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Davisite Banner. Left side the bicycle obelisk at 3rd and University. Right side the trellis at the entrance to the Arboretum.

Category: Environment

  • County Board of Supervisors Prepares to Protect Local Groundwater

    Groundwaterissue

    By Scott Steward

    It will take a 4/5ths vote by the County Board of Supervisors this Tuesday, August 26th, to implement a much-needed well moratorium for the north and west Yolo regions, where ground water replacement rates are declining, are not well understood, and where previously unirrigated land is being converted to year-round water demand: grape vines, olive, and nut trees

    The County Staff report, supporting the 45-day moratorium, provides the following excerpt: 

    " To summarize, groundwater is a vital resource essential to the health, safety and welfare of the many communities and agricultural areas in the County. Therefore, it is necessary to better understand the impacts of land use changes on groundwater supplies and gather additional information to better inform better YSGA and County evaluation of proposed new agricultural wells with an eye towards protecting the sustainability of groundwater resources.  Further study of the impacts of the planting of perennial crops on previously non-irrigated lands is critical to determine if further regulations should be implemented with respect to such land use changes to protect against unsustainable groundwater impacts."

    Communications with the two Supervisors in District 2 and District 4 (Lucas Frerichs and Sheila Allen), who represent large numbers of Davis residents, indicate strong support for the 45-day moratorium.

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  • Tree Budget Cuts have made Parks, Bikeways Streets and Front yards less safe

    Failed Roots City Council Chamber Pear (1)By Alan ‘Lorax” Hirsch

    Tuesday item 7 before council is the first public discussion about the up-to-now hidden part of city structural deficit; the underfunding of tree pruning/sustainability program. This underfunding has not only made our parks, bikeways and streets less safe, but also added to our structural deficit by ballooning city’s insurance premiums. This is on top of our city’s financial deficit issues that Elaine Roberts Musser and Dan Carlson have written about so elegantly on this blog and elsewhere.

    +++

    What if your long time HMO revealed they had- without your knowledge – reduced the dose of your heart medication by 50% to cut costs- and done this secretly for over 12 years.

    That is what the city’s memo on Trees for Tuesday 8/19 council packet revealed; they state instead of a 7-year safety pruning cycle for front yard street and park tree they had in fact a longer a 12–14-year cycle.

    This is consistent with fact a woman died in Slide Hill Park in 2021 by a tree the city had neglected to inspect and prune. The city staff knew this funding shortfall for years (the previous Arbor would tell anyone) but this fact only seems to have been admitted to the public by staff and council now the previous city manager has moved on.

    But this mis where we are now: think of the embarrassment if HMO disclose an increased cost of malpractice insurance now exceed the saving from those medicine dosage cuts?  In city’s case, its liability insurance increase– due to the $24 million dollar Slide Hill Park tree death settlement.

    But this is part of a larger picture about the strategic mismanagement of the city tree program, as I will describe below.

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  • The General Plan won’t be a Genial Plan

     

    Screenshot 2025-07-30 8.22.55 PM"The goal is to manipulate

    Heavy hands to intimidate

    Snuff out the very idea of clarity

    Strangle your longing for truth and trust

    Choke wisdom sapience and prudence

    The war economy is inviolable violently

    Suppresses all intelligence that conflicts

    With the stakes of those who drive it."  - 

    From "Melodie is a Wound" by: Laetitia Sadier, Tim John Gane. Performed by Stereolab. Album: Instant Holograms On Metal Film. Released: 2025.  https://youtu.be/Nndpg90P2O8?

  • Fireworks Disaster in Yolo County? Cancel All 4th of July Fireworks in Yolo County!

    1000013809
    Late Tuesday evening (yesterday, July 1st) the following – minus the images – was sent to the Yolo County Board of Supervisors, the Davis City Council, Davis Fire, UCD Fir, Davis PD, Yolo County Sherriff, local and regional media, relevant Commissions and advisors, and individuals active in climate and climate equity… – TE

    "Hi, I don't want to take more of your time than necessary due to the ongoing situation.
     
    People and property have been harmed. People have evacuated. First responders are taking risks – YSAQMD said that firework smoke is worse than wildfire smoke. First responders are and will be exhausted. 
     
    Do you think people who evacuated through toxic fireworks smoke will enjoy a show of toxic fireworks smoke?
     
    We already know the problems with fireworks shows: Danger to wild animals and pets, danger to people with PTSD. Pollution for everyone: The special colors in fireworks are not made of vegetable dye. 
     
    Screenshot 2025-07-02 8.51.34 AM
     
    We have an alternative going forward: Drone shows – such as at Celebrate Davis this year – or how about the money is used for true patriotism: I notice that Esparto has a single public Purple Air Monitor. (Compare this to Davis). What's the state of air equity in households there? Perhaps the money used to pollute can instead be used to clean the air of wildfire fallout and prescribed burns in households there.

