Can trees become extinct?
It is impossible to imagine Sonoma County without its majestic redwood trees and stunning oaks. Besides giving shape and definition to our hills, valleys, ridges and rural scenery, their likenesses are etched on our county seal, town logos, highway markers, school monuments and countless commercial labels. We live in a “redwood empire” where the original people here centered their culture around acorns.
A Tale of Two Parades
It’s Memorial Day weekend, the kick-off to summer in Healdsburg with the Future Farmers of America Twilight Parade featured in pictures with a strutting majorette leading a band and a dog co-piloting an 18-wheeler. The band followed vintage cars occupied by Brad Petersen, President...
Yoga Healdsburg-Style at Local Winery
Shelley Gilbert’s weekly yoga class is held at 32 Winds, nestled alongside the banks of Dry Creek just outside of town. Sherry Harkins generously donates the winery space. Shelley donates her teaching. Afterwards, practitioners share a glass of wine and socialize in the winery’s...
Cityscape: Drought requires 20% water conservation
It’s as dry as a bone out there. Our region has received less than one-third the normal amount of rainfall to date – 13 inches of rain compared to an average of 38 inches. As a result, on April 21, the day before Earth Day, the State of California declared a drought emergency in the Russian River watershed, which spans Sonoma and Mendocino counties.
Inflation
There are lots of big topics dominating the news these days. We’re getting pretty darn tired of most of them, like the omicron variant of the coronavirus, the open-shut door carousel at our local schools, renewed sheltering-in-place orders, a drought that comes with a tsunami warning and muddy feet and distant drumbeats about what’s being called “existential threats” to our democracy. But the biggest — and most real — current news topic is probably inflation, an economic menace we haven’t had to face for almost 40 years.
Introducing SoCoNews
Last week’s biggest local news was about the local news. That would be us. Maybe you caught the big change, or maybe you didn’t. Let us explain further. Last week we transformed ourselves into SoCoNews and launched a great new website, unfurled a new news flag and launched a new identity. We are SoCoNews, which is short for Sonoma County Local New Initiative, our new community-based nonprofit owner. It’s more than a name change, even though our local news mission stays the same and all the people here are still on board and continuing to work harder than ever.
From the Library: Library resources for heading back to school
The staff at the library is excited to be there to help our community as we begin another school year in Healdsburg. If you are a student of any age, a teacher or a parent, we have something helpful to offer this year as we prepare for another chapter of this action-packed story of life in the 21st century.