Longtime Ukiah area resident Rosemary Torell passed away after a brief hospitalization on Sunday, October 23rd. Her health had declined subsequent to a fall at home last winter. She was 89 years old.

Born in Jewell, Kansas in 1922 to James Claudius Miller and Maude Marion Jones Miller, the family left Winfield, KS in the forties to pick fruit in Washington. They later settled in Denver, Colorado. Along with many at the time, they did what they could to make ends meet. Despite the challenges, she remembered those days fondly. She worked for the Department of Animal Science, University of California, Davis, where she met and married the love of her life, Donald T. Torell, in 1950. They were married 62 years. At the time of her passing, they lived in Central California where they moved to be near children and grandchildren.

Family and faith in Jesus Christ were  Rosemary’s highest priorities. She was a compassionate and loyal advocate for both.  She worked with Don on their sheep ranch near Ukiah, helped with his research at the Hopland Field Station, and together they raised two children. They traveled to many countries and lived in Uganda, Kenya, and Chile. They were members at Ukiah First Baptist Church for almost 50 years, where she also served as a deaconess and secretary under Pastors Taylor and Duncan.

Rosemary was active in the Mendocino County sheep ranching industry. She was a member of the California and Mendocino Woolgrowers and the Bo-Peeps, for years working at local fairs, serving on scholarship committees, judging Make It Yourself With Wool contest at the Grand National at the Cow Palace, and helping put on annual Woolgrowers BBQs in Boonville. She was a passionate promoter and ambassador for agriculture, the sheep industry, traditional Western values, an accomplished artist, and woodcarver.

Rosemary is survived by Don, children Teri and her husband Richard Murrison of Eagle, ID, Mike and his wife Vikki Torell of Chowchilla, and grandchildren Mike Torell II and his wife Sarah Torell of Chowchilla, Megan and her husband Jordan Geary of Copperas Cove, TX, and Colton, Mikayla,  and Zebediah, and great grandchildren Tanner and Mia Torell of Chowchilla. She also leaves behind her sister Elizabeth Jasper, brother Winfield Miller,and many beloved nieces and nephews and their families: Judy Greer,  Dr. Don Jasper, Craig and Gary Miller, and Jeannie Edwards. She will be missed by faithful friends Louise Fennessey, Robert Lopez, Ritchie Wood, and many others. Rosemary was predeceased by her parents, siblings Marguerite Brane, and Richard Miller.

At her request, no memorial service will be held. Rosemary did not want people to be sad, but asked that family and friends remember her life with joy and celebrate her homegoing. In keeping with a large heart and her generous nature, she would ask that anyone who wants to donate to a memorial fund simply find a soul who needs help and give it.

When all was said and done, Rosemary aspired to hear “Well done, thou good and faithful servant.” I am confident she achieved her goal.

Today’s the National Day of Prayer, a day when millions call upon God to heal our land. This year’s theme is one of protection and actively declared hope, faith (the evidence of things not seen but hoped for), and trust:

“I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress, my God in whom I trust.” Psalm 91:2.

Trust never wakes me at o-dark-thirty. Doubt and unbelief all too often do.

Someone said recently that the only way forward today is to trust each other. They said “trust is glue that will hold us together”.  While that’s sometimes true, building trust requires trustworthy behavior over time. Is God trustworthy? Can we believe Him?

Genesis says God spoke and things happened: earth was created, light came on, waters separated, dry land appeared, a garden and animals placed in it, man was formed out of the earth, and woman followed shortly thereafter.

God spoke. Things happened.

Again He spoke and warned them not to eat from one tree, but they ate the apple anyway. Adam and Eve failed to believe the God who spoke everything into existence. Their downfall wasn’t eating, it was in not believing. They didn’t trust Him when presented with contradictory testimony.

From creation forward, we read accounts of His trustworthiness and tales of men and women that trusted God even when it seemed things couldn’t turn out well. We’ve experienced it in our own lives. But there are times when it gets tough and we permit ourselves to indulge in doubt and unbelief. We allow worry to gnaw on our souls – like I did this morning.

His message though is clear:

Trust Me. I have a plan. I know what I’m doing. Believe Me.

Despite oppression, He brought His people out of Egypt. Despite unfavorable odds, David killed a giant and became a king. Despite danger, Daniel walked with lions and wasn’t eaten. And despite the attempts of a murderous king to prevent it, One male child survived to die (and live) another day.

