The Strategic Timber Trust withdrew its initial public offering (IPO) for the 64,000-acre South Coast timber tract last month, apparently because institutional investors didn't think much of the investment in the badly cutover forestland. But the enormous 10,000 acres of grapes proposal which would follow the roads and ridges on the 64,000-acre Mendocino-Sonoma parcel like a spider web laid over it is still being actively pursued, at least according to former Sonoma County Supervisor Ernie Carpenter. Carpenter, readers may recall, was recently hired by Rich Padula of Willits to help him push a controversial vineyard project through the necessary planning hoops. (Padula has an option to buy back up to 10,000 of the 64,000 acres "for orchard or vineyard.") Guess which one Padula wants? Carpenter, who now calls himself a consultant, was asked to comment on the project last Tuesday (July 20) on Pat Thurston's Santa Rosa radio program. Here are Mr. Carpenter's comments on the project and his role in it.
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On his quitting after 16 years as a Supervisor:
"I was always doing things for someone else, and not for myself. Now I want to be my own person. I've been accused of being rude, but I try not to do that unless there's a purpose for it. If you know what a majority of your constituents want, but you think you know better and you want to do it a different way. I just didn't have the patience to try to explain my point of view any more. I was finding it was a problem. It was getting me into some trouble."
Carpenter calls himself an "environmentalist" AND a consultant?
"I have a half a dozen clients. On this Coastal Ridges Vineyards project, I hope to be able to do something up there that will make it a better project. I work for money. I am a paid consultant."
What will happen if there's no vineyard?
"This land [the 64,000 acres] is cut up into 400 parcels right now. At some point in the very near future, since it's been logged three or four times, probably that land will be sold off for estate purposes. People will buy it, move in, build a big house, live there, do whatever they want to do with the land. Some will convert to vineyards. Some will leave it as forest. Some will come on the weekends. However, it's for certain that it makes 400 units."
What would happen to the 400 Certificates of Compliance (C of Cs) if the land is converted to vineyards?
"Those units would be collected up and expunged -- basically wiped out and there would be easements put over this land that would give you some protection into the future. On the vineyard part of it, probably on that 10,000 acres of development, there would be no future development. There would be greenways along the streams. And if I have my way -- I'm still arguing this with the owner -- there would be trails for not only hikers, but bicycles and people who want to ride horses, something we lack in this county. So those are the kinds of things I'm trying to do on this project: effect the tradeoffs today that will serve the project more into the future, as opposed to letting it be cut up into 400 parcels and whatever else might happen."
(Carpenter sets up the estate housing project as a straw man, saying if you don't allow Mr. Padula to plant upwards of 10,000 acres of vineyards, you'll get 400 Sea Ranch style luxury estates.) -- Jennifer Poole
"The name of the project is Coastal Ridges Vineyards. All the planning guidelines in the general plan will be followed. The 400 parcels are created through the certificate of compliance process. They were filed sometime prior to 1927, before modern day planning. They were later deemed legal in both Sonoma and Mendocino counties. Those proposals are on the ground. And frankly, it's better to get those out of the woods, out of this area so that we don't start having, in these areas, people living. And that's one of the tradeoffs for the vineyard project. Is to expunge those living units. That is completely consistent with the general plan. And the general plan by the way doesn't address vineyards per se, and where they can be planted. You can even plant them in rural residential areas."
Are there any restrictions on the Certificates?
"The Sonoma County Board of Supervisors said that each individual parcel has to have its own perc and water. It was a bold thing to do and a good thing to do. There are so many of these certificates out there from a long time ago that people trade and sell them. However, these certificates have been perfected. They have been registered, they have been recognized, there's nothing left to do in the process, except perhaps perc and water. And I don't think, with most of these, that there would be any problem in that area. It's a hoop to jump through; it's gonna cost you a little more money, but it doesn't say: you don't have a certificate here."
Why not some other crop?
"If you look at a lettuce field it's much less attractive than a vineyard. Any kind of a crop has an environmental downside. In Sonoma County grapes are the future. In Sonoma County over the next ten years you are going to see another 20,000 acres of grapes, regardless of this project that I'm involved with."
Are wall to wall grapes inevitable?
"The issue is what kinds of things can the Board of Supervisors do that will make those vineyards better, because they're going to happen. There's no question about it. If you think there's not going to be this kind of increase in vineyards in Sonoma County, I think you're living in the wrong place, because all you have to do is drive anywhere in Sonoma County today and witness that conversion. I'm telling you that over the next ten years you're going to see 20,000 more acres of vineyards and I don't think anyone can stop it. It's going to happen. If you don't have the tools to stop it, you should get better guidelines. Because there are no reviews on the county level of row crops. You can go plant grapes without any permits. On an economic, political or planning basis, there is nothing to say I can't go out on my land right now and put in a vineyard. It's a powerful force out there: the farm community, the wineries, the vineyards. They might be willing to put in new and different standards."
