owls – those pint-sized, ground dwelling owls perched on fence posts and signs. Almost everyone I have met since I moved here told me how they used to see owls everywhere. Yet now the species is almost gone from the county (no, they are not at Wildhorse anymore). They are considered extirpated – no longer nesting here and we are lucky to see a handful of individuals trying to overwinter in the area before moving on. Mostly they have been done in by the strange apathy that pervades the area.

    If a pint-sized owl – that lives underground and has more charisma than most species – can’t be a priority, what hope do all the other dwindling native species have? The California Tiger Salamander – an icon of the state. The Vernal Pool Tadpole Shrimp – a straightup throwback to prehistoric design, trundling around like mini horseshoe crabs. The Western Spadefoot Toad – a cat-eyed chunk of toad that smells like peanuts when they are mad. If we, as a community, cannot rouse ourselves enough to fight for the underdogs, what hope do we have for the future?

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