There is ample reason for hope. There should be no room for doubt. “He is my refuge and my fortress, my God, in whom I trust.”

On this National Day of Prayer and every day forward, let’s resolve to believe what He said, not what we see. All is not as it seems.

Posted: 10 Mar 2011 09:05 AM PST

The newly released Census reports reveal that California faces a profound gap between the cities where people are moving to and the cities that hold all the political power. It is a tale that divides the state between its coastal metropolitan regions that dominate the state’s politics — particularly the San Francisco Bay Area, but also Los Angeles — and its still-growing, largely powerless interior regions.

Indeed, the “progressives” of the coast are fundamentally anti-growth, less concerned with promoting broad-based economic growth — despite 12.5% statewide unemployment — than in preserving the privileges of their sponsors among public sector unions and generally affluent environmentalists. This could breed a big conflict between the coastal idealists and the working class and increasingly Latino residents in the more hardscrabble interior, whose economic realities are largely ignored by the state’s government.

The Census shows that the Bay Area and Los Angeles are growing at their slowest rate in over 160 years under American rule. Between 2000 and 2010 Los Angeles gained less population than in any decade since the 1890s. Its growth rate was slower than metropolitan Chicago, St. Louis and virtually every region that has reported to date, with the exception of New Orleans.

This reflects not only the poor economy of the past few years, but also a widely cited drop-off in foreign immigration and continued massive outmigration of residents to other states. One reason for this mass exodus may be soaring house prices — largely the product of strong regulatory restraints — which appear to have contributed to slowing population growth after 2003.

Yet not all of California is stagnating demographically. The state’s interior region — what I call “The Third California” — is growing steadily. While  Orange County, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Jose and the Silicon Valley increased their population by only 6% or less over the last decade, inland areas such as Riverside-San Bernardino, Sacramento and the Central Valley saw growth of 20% or more. Overall, the interior counties together gained 2 million residents , roughly twice as many as the combined coastal metropolitan areas.

The reasons for this growth are not difficult to comprehend. In boom times and hard times, housing prices in the coastal regions tend to equal as much as seven or eight times a median family income. The prices in the interior can be three times or less.

In addition, during the past two decades, the interior region enjoyed fairly strong economic growth. Pro-business county governments promoted the expansion not only of housing, which boosted construction, but of basic industries such as food processing, manufacturing and warehousing. According to economist John Husing, the Inland Empire alone accounted for over 40% of the state’s total job growth.

Today, in the wake of the collapsed housing bubble, these interior counties are reeling, with double-digit unemployment (in some cases reaching closer to 20%) and what appear to be diminishing prospects. Five of the nation’s 10 metro areas for foreclosures are located in California’s interior.

Under normal circumstances, lower housing prices and business costs would lead — as in past recessions — to a spate of new economic growth, but this the radical turn in California government could keep these areas permanently poor.

Essentially, the Third California has become hostage to the coastal cities and their increasingly bizarre economic policies. Under first Arnold Schwarzenegger and now Jerry Brown, California has embraced a series of radical environmental edicts that spell disaster for the more blue-collar interior. These include dodgy land use policies designed to combat “climate change” but essentially seek to steer middle- and working-class Californians out of their cherished suburban homes and into densely packed urban apartment complexes.

The last election confirmed the Bay Area’s ascendency in Sacramento. Gov. Jerry Brown was previously mayor of Oakland (a city that actually lost population this decade), while the lieutenant governor, former San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, and the new attorney general, Kamala Harris, are from the city by the Bay.  The San Francisco area’s population may be about the same as the Inland Empire’s, but its political perspective now dominates the state.

Husing describes San Francisco as “a bastion of elitist thinking” due to a large “trustifarian” class who have turned the city into favorite spot for green and fashionably “progressive” think tanks. This thinking is increasingly influential as well in a rapidly changing Silicon Valley. In the past the Valley was a manufacturing powerhouse and had to worry about such things as energy prices, water availability and regulatory relief. But the increasingly dominant information companies such as Apple, Facebook, Twitter, Google and their wannabes are widely unconnected to industrial production in the region. To be sure, they have created a financial bubble in the area that has made some fantastically rich, but according to researcher Tamara Carleton they have contributed very little in new net job creation, particularly for blue-collar or middle-class workers.

