Agriculture/Food System – Enviro Updates

Saving the Gravenstein

August 6, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

County has lost more than 90% of its Gravenstein acreage

On Sunday, Aug. 2, longtime apple producer Dave Hale and his daughter walked their orchards, picking apples from 20 trees. They filled only eight 40-pound boxes, where once a single tree could fill up to seven boxes.

The next day, Hale’s Apple Farm announced the season for selling Gravenstein apples directly to people who come to the farm for their boxes was over.

Hale’s Gravenstein harvest is only 3% of the annual average this year, he told The Press Democrat. He will shut down operations and make juice with the remaining apples on the 16-acre farm before reopening in early September.

“We just don’t have the fruit to work with,” Hale said. “It’s really bleak.”

Amid ongoing financial struggles for the apple industry, Hale and other local growers are pessimistic about the future of the Gravenstein variety, which once helped define Sonoma County’s identity.

Agriculture/Food Systemfood growing, Gravenstein apples

Salmon fishing resumes off North Coast for first time since 2022

July 13, 2026

Anna Armstrong, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Commercial and recreational salmon fishing has resumed off the North Coast after a three-year statewide closure, marking a long-awaited milestone for a troubled industry that has endured historic losses in revenue and resources.

Charter captains are reporting abundant catches out of Bodega Bay, and commercial boats up and down the coast are again unloading hauls of the prized West Coast staple for the first time since 2022.

Still, the reopening is far from a return to normal, industry veterans say.

This year’s season is heavily restricted with staggered openings and closings designed to limit the take on rebounding Chinook salmon returns. And fewer boats may be around to cash in, as some fishermen say years of lost income from curtailed and closed fisheries have driven some away from the water for good.

Agriculture/Food System, WildlifeChinook salmon, endangered species, fisheries, salmon habitat, salmon season

New apple processing facility to open in Santa Rosa

June 19, 2026

Natalie Hanson, PRESS DEMOCRAT

A Sebastopol apple farmer plans to open a new apple press in Santa Rosa in time to serve his own and other organic farms this fall, offering a potential boost to small North Bay producers who have few options for processing their fruit.

Gold Ridge Organic Farms announced June 16 that owner Brooke Hazen signed a lease to open a 20,000-square-foot apple processing facility at 3320 Industrial Drive in Santa Rosa. Hazen said the goal is to open Heritage Apple Press during the 2026 season and process up to 80 tons per day.

The press will serve growers throughout Northern California, including Sonoma County, Mendocino County and the Pajaro Valley, he said. The facility is built to serve family and small-scale farmers, handling fruit for fresh-pack, juice, cider, vinegar and custom pressing.

Agriculture/Food Systemapples, food processing

Sonoma, Napa counties struggling to ID infested grapevine plants sold at Costco

June 10, 2026

Phil Barber, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Lea el artículo en español aquí.

Three weeks after Costco warehouses across California discovered they’d received staked grapevines from a San Joaquin Valley nursery that had failed to note the plants were exposed to the glassy-winged sharpshooter — an insect with the potential to decimate local wine industries — agricultural officials in Napa and Sonoma counties have redoubled efforts to locate and dispose of the vines.

The Napa Costco, for example, had previously confirmed receiving 220 staked grapevines from Burchell Nursery based in Fowler in Fresno County between April 21 and May 21. Since the discovery of possible exposure to the glassy-winged sharpshooter, the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner’s Office had recovered 101 of those vines as of Tuesday, June 9.

“That’s pretty good, but it’s not enough,” Tracy Cleveland, the county’s agricultural commissioner, told The Press Democrat. “We’re looking for 100%.”

The numbers look better in Sonoma County, where ag staff has tracked down all but about 100 of the 634 plants Burchell shipped to Costco outlets in Santa Rosa and Rohnert Park in that same timeframe.

Agriculture/Food Systemglassy-winged sharpshooter, pests, vineyards, wine grapes

Glassy-winged sharpshooter found on grapevine plants sold at Costco

June 3, 2026

Phil Barber and Edward Booth, PRESS DEMOCRAT

Agricultural operations across Northern California had to mobilize over the past week after discovering a Fresno nursery had shipped hundreds, if not thousands of staked grapevines to Costco warehouses without noting the plants originated from an area that has been infested by the glassy-winged sharpshooter, an insect with the potential to devastate vineyards.

On Tuesday, May 26, multiple counties — including Sonoma and Napa — acknowledged that agricultural inspectors had found sharpshooters “in multiple life stages” at Costco outlets in their jurisdictions.

Those life stages include egg masses, juvenile nymphs and fully developed adult insects, according to Sonoma County Deputy Agricultural Commissioner Pierpaolo Aymar, who is in charge of quarantine programs at the agency.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter is known to spread Pierce’s disease, which can be a death sentence for grapevines. Because of that danger, any nursery shipping vines from an area of infestation is supposed to put a hold requirement on those deliveries, so the receiving party can notify local agricultural authorities and schedule inspections.

That didn’t happen in this case, Aymar told The Press Democrat.

Agriculture/Food Systemglassy-winged sharpshooter, pests, vineyards, wine grapes

Camp for environmental learning, inclusivity this summer in Guerneville

May 30, 2026

Janet Perry, PRESS DEMOCRAT

School Garden Network’s new summer camp to be held at Solar Punk Farms

Schoolyards across Sonoma County have become places of bounty, learning and healing through the advent of school gardens. Teachers take classes out into those gardens where they incorporate the beautiful space into an outdoor learning lab for math and science as well as writing, art and more. Students who are anxious are able to find peace and solace there that helps them to regulate their nervous systems. Many of those gardens were started with the help of the School Garden Network.

There are now around 150 school gardens in the School Garden Network. Once those gardens are established the network helps teachers by providing resources such as plants and seeds as well as hosting helpful workshops throughout the school year.

Since 2021 the School Garden Network has also been hosting weeklong summer day camps where students learn new skills, make new friends and enjoy time in the garden. The team behind the network includes Sue Davis, executive director; Jesse Schmieg, Summer Garden Camp manager; and Hayley Dougan, farm manager at Solar Punk Farms where the newest camp takes place.

Agriculture/Food System, Local Organizations, Sustainable Livingenvironmental education, gardening, School Garden Network, school gardens

Sonoma County officials resurrect decade-long effort for local composting facility

May 13, 2026

Anna Armstrong, PRESS DEMOCRAT

More than a decade after Sonoma County lost its commercial composting facility, county officials are moving forward with a proposal for a new regional site northwest of Santa Rosa they say could process most of the county’s residential green bin waste locally.

At an April 28 meeting, the Sonoma County Board of Supervisors authorized the environmental review for a prospective compositing facility at 5200 Slusser Road, immediately west of the county’s airport at the former county landfill site.

Should the facility move forward, the site would process up to 70,000 tons of residential green bin waste annually, accounting for around 80% of the total amount of compostable waste generated across the county.

County officials say the centrally-located facility could help reduce truck traffic and greenhouse gas emissions associated with hauling the material out of the county, while fulfilling state requirements to divert organic waste from landfills.

Agriculture/Food System, Sustainable Livingcomposting facilities, landfill, Zero Waste Sonoma