Bob Schneider (February 2007)

The beginning of a new year is a good time to take stock. Wow! 2006 has been a very good year. Successes included the redevelopment of Lake Berryessa to offer more family-oriented and nature-friendly recreation; Tuleyome's purchase of the 640-acre Ireland Ranch that gave public access to the BLM lands on Berryessa Peak; and congressman Mike Thompson's wilderness bill on October 17th that created the 27,000 acre Cache Creek Wilderness and the 6000 acre Cedar Roughs Wilderness.

We are building a community of folks that share a vision for the future of our region. We enter 2007 with renewed energy, active volunteers, committed supporters and a lot of passion. I want to thank you for your inspiration, support and active involvement. With new ideas and dreams we will continue our work to protect and restore our region.

So what's coming up? It is time to look at creating management structures throughout the upper Putah and Cache Creek region that could maximize the protection of our natural resources, offer recreation compatible with those resources, and ensure a future of sustainable agriculture. I noticed that several worthy conservancies including the “Sierra Nevada”, “Santa Monica Mountains”, and “San Joaquin River” conservancies received specific funding in Proposition 84. So where are we? Left out? We need to be able to secure this type of funding for future conservation easements and resource protection.

Climate Change and Energy are also important. While many decisions are international and national in scope, there is much that we need to think about on a local level. With climate change the need for effective wildlife corridors becomes more urgent so species can migrate. The prospect of increasing fuel costs requires new thinking on how and where development occurs and how we plan for agriculture when fertilizer, diesel fuel, and transportation jump in cost.

Yolo County is in the middle of a General Plan Update and Davis will probably begin one in the near future. The outside pressures that are impacting our county are far more significant than those we have seen in past planning processes. As a result, the decisions that we make now will have much greater implications in determining the future of where we live.

Because of this a 20-year planning horizon is no longer adequate. We must create a longer-term vision, with a plan and an implementation strategy. The Integrated Water Management Plan, the HCP/NCCP plan, and the Agricultural Mitigation Plan must be integrated in a seamless manner to define our future.

It is a challenging and exciting time. It is a good time to engage and be active and I look forward to working with you. (And, of course, I dream about salmon returning to Cache Creek.)