There’s a bit of a snob factor here. Fashionable urbanistas extol San Francisco as a role model for the nation. The City, as they call it, has adopted the lead on everything from getting rid of plastic bags and Happy Meals is now considering a ban on circumcision. When it comes to everything from gay rights to bike lanes, no place is more consciously “progressive” than San Francisco. So why should that charmed city care about what happens to farmworkers or construction laborers in not-so-pretty Fresno?

Class and occupational profile also has much to do with this gap between the Californias. Husing notes that the Bay Area has far more people with college degrees  (42%) than either Southern California (30%) or the Central Valley (where the percentage is even lower). Green policies that impact blue-collar workers — restraining the growth of the LA port complex, restricting new single-family home construction or cutting off water supplies to farmers — mean little distress for the heavily white, aging and affluent Bay Area ruling circles.

But such moves could have a devastating impact on the increasingly Latino, younger and less well-educated populace of the interior. Outside of the oft-promised green jobs — which Husing calls “more propaganda than economics” — it is these less privileged residents’ employment that is most likely to be exported to other states and countries, places where broad-based economic growth is still considered a worthy thing.  “By our ferocious concentration on the environment, we have created a huge issue of social justice,” Husing points out. “We are telling blue collar workers we don’t want you to have a job.”

This all presages what could be the greatest issue facing California — and much of the country — in the decades to come. In places where San Francisco-like fantasy politics preside, expect to witness a growing class and ethnic divide, with consequences that could prove catastrophic to the future of our increasingly diverse society.

“A riot is at bottom the language of the unheard.”

Martin Luther King

In recent years we’ve had our share (and then some) of violent verbal jousting in public (and media) discourse, rioting in the streets, and electoral revolt. America has been buffeted first one way and then the other by competing parties and ideology.

Too few of us comprehend the wisdom underlying Dr. King’s words. Our leaders must begin to listen to everyone and then act decisively to bring about balance and secure freedom for future generations of Americans.

Unheard, unhappy people overthrow the status quo, not so much to make others unhappy, but because the status quo is for them untenable.

Systemic equilibrium – balance – requires determining what various interests need in order to be content and live peaceably. Balance doesn’t mean no one gets their way, but that most are satisfied and few are sufficiently motivated to change things. It requires correcting what’s out of whack for the good of the overall system.

Plugging one’s ears ignores bitter roots of unhappiness and perpetuates upheaval and riotous behavior. While conflict may go underground for a while, it will be back.

So leaders, stop talking at us. Unheard, unhappy people overthrow the status quo one way or another. Today’s happy Americans may too soon be the unhappy ones again.

Figure it out. Get to the root of the country’s problems and quit focusing on symptoms.  Attempt to understand what everyone needs.

Seek balance over partisan and ideological victory.

Oh, that King’s wisdom and words would not fall on deaf ears. Leaders must listen.

“The best way to find yourself is to lose yourself in the service of others.”

Mohandas Gandhi

Becoming a Tuolumne County supervisor is not unlike putting on a jacket. I put it on full of dreams to build a better future for our children. Now, four years wiser and with accomplishments, victories, and some failures behind, it’s with sadness (and a wee bit of relief) that I’ve taken it off.

It’s on the coat rack in your new office, Evan. Please take good care of it.

You probably know yourself pretty well now, but as you wear this Jacket, things you don’t know about governing and that you didn’t know that you don’t know about yourself will come to light. You’ll “find yourself” even if you weren’t lost. I guarantee it.

I didn’t think the learning curve would be too steep. I’d attended Board meetings for a year and a half. I understood the relationships between federal, state, and local governments. I’d worked in local government for a long time: the process was not new to me and politics was not either. I felt prepared to put on the Jacket.

I had no idea.

I had to learn where bodies are buried (and who buried them), how to balance my agenda with others’ motivated by distinct convictions and dreams, and I had yet to experience the level of public scrutiny that comes with being a county supervisor.  I had no idea how much I could give, how much I could take, and upon which hills I would ultimately be willing to die. I do now.

This fifty-four year old woman found herself.

The Jacket comes with preferential treatment, “yes” men and women, naysayers, and in the midst of circumstances that require humility. It brings duty and responsibilities, satisfaction and fulfillment. To be sure, it entails a degree of respect and some power too, though not nearly so much as one might think.

Wearing it well necessitates simple, yet critical math skills. There are various ways to get the three votes a supervisor needs to get anything done. Over time I expect you’ll try them all.

It requires what a friend calls the “splendid loneliness of leadership”: at times we take solitary paths against the current. We take them with courage, decisiveness, and without polling for public opinion. We aren’t elected to be followers after all, but leaders.

