Redwoods vs. red wine: Lawsuit aims to block vineyard

Friends of the Gualala River

Friends of the Gualala River say these redwoods are on Artesa Winery's property and reflect the kind of forest that would be converted into a vineyard.

By Miguel Llanos, NBC News

Drawing a line in California's redwood forests, environmental groups have sued to block a winery from building on 173 acres, and sent a message to developers of an even larger, nearby 1,600-acre proposed project.

The smaller battle is over Artesa Winery's plan to grow pinot noir grapes near Annapolis in Sonoma County.

The lawsuit filed Thursday targets California's Department of Forestry -- not Artesa -- and argues that in approving the project it failed to consider the environmental impacts of converting forested areas to an open vineyard.

Artesa did not immediately respond to a request for comment, but notes on its website that only a few old-growth redwoods are still on the property, which had been a sheep and apple farm.

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The plaintiffs argue that it's not about old-growth trees, but second- and third-growth stands that are rising after decades of logging.

"These are recovering forests, and you need forests to have rivers downstream," Chris Poehlmann, president of Friends of the Gualala River, told msnbc.com. "Otherwise you have bowling balls that shunt water and don't allow a slow release."

Without that natural ecosystem, he added, "we're never going to get fish populations back" along the Gualala River, which runs through the local watershed.

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A commercial alternative for the property could be to sustainably harvest trees, Poehlmann said, once and if the forest rebounds.

Other plaintiffs are the Sierra Club's Redwood chapter and the Center for Biological Diversity.

Poehlmann fears an even bigger impact from the proposed Preservation Ranch development, where 1,600 hilltop acres would be cleared for boutique vineyards sold to individuals.

Ken Adelman, California Coastal Records Project

The Preservation Ranch project is on land that includes this 39-acre vineyard. Developers want to open 1,600 hilltop acres across the 20,000-acre property to boutique vineyards.

That project hasn't completed its environmental impact report yet, and the plaintiffs hope their lawsuit will succeed and force agencies to raise the threshold for approving projects like Preservation Ranch.

With the lawsuit, Poehlmann said, "we intend to draw a line to stop further destruction."

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C Mike

I will say that as a Farmer I plant corn, then wheat, (Sorry to you Anti-Gluten
folks) then Soy, then wheat, then corn, do you see a pattern here. My land has
about 130 acers of wooded area, white oak, ash and popler. Every few years I
plant the fields in Fescue or Clover to make hay and let the fields rest.

This is to give you some understanding of my
point of view. Pine trees, which are what you are talking about, are the corn
of trees. They are fast growing. They do not take hundreds of years to grow.
These statements you are making just show gross ignorance, and do not help your
cause.

From what it looks like to us in middle America, You tree huggers are the Hollywood types who have money, and just want to force others to your will. You are the Prius drivers who are destroying Huge
areas of the world with the Toxic Materials used to produce these batteries
that power your cars. You do not care that whole areas have been rendered dead.
With the ability to support no life. They look like the surface of the moon.
Just so you can drive your stupid electric cars. You care about some scrub
brush, because as you said it is in your back yard, but you don’t care that you
are destroying the planet with your Electric batteries.

Shame on you all. It is funny, The ones
destroying the planet are actually called Tree Huggers!