In Sonoma county, one of the largest vineyard developments in the last decade has been E & J Gallo wineries hillside conversion. In 1996 Ernest & Julio Gallo purchased 1,530 acres of land in Forestville. The purchased property is a steep hillside. This land serves as habitat to 300 acres of Woodland, and 174 acres of Redwood firs. Not to mention the wildlife presiding on the land which consists of mountain lions, wild turkeys, gray foxes, weasels, and porcupines.
E & J Gallo's plan was to convert the steep hillside land into 500 to 700 acres worth of vineyards. Included in their plans submitted to the State Department of Forestry was a voluntary commitment to preserve one half of the property for wildlife habitat, farmed with sustainable agricultural and integrated pest management. Although there is currently a plan submitted with the State Department of Forestry they do not currently have an Environmental Impact Plan (EIR).
Listed in The Forestry Practice Rule Book of 1998 it states that any forest conversion needs to first follow guidelines. The guidelines start with an application for permit and a $100.00 fee must be included. With the application there needs to be an EIR and an outline of future development plans. Then the application is reviewed by the permit director. The application is then approved or denied by the director before any actual conversion can take place.
E & J Gallo does not currently have an EIR for this development. They are trying to pull one together to cover last year and this year. The land has already been converted from steep hillside to gentle slopes. Last fall E & J Gallo removed several acres of Oak and Redwood trees from the land. They also used heavy machinery acquired from the Alaskan Pipeline to mechanically move mud to other areas of the land.
You might be asking yourself why hasn't the county regulated this project. According to supervisor Mike Reilly, Sonoma County currently doesn't have intact strict regulations. The county is currently trying to resolve this issue by tightening up the local laws and regulations for logging and conversion.
Many activists and neighbors of the winery are upset. They want Gallo to scale their plans down to 300 acres of land. Gallo has already moved one edge of the hill back 50 feet, because it was too steep.
Gallo is also in the midst of building a drainage system that will flow into the Russian River. This system will carry runoff from the Twin Valley Watershed. The drainage is supposed to empty into the river just above Wohler Bridge, which is where the county draws water for people living in Sonoma and Marin County.
The Gallo conversion has been a controversial issue in Sonoma County and is still undergoing operation. Gallo has planned on harvesting another 20 acres, this year, atop a ridgeline on the property. The rest of their plans have not been shared with the public. Gallo representatives say the plans are still too unsettled to disclose in full.