 As a Board member, you’ll make decisions that impact our everyday lives and you’ll be held accountable. No matter your decision, you’ll hear from constituents. They’ll tell you how they feel on the street, at the store, and call you at home. They’ll tell you when you’ve done well and when you’ve fallen short (and how far).

There are times to broker peace and times to run into the battle. I’ve learned when to listen, speak up, negotiate, and when to embrace controversial decisions.  Being a county supervisor comes with attacks from foes and people I thought were supporters. It comes with worry about Tuolumne County’s future and sleepless nights.

Despite all that, I have loved being District 3 Supervisor. Public service is a worthy calling. Wearing this Jacket has been an honor.

There are few better feelings than caring for your constituents and what’s important to them. Fail to care for them properly and someone will wrestle you for the Jacket in your next election. That is as it should be. They may try even if you do well.

This level of learning and performance is only achieved from inside the Jacket where much is expected. As you wear it, it requires focus, energy, and that you make it your top priority.  In the process, you will be revealed to yourself and others.

Many have worn the Jacket before and many will wear it after. None owned it, but it owned them. 

So, now it’s your turn, Evan. District 3 residents have entrusted the Jacket to you. Put it on with expectation and anticipation. Enjoy yourself.

And please, take good care of the Jacket. 

Once again (in case you forgot!), a paraprosdokian is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part.

This will be it for paraprosdokians on this blog. They were fun while they lasted.

• “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink and I don’t gamble, but I do lie.”  Tim Maia
• Where there’s a will, I want to be in it.
• The car stopped on a dime, which unfortunately was in a pedestrian’s pocket.
• I’m trying… very trying.
• I don’t smoke anymore, nor do I smoke any less.
• “I’ve had a perfectly wonderful evening, but this wasn’t it.” Groucho Marx
• “I once shot an elephant in my pajamas. How he got in my pajamas I don’t know.”  Groucho Marx
• “Outside of a dog, a book is man’s best friend. Inside of a dog, it’s too dark to read.”  Groucho Marx
• “I want to die like my father, quietly, in his sleep; not screaming and terrified like his passengers.” Bob Monkhouse
• “A modest man, who has much to be modest about.” Winston Churchill (of Clement Attlee)
• “If you are going through hell, keep going.”  Winston Churchill
• “I haven’t slept for ten days, because that would be too long.” Mitch Hedberg
• “Take my wife — please.” Henny Youngman
• “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing — after they’ve exausted every other option.” Winston Churchill
• “I decided to go into a draconian diet, cutting alcohol, fat, and sugar. In two weeks, I lost 14 days.” Tim Maia
• “I was expelled from college for cheating. It was very serious, because it was with the dean’s wife.” Woody Allen
• “I’m on a whisky diet; I’ve lost three days already.” Tommy Cooper
• “Mark my words. No, Mark, I really need my words.” Stephen Colbert
• “I woke up in the morning, my sister made some eggs. So we cooked them.” Emo Phillips

This is from Public CEO, “a local government news site dedicated to providing a statewide perspective on California’s cities, counties and special districts”.

Note To The Legislature: We Are All Ashamed
Written by James Spencer
September 22, 2010

I’m going to make this over-simplified and to the point.

It’s been more than 80 days since the State of California was supposed to have a budget passed. That’s 12 weeks after the fiscal year began. There’s no end in sight.

This steps beyond the “Are you kidding me?” stage and directly into the “Unfathomably ridiculous” category.

How the state is allowed to operate on this level is an embarrassment. Every single person in the Capitol who is responsible for the delay should be gone.

Remember what your damn job is and do it. Everyone else in the world is held to that standard, and you all need to be as well. We need adults in the legislature.

The taxpayers in California don’t care why it isn’t done. They (we) just want you to get it done.

Show some integrity and responsibility.

I am ashamed of my state.

James Spencer can be reached at jspencer.

