California Wine Country Rebuilds as Threats Persist [New York Times]
…Not all of the damage of the 2020 fires in the northern Napa Valley and the adjacent Sonoma County is so visible and obvious. The consequences for vineyards that survived direct encounters with the fires remain to be determined, as wine producers affected by the blazes try to navigate the 2021 growing season, not exactly sure what they are confronting. Wineries can be rebuilt, interim facilities found, new vintages made, though the financial cost is steep. But for a winery to lose its vines — sometimes entire vineyards — is to be drained of its lifeblood.
Homes lose water as wells run dry in drought-ravaged basin [Associated Press]
Judy and Jim Shanks know the exact date their home’s well went dry — June 24. Since then, their life has been an endless cycle of imposing on relatives for showers and laundry, hauling water to feed a small herd of cattle and desperately waiting for a local well-drilling company to make it to their name on a monthslong wait list. The couple’s well is among potentially hundreds that have dried up in recent weeks in an area near the Oregon-California border suffering through a historic drought, leaving homes with no running water just a few months after the federal government shut off irrigation to hundreds of the region’s farmers for the first time ever….Some are getting by on the generosity of neighbors, or hauling free water from a nearby city. The state also is sending in a water truck and scrambling to ship more than 350 emergency storage tanks from as far as Oklahoma amid a nationwide shortage of the containers due to drought-induced demand across the U.S. West. The first tanks arrived Thursday.
Hard choices: With drought, large animals harder to sustain [Santa Rosa Press-Democrat]
With water under ration, wells running dry and fields so parched even weeds have trouble growing, many who keep large farm animals in Sonoma County are facing excruciating, desperate choices. Tales of tough decisions are mounting as summer enters its hottest, driest phase. Hoping to save the livestock he couldn’t afford to feed and water, one Sonoma County farmer recently took the desperate measure of cutting another landowner’s fence, putting four cows inside to graze, and closing the fence. But with this year’s unprecedented drought, calls to rescues and sanctuaries that specialize in such animals have substantially increased, and small farmers and large ranchers alike are having to cull more of their herds earlier.
Hard choices: With drought, large animals harder to sustain (pressdemocrat.com)
Herbicide Roundup to be pulled from U.S. store shelves in response to lawsuits [San Francisco Chronicle]
Facing billions of dollars in potential liability to cancer victims, Monsanto’s parent company said Thursday it would stop selling the current version of Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide, for U.S. home and garden use in 2023.The forthcoming version of the weed-killer will replace its current active ingredient, glyphosate, with “new formulations that rely on alternative active ingredients,” subject to approval by the Environmental Protection Agency and state regulators, said Bayer AG, the German pharmaceutical giant that purchased Monsanto for $63 billion in 2018.
Herbicide Roundup to be pulled from U.S. store shelves in response to lawsuits (sfchronicle.com)
California drought: List of water systems facing some of the worst shortages in the state [East Bay Times]
The California State Water Resources Control Board has begun compiling a list of water systems that it says “are likely to have critical water supply issues by the end of August.” The list includes small rural communities and larger towns, such as Healdsburg, Fort Bragg, Cloverdale, Ukiah, Bolinas and Lakeport. In many cases, water officials in these communities have notified the state water board or Office of Emergency Services that they are running out of water. In other instances, state water regulators have serious concerns and want more information. Once placed on the list, each water system must report weekly back to the state water board about how much water it is using, the status of its supplies, its conservation levels and what plans it has to improve the situation
USDA implements heirs’ property lending program from 2018 Farm Bill [Politico]
The U.S. Department of Agriculture is moving to implement a lending program designed to help farm property heirs resolve ownership and succession issues and hold onto their land.The department announced Thursday that the Heirs’ Property Relending Program will provide $67 million for loans to resolve property issues that have long kept some producers and landowners from being able to access USDA programs and services. The program’s provisions were included in the 2018 Farm Bill, but it wasn’t implemented during the Trump administration.
USDA implements heirs’ property lending program from 2018 Farm Bill – POLITICO
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