    For now I call on all elected officials in Yolo County to immediately establish a complete ban of 4th of July fireworks shows in the County… and to not postpone them either! 

     
    Thank you,
    Todd Edelman,
    Davis

  • No Measure J/R/D amendments

    Suburban sprawl
    It was disappointing to read the recent Davis Enterprise article regarding the City Council meeting item on  Measure J/R/D on May 13th. To be clear, there was no “confusion” by the public of what was being discussed or what could have resulted from that meeting. The Council was deciding if and when the City would add “exemptions” to Measure J/R/D on a ballot.  Any project including any of these exemption conditions would avoid a Measure J/R/D vote and disenfranchise Davis citizens from voting on it. 

    Also, there was no mention about the huge number of citizens who expressed their opposition to any Measure J/R/D “amendments” (exemptions) in person, by voicemail and by email at the meeting.

    How coincidental, that this subject of “amending“ Measure J /R/D was raised just when the egregious Village Farms project is supposed to be the next project on the ballot? Unless of course, it was somehow “exempted” by an “amended” Measure J/R/D.  Village Farms is a 1,800-unit project at Covell and Pole Line with a 200-acre floodplain, toxics from the adjacent unlined Old City Landfill, massive infrastructure costs, and enormous traffic and unsafe access issues.

    To be clear, any amendment(s) to Measure  J/R/D to exempt large projects which would annex in large parcels of ag land or open space for development, is for the benefit of the developers, not our community. Measure J/R/D already has exemptions built into it including for affordable housing.

    While the Housing Element Update citizen committee evaluated addressing new housing needs,  they did NOT make any recommendation to amend or add  Measure J/R/D exemptions. That concept came up between the City Staff and the State. Was this Staff’s idea, or was Staff given that direction, and by whom, to offer the concept of amending Measure J/R/D?

    With democracy on the line on a daily basis, we don’t need that happening here in Davis. The intention of Measure J/R/D is to give the public the ability to support good projects, and reject bad projects. Measure J/R/D is “The Citizens Right to Vote on Future Use of Open Space and Agricultural Lands”.  It passed 83%:17% when last renewed in 2020.  Measure J/R/D is democracy in action, and it does not need any “amendments” to weaken or invalidate it.

    Eileen M. Samitz

  • “The Future of Cache Creek” Presentation on June 2

    Welcome-to-Summer Potluck and a Presentation on

    The Future of Cache Creek – Past Problems and Proposed Solutions

    What-When-Where – The Sierra Club Yolano Group is sponsoring an in-person potluck dinner and presentation on Monday, June 2 from 7 to 9 pm in the Blanchard Room at the Yolo County Library, 314 E. 14th Street in Davis. You can also view the presentation via Zoom (see below for link).

    Cache creek

    Cache Creek looking west into the Capay Valley in the 1970s

    Who are the Presenters – For the evening’s presentation, we are pleased to welcome three knowledgeable and informed speakers who will discuss Lower Cache Creek’s troubled past, present problems, and a proposed new vision for a hopeful future.

    6:45 PM – Doors Open

    7:00 PM – Catherine Portman – Welcome and invitation to eat!

    7:15 PM – Alan Pryor (Chair of the Sierra Club Yolano Group Management Committee) – The History of Cache Creek, the Impacts of In-Channel and Off-Channel Mining, and the Status of Current Restoration Efforts in Off-Channel Mining Sites

    7:35 PM – Jim Barrett (Cache Creek Conservancy Board Member) – A New Vision to Use Natural Processes to Restore Former Mining Sites to Riparian Floodplain Habitat

    7:55 PM – Chris Alford (Interim Director of Yolo Habitat Conservancy) – Current Efforts by Yolo Habitat Conservancy to Protect, Enhance, and Restore Cache Creek Native Habitats

    8:15 PM – Q&A

    8:30 PM (+/-) – Adjourn and Clean-up
    _____________________________________

    Please join us for an evening of great food, good fellowship, and very interesting, informative, and inspiring presentations. If convenient, please bring your favorite dish to share but feel free to attend even if you don’t plan to eat or can’t bring a dish as there is always plenty to share. To help make this a “zero-waste” event, also please bring your own plates, cups, and utensils . The Yolano Group will provide plenty of reusable tableware and linen napkins for those who need it in addition to beverages.

    You can also view the presentation via Zoom (see below for links)

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  • The Water that Makes Local Food Possible is at Risk.

    Yolo-waterBy Scott Steward

    Add your voice. Contact your County Supervisor and our Water Board (YSGA). Best to make your request before Monday May 19th to place a moratorium on wells in the Yolo focus area that includes Hungry Hollow.  But don't stop making this request on the 19th.

