Bennett Valley Voice

Bennett Valley VOICE !

Volume 26, Number 6

Bennett Valley Homeowner's Association (BVHA)

November, 2003

Bennett Valley Firefighters Fight Southern California Fires On Saturday, October 25th, a Strike Team Northern California firefighter had been killed, Fire from Sonoma County which included a Bennett Chief Gary Duignan told the Sonoma firefighters Valley Fire District fire engine and four Bennett under his command to be sure to call home to let Valley firefighters, became part of the more than someone know they were okay. Steven Rucker, the 15,000 firefighters helping to fight the wildfires raging firefighter who died, was from Novato Fire District.

across Southern California. A Strike Team includes His captain, Doug McDonald, was critically injured five Type 1 Fire Engines from various Fire Districts trying to help rescue him, but McDonald is expected with one captain, one engineer and two firefighters to recover. Two other firefighters from Novato were for each engine. The other four fire engines on this slightly injured, including Barrett Smith, who is also a Strike Team with Bennett Valley were from Gold Gold Ridge volunteer. When Steven Rucker's body Ridge, Healdsburg, Santa Rosa and Sebastopol.

was flown home, a procession of 100 fire engines • Captain Jason Mallory was with Engineer (including one from Bennett Valley) followed the Bryon Reid and Firefighters Danny Connelly and ambulance from Sonoma County Airport in honor of Hau Pham on the Bennett Valley Fire Engine. The the fallen firefighter. As someone in Novato said Supervisor for the Strike Team was initially Sgt.

about the firefighters, "...they are so brave, so Dave Welch from Rohnert Park Public Safety, but on incredible...We just can't thank them enough for Tuesday morning, October 28th, Forestville Fire what they are doing in Southern California and Chief Gary Duignan, "after a long drive and a short what they are doing at home." night's sleep, took command" of this Sonoma County A day after these wildfires erupted (10/22/03) crew. The weather changed radically in the San the Fall 2003 edition of the official publication of the Bernadino Mountains, with fog moving in and even California Forestry Association was released. It some light snow falling, before they returned home a included the following statements: Douglas Leisz, week later, on Saturday, November 1st.

former U.S. Forest Service associate chief, "Today, In Southern California the firefighters stayed millions of dead trees cover 550,000 acres of at a "base camp", such as the fairgrounds or an Southern California forest, leaving an alarming airport, secured in advance for such emergencies. accumulation of fuel and an enormous fire Everyone treated the firefighters with great threat...the real problem is the lack of forest appreciation. One time they were able to get to a management." Patrick J. Shea, Ph.D., scientist with restaurant for a meal, rather than just eating the food the USDA Forest Service, "The first and foremost prepared at the base camp.

As they left the factor is tree density....(which created) intense restaurant, they received a standing ovation, which competition for limited resources, especially water, accurately reflected the treatment and respect they and weaker trees. In some areas, like Arrowhead, were receiving from the local residents. soil compaction and other human disturbances also A number of other firefighters from Sonoma play a significant role in reducing tree vigor and County were also fighting these fires, as part of one increasing the probability that a bark beetle epidemic of seven strike teams or in a state Office of will occur. Finally, droughts...serve as the trigger Emergency Services Task Force. Windsor Fire Chief mechanism for bark beetle outbreaks. All of these Ron Collier is quoted as saying the following in the conditions currently exist in most of our Southern Press Democrat on 10/30/03: "We went like 56 hours California forests." Only 10 to 20% of these dead trees were eliminated by these recent fires. As Fire got into some very intense firefighting...My crew wants to work." When the word first came out that a Chief Ron Collier says in the Press Democrat on 11/7/03, "You know it will happen again."

Sonoma County/Bennett Valley Ground-Water Concerns On Wednesday, January 21st, at 7:00 pm, H.R. Downs will be the speaker at the Bennett Valley Homeowners' Association meeting, presenting information on "Groundwater, Inherently Invisible, Is Disappearing". He is President of the O.W.L. Foundation, which stands for Open Space, Water Resource Protection and Land Use, or O.W.L. (Editor's insert: On the Web as <Penngrove.Info>).

The following are excerpts taken from H.R. Downs' article on ground-water, "A hundred years ago, or so, a well was a giant hole in the ground. People easily could look down their well and see the water level...Today a well is a high-tech piece of machinery that is completely enclosed. Nobody can look down a modern well and if the groundwater level drops, most people are completely ignorant of the fact. ".

...what you can't see can still hurt you. " That Sinking Feeling The entire Santa Rosa subbasin, one of the most "water rich" areas of Sonoma County, is in serious groundwater overdraft. "Overdraft" means the levels have dropped and the rain and underground intrusions can't bring the levels back up to normal...All over the county, people report dry wells and an increasing number are forced to truck water because they found no water at any depth. The O.W.L. Foundation has obtained written testimony from hundreds of people with groundwater problems. Both the PES Environmental Study and Kleinfelder (study) show widespread groundwater problems in Sonoma County... (Editor's Insert: This has includes some parcels in Bennett Valley where there have been reports of well failures, wells that seasonally go dry, and/or properties where sufficient water could not be found.)...

Sonoma County Needs A Plan Sonoma County has no groundwater management plan...The Department of Water Resources (DWR) stipulates that local agencies are responsible for formulating groundwater management plans. DWR has specifically, and repeatedly, warned of the dangers to groundwater overdraft in the Santa Rosa Plain ..We could be headed for big trouble if we don't quickly implement a groundwater management plan..." In the Press Democrat article dated 11/5/03, entitled "County Backs Water Rules", it states there are 40,000 wells in Sonoma County with an estimated 90,000 residents getting their water from these wells.

About 500 new well permits are approved by the county each year. Bennett Valley (study area had been identified in an earlier study as one of the water-scarce areas where there has been a concentration of building and new well permits approvea. Because of concerns such as those expressed by H.R. Downs and numbers of other residents, Sonoma County Board of Supervisors retained Kleinfelder, Inc., mentioned above, to do pilot studies of groