California Democrats scuttle wildfire utility fee plan, turn to Newsom in last-ditch effort [Los Angeles Times]
Facing heavy opposition, California lawmakers have scrapped a last-minute bill to extend fees for utility customers and plan to replace it with a more modest call for $500 million in emergency fire response and mitigation efforts. … A coalition of business groups — including the California Chamber of Commerce, the California Farm Bureau Federation, the Western States Petroleum Assn. and other influential groups — sent a letter to the Senate last week opposing the bill for requiring customers of the state’s three largest investor-owned utilities to pay for projects unrelated to their electrical service.
Wildfires again threaten business in California wine country [Associated Press]
With an early harvest already underway, a wildfire a few miles west of John Bucher’s ranch added new urgency to getting his pinot noir grapes off the vine. … Fire has been cruel to Northern California wine country lately. … Some wineries that don’t have their own vineyards are opting out of buying some grapes this year because the risk is too great that a vintage could be spoiled by smoke, said Tawny Tesconi, executive director of the Sonoma County Farm Bureau. … When the Walbridge Fire broke out two weeks ago, part of the LNU Lightning Complex of fires around wine country, the Farm Bureau was holding a fire training program for members.
Here’s what Fresno-area farmers need to know about air quality amid COVID-19 this weekend [Fresno Bee]
… When the air quality spikes above 151, employers are required to provide workers with masks, according to Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards. “It’s just unfortunate,” Fresno County Farm Bureau CEO Ryan Jacobsen said. “We knew there was a potential to be a fire year— not knowing when that was going to start — but it’s obviously here upon us at this point.” … Jacobsen said the Farm Bureau had deployed hundreds of thousands of N95 masks on Friday and would continue throughout the following week.
https://www.fresnobee.com/news/coronavirus/article245225145.html
Monterey County fires: Steinbeck Country suffers wrath of coronavirus, climate change [San Francisco Chronicle]
… The virus, heat and wildfire smoke have all uniquely harmed a group whose labor has been essential to the Salinas Valley since before Steinbeck’s time: the field-workers who make the region an agricultural powerhouse. … Many of the farms around Salinas scrambled to keep their workers safe from heavy smoke in August. When farmers tried to order masks, some found out they could not get any for months, said Norm Groot, executive director of the Monterey County Farm Bureau. So the county’s agriculture commissioner helped secure a cache of masks from the state and about 175,000 of them were obtained for use by field-workers, Groot said.
Del Puerto Canyon wildfire surveys estimate ranching losses from SCU Lightning Complex [Modesto Bee]
Preliminary surveys of Del Puerto Canyon wildfire damages are determining ranchers’ losses and projecting grasses will take two growing seasons to recover. The SCU Lightning Complex as of Friday has caused an estimated $60 million in losses for ranchers in the coast range when accounting for forage, fencing, livestock and stock pond damage, said Theresa Becchetti, a livestock and natural resource adviser for the University of California Cooperative Extension. … Many ranchers west of Patterson are still assessing their property, Becchetti said, but so far she has not heard of livestock dying in the Canyon Zone Fire.
https://www.modbee.com/news/local/article245309890.html
Historic Swanton Pacific Ranch looks to pick up the pieces after being ravaged by fire [Bay Area News Group]
As the CZU Lightning Complex Fire tore through northern Santa Cruz County, the caretakers of the coastal Swanton Pacific Ranch were stunned. The 3,200-acre preserve off Highway 1 north of Davenport – run by Cal Poly San Luis Obispo since 1993 as an unmatched bio-diverse lab for forest management and sustainability research – had seen threatening fires before. … In one night, so much of this largely untouched repository of Santa Cruz history — and the broader history of the California coast dating back to the turn of the 20th century — was gone.
Stanislaus County supervisors recall a dedicated public servant in colleague Tom Berryhill [Modesto Bee]
Fellow board members reacted with heavy hearts Sunday afternoon upon the passing of Tom Berryhill, the Stanislaus County Supervisor who died Saturday. … Mr. Berryhill was elected to the Board of Supervisors in November 2018 after term limits ended his political career in Sacramento. He had served a dozen years as an assemblyman and state senator before his election to the board. … He was born in Ceres and was a small businessman and fourth-generation farmer. And he came from a family steeped in politics. His brother Bill also served in the Legislature. And their father, the late Clare Berryhill, was a longtime Republican legislator who also served as state director of food and agriculture.