    Everyone's hands are tied except the most important hands, yours. The public needs to insist on a well moratorium in the Yolo focus area in order to greatly speed the legal considerations that the county must make at the Department of Environmental Health and with County Council to develop the legal language (based on water table drop data from the YSGA) and other criteria to declare a moratorium.  Here is the problem: this cannot take years as the water and the west Yolo farms are drying up. 

    The county, through our elected Trustee/Supervisors, has the ONLY authority (not the YSGA) to place a moratorium on the Hungry Hollow focus area. The county will not do this on its own – we need public pressure, or we will lose the ability to water our own food. The majority of Supervisors welcome the pressure to enact a sustainable water policy.  We can win this. We need to speed it all up!

    The Yolo County Supervisors are governed by the State Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA), requiring local agencies to form groundwater sustainability agencies (GSAs).  SGMA makes it clear….

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  • Burrowing Owl Habitat Restoration Event on May 24

    (From press release) Please join the Burrowing Owl Preservation Society and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) for a Burrowing Owl Habitat Restoration Event at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area on Saturday morning, May 24.

    Burrowingowlevent

    What: Volunteers are needed for a few hours of burrowing owl habitat restoration work. We’ll be restoring/resetting artificial burrows for our beloved feathered friends and removing surrounding vegetation for their security.

    When: May 24, 8 am – 11 am (only 2 hrs maximum work time is requested).

    Where: Yolo County, Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area (https://duckduckgo.com/?q=yolo+bypass+wildlife+area&atb=v315-1&iaxm=maps&source=places).

    Bring: Plan to bring Gloves, Hat, Sturdy Shoes, and Water. Note that there is no toilet at the site.

    Contact: Please email Catherine Portman (DuskBuster07@gmail.com) for site location details and directions.

  • Check The Box, Yolo Capay’s Hungry Hollow Farms are in a Water Crises

    Check the box

    By Scott Steward

    We have a Groundwater Sustainability Agency called the Yolo Subbasin Groundwater Agency (YSGA).  Evidently, the word "Sustainability" is optional when considering well permits in Yolo County, as Annie Main found out after a 2-year struggle to point out the obvious to the Yolo County Supervisors who voted 3 to 2 on April 8th last week to add another high capacity 350 gallons per minute corporate well to further drain Hungry Hollow's already well documented declining water table.  The Boundary Bend well could mean the end of her Good Humus third-generation farm.  What's worse, there are four more deep well applications on the way to Hungry Hollow.

    You can't see our groundwater, but according to our Groundwater Sustainability Agency there are 346,000 acre feet that can be drawn from our 540,000 acres of ag land. That's 2.6 billion bathtubs worth of water.  That's our budget; use more and our invisible mega bathtub might not re-fill as high – ever.  Consider Annie Main, the most recent canary in a long line of canaries in the water coal mine, Yolo County the aquifer of choice for corporate tree crops (olives and nuts) and our County Supervisors, for now, the court of last resort.  

    Hungry Hollow family farmers like Annie Main of Good Humus are under threat of disappearing. Her area of land is in a designated "Focus Area." Focus Areas are so named because of the historical steady Hungry Hollow drop in the water table and because it's taking forever to get decent monitoring wells into place to "understand" what locals have been saying for the last two decades (no more additional well capacity!).  

    State and local water policy that was not enforced on April 8th.

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  • Again? Freeway-to-Sac’s Closure Postponed – now Indefinitely

    By Alan Hirsch

    Below is the core of Caltrans press release issued Wednesday 3/12 at 3:28pm announcing postponement of the Eastbound 50 Freeway in West Sac closure for this weekend. They say indefinitely—but it could be forever as they may figure out how to do the pavement rehab work while keeping some of regular 3 lanes up.

    But if they reschedule total closure another weekend later in March, drivers will have to contend traffic from with opening of the A’s and River cat baseball season to Sutter Health Park.

    This will may push out the work… and could conflict with the schedule to begin work to widened i-80 with toll lane- which is set to begin just next month. The Toll Lane construction work – Phase I of it– will continue into 2028.

    For previous articles on evolving (potential) freeway closure, click here , here2.and here3. 

    Note the bike lane will also be continue thru Monday 3/17 next week- but could go longer as Caltrans notes unhelpfully “weather permitting”.

    Editorial: This indefinite postponement could be due to pushbacks to Caltrans from local city council members and state representatives- after receiving calls from constituents. We will likely never know.  It is strange the freeway closure was not announced or discussed during YoloTD board meetings even though Caltrans was present – only in public comment. One wonders, for example, if there will be a total west bound closure too.

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