What about pesticides and water for the vineyards?
"On Coastal Ridges Vineyards, I can't speak to whether it will be totally organic, but there will be no diversion of water. There will be catch ponds. The catch ponds will not be located anywhere near a Class III stream or greater, no direct diversion of water. Some of those ponds would serve habitat purposes for wildlife. They will be catching rainwater in a pond and not damming up any stream for the water. There's no use of pesticides, herbicides or methyl bromide and so on. I've insisted on a lot of these things for my involvement. Keep in mind that it's not my project. I'm a consultant trying to make it a better project."
Are these things you're talking about in writing somewhere?
"There are elements of everything I'm speaking to in writing. They have done three years of work up there in preparation for this. We talk about fish-friendly farming. Yes, I have a commitment from them to use that and indeed they have put it in writing but it's not in writing in a way that one might say is a contract."
Isn't money all that matters to you and your client?
"You always have to keep in mind on these things which is where I feel like I will ultimately be compromised is that you have to go to your financial source. This is a big project. There's a lot of zeros in a 7,000 acre vineyard which is what it's probably going to work out to be after some setbacks and roads. Those financial sources, and the involvement of that community, they often demand things of you that you yourself don't want to do. Realistically, we have to be aware of that. But for now: fish-friendly farming, no use of chemicals... "
How big is the project?
"I would just make the gratuitous statement that if this was a 500-acre vineyard I think people would be shocked at how environmentally friendly it is. However, it is so big, which is a given, that no one can get past the size of it to look at some of the other issues. We can achieve a greenway on the Gualala River, with setbacks, no more timbering, nothing. Wouldn't that be a great thing?"
What about the remaining trees?
"Conservation easements, held by a land trust, would protect all of the oak forests. That's a part of the deal. I would like to preserve the oak forests. And the only way to do that is through conservation easements. And the reason I took this project on is because my client has hired me to find someone to hold those easements to put over the 60,000 acres preserving about 35,000 acres of timber and 15,000 other acres, and 10,000, 7,000 of which would be vineyard.We have found a national conservancy group, my client won't allow me to give you the name, and they are very much interested in this project. They have verbally committed to holding the easements and being the monitor over time. Over the vineyard part there would be an easement that would completely control what happens out there. Over the forest part, the 50,000 acres, it would have an easement that would preclude other development. The way the option agreement works between my client and the owner of the other parcel is that they can't control the method of timbering through the use of this easement because they after all own the land and they don't want to do that."
How much forest would be removed?
"I wish I could give you a number on how much forest will be removed. But by and large what will be removed will be tanbark oak. It won't be fir. It won't be redwood. It won't be your other oaks. Remember this land has been cutover four times. We're talking ridgetops, we're talking a slope that averages about 24% maximum. So you're talking a ribbon of vineyard -- this is not a big block of forest taken out for a vineyard -- a ribbon of vineyard that goes for a stretch of about 25 miles -- mainly, but not entirely in open areas. But yes there is some clearcutting. In part, the application is delayed because we're trying to get a handle on exactly what that would be. And that's the project, that's the way it looks. The application has not been filed, but it will be soon."
Who's in charge?
"The anglo population has been fairly well in charge of the institutions of this country for a long time and there are certain economic tradeoffs and certain kinds of tradeoffs that one has to make to survive in this society."
Why can't the entire forest simply be left alone to regrow. Is it only because Mr. Padula wants to somehow profit from very heavy and illegal overcutting?
"I assume that if it were illegal somebody would have sent him a citation in the mail. And I am not sure that that's ever happened."
(In other words, if you steal a car, it's only illegal if you're caught.)
"But yes, why couldn't it be left alone? It's a simple question of economics. It's a factor that we have to live with and everybody needs to understand this. If they don't, you know, money makes things move in this society. They're going to cut timber for money. They are going to plant grapes for money. They are going to grow houses for money. It's really a question of where you should and where you shoudln't do it. And there are a lot of good arguments that could be made that perhaps it shouldn't be in this exact location, but there's no good argument to say just leave it alone, because economically, it's not going to happen with land."
What's next?
"The conversion will be presented to the board of forestry. A year will go by and an environmetnal impact report will be prepared. And Stratetic Timber Trust has to sign off on any project Mr. Padula comes up with."