Paraprosdokian A paraprosdokian (from Greek “παρα-”, meaning “beyond” and “προσδοκία”, meaning “expectation”) is a figure of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected in a way that causes the reader or listener to reframe the first part. It is frequently used for humorous or dramatic effect, sometimes producing an anticlimax.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4qMGEKFu6g

Here are some good ones:

• Do not argue with an idiot. He will drag you down to his level and beat you with experience.
• The last thing I want to do is hurt you, it is however still on the list.
• Light travels faster than sound. This is why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
• I’m not saying it is a stupid idea, what I am saying is that if I agreed with you we’d both be wrong.
• We never really grow up, we only learn how to act in public.
• War does not determine who is right – only who is left.
• Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit; Wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.
• The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.
• Evening news is where they begin with ‘Good evening’, and then proceed to tell you why it isn’t.
• To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.
• A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.
• How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
• I thought I wanted a career, turns out I just wanted pay checks.
• A bank is a place that will lend you money, if you can prove that you don’t need it.
• Whenever I fill out an application, in the part that says “If an emergency, notify:” I put “DOCTOR”.
• I didn’t say it was your fault, I said I was blaming you.

• Behind every successful man is his woman. Behind the fall of a successful man is usually another woman.
• A clear conscience is usually the sign of a bad memory.
• You do not need a parachute to skydive. You only need a parachute to skydive twice.
• The voices in my head may not be real, but they have some good ideas!
• Always borrow money from a pessimist. He won’t expect it back.
• Irish diplomacy is the ability to tell a person to go to hell in such a way that they will look forward to the trip.
• Hospitality: making your guests feel like they’re at home, even if you wish they were.
• Money can’t buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
• Some cause happiness wherever they go. Others whenever they go.
• There’s a fine line between cuddling, and holding someone down so they can’t get away.
• I used to be indecisive. Now I’m not sure.
• I always take life with a grain of salt, plus a slice of lemon, and a shot of tequila.
• When tempted to fight fire with fire, remember that the Fire Department usually uses water.
• You’re never too old to learn something stupid.
• To be sure of hitting the target, shoot first and call whatever you hit the target.
• Nostalgia isn’t what it used to be.
• Some people hear voices. Some see invisible people. Others have no imagination whatsoever.
• A bus is a vehicle that runs twice as fast when you are after it as when you are in it.
• Change is inevitable, except from a vending machine.

I don’t know about you, but I feel better now! Have a great weekend.

Where’s Gary?  He DID take this photo… Come on, Gary. Post some photos of yourself, will ya?!

Gary Sipperley is an action hero. He’s a Peace Corp volunteer, talented writer, friend, and uber citizen. What he accomplished last Tuesday from Ethiopia was a big win for him and Tuolumne County.

Gary was the editor of the Sierra Mountain Times (SMT) in Twain Harte when I ran for supervisor in 2005/06. When he asked questions, I saw wheels turning. Fast ones. He was not adversarial, but neither did he try to make friends or influence. He told the truth.

He’s become a favorite constituent.

He eventually left the SMT and awhile back joined the Peace Corp in Ethiopia, working to prevent HIV there. Like other Peace Corp volunteers, he exchanged a comfortable home here  for primitive housing and work of great significance. Although his work predominantly benefits the Ethiopian people now, last Tuesday he scored for us big-time.

About two years ago,  he contacted me to ask if there was a way to get his road plowed when it snows. His home is on a non-county-maintained, very steep road that is treacherous in winter. We tried the usual channels and discovered there is a way, but the cost and obstacles to achieving it were insurmountable.

Gary wouldn’t give up. He emailed, made personal visits, spoke before the Board, and emailed some more. He even emailed from Ethiopia. Tuesday, he prevailed.

Anyone who lives on a non-county maintained road in Tuolumne County knows how frustrating it is to drive unplowed roads in the winter. When our Board passed an ordinance allowing property owners to approve a parcel tax to bring their road up to county standards, maintain, and plow it in perpetuity, staff discovered that the advance work was prohibitively expensive. Since those costs can only be recouped when 2/3 of the impacted property owners vote to assess themselves and they might not choose to do so (the advance work alone including engineering is around $10,000)  , Gary couldn’t get past first base.

He politely and respectfully continued his campaign anyway.

The first time the Board considered his request, it didn’t look good. But we asked staff to make it work. And you know what? They did. Public Works Director Peter Rei, his staff, and Counsel Carlyn Drivdahl found a way. Here’s how it will work:

The county will establish a  trust fund to be used to cover the costs of determining parcel assessments to inform the property owners. Folks like Gary and his neighbors will deposit $1,500 in advance and gather signatures from 75% of the property owners on their road so the engineering can start and a measure to consider an assessment can be placed on a ballot. Based on the subsequent high likelihood of success, the county will go ahead. When it’s approved the advance will be added to and the trust fund repaid via their annual assessment.

Gary made it happen – he scored his goal.

Good job, Citizen Sipperley.  You’re a veritable action hero!

So now the question is, what will Gary take on next? He’s got another year or more in the Peace Corp, but before he left there were still improvements in Twain Harte he wanted to see happen. A bocce ball court, for one.

Gary may be in Ethiopia, but hey, it could happen.

If Citizen Sipperley can do what he did on Tuesday, a bocce ball court should be a cake-walk for him.

The Merced River below Snelling, photo by Andrew Shun, Dept. of Conservation, 2004.

Congratulations to the East San Joaquin Valley Water Quality Coalition (Coalition) on demonstrating water quality improvement in area waterways – including in two of its three targeted problem areas: the Dry Creek, Duck Slough/Mariposa Creek, and Prairie Flower Drain watersheds. Despite the initial frustration and the challenges of coordinating and funding a large regional coalition of landowners, industry, and watershed interests to insure compliance with strict regulatory guidelines, the Coalition’s hard work is paying off.

In 2003, the sunset of the Ag Waiver (a water quality-related exemption from the state requirement to obtain a water discharge permit for irrigated agriculture runoff) alarmed farmers and ranchers who would be tasked with funding and implementing the state’s water quality monitoring and management standards for agricultural lands. Fortunately, the state provided for conditional waivers of permitting requirements under conditions that irrigated Ag landowners could live with, though barely.

As the lower Merced River watershed coordinator for a Valley resource conservation district in 2003, I worked with others to form the Coalition and meet new requirements established in the Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board’s (Regional Board) new Irrigated Lands Regulatory Program (ILRP).

Under the ILRP, agricultural dischargers into waters of the state had to choose to Œ 1. file regular reports with the Regional Board to obtain a permit and insure all discharges meet water quality objectives,  2. join a coalition of Ag landowners and obtain a waiver, monitor, and manage water quality in area waterways, or Ž 3. obtain a waiver, monitor, and manage their own individual discharge – an expensive and highly technical undertaking.

The Coalition has grown to cover irrigated Ag lands east of the San Joaquin River in Madera, Merced, Stanislaus, Tuolumne, and Mariposa Counties and portions of Calaveras County. It contains 550,470 irrigated acres and has 2,378 members. Since 2003, the Coalition and other Central Valley agricultural efforts have collectively spent over $15 million to assess and address the impacts of farm runoff on regional waterways.

Over the last four plus years, the Coalition has conducted baseline monitoring in 40 different locations in the region. Beginning with baseline monitoring in 2004, it determined there were numerous locations in the region where Ag discharges were a problem and developed an overall management plan for 27 waterways and identification of the three problem watersheds above.

According to the Coalition’s recently released 2009 Annual Report, the initial management plan focuses on chlorpyrifos among several others, “an insecticide widely used in the region due to its cost effective control of invertebrate pests on many crops, particularly almonds, walnuts, and alfalfa”.

After aggressive outreach and education to members in targeted watersheds in 2008 and subsequent monitoring in 2009, water and sediment quality sample results showed no exeedance of water quality standards in two of the three watersheds. The third watershed continued to exceed standards for the pesticide chlorpyrifos, but further investigation identified the source as a farmer enrolled in a different program who was uninformed about the Coalition’s efforts. Coalition leaders note in the Report that additional years of monitoring will follow to scientifically validate the results, however 2009 outcomes are highly encouraging.

While it’s great news that water quality has demonstrably improved in the key Central Valley watersheds above, why am I blogging about it?

For starters, Tuolumne County has irrigated Ag land covered by the Coalition. Since water runs downhill, their success is ours too. Agriculture is not a villain or the source of widespread willful and egregious pollutant discharges into this region’s rivers and streams as some would have you believe. To be sure, there are still some who discharge polluted runoff, but the Coalition is catching up with them and helping them mend their ways.

Coalition farmers and ranchers have gotten on board with the conditional waiver. They’re educating each other, monitoring and planning to improve water quality, using best management practices and they’re policing themselves. They demonstrate the Coalition model works.

So once again, congratulations to the Coalition and its leaders Executive Director Parry Klassen and Wayne Zipser of the Stanislaus County Farm Bureau. They’re doing their part to insure the San Joaquin River and its tributaries have good water quality. Thanks, folks!

To learn more about the Coalition and its efforts, go to www.esjcoalition.org or contact them at 209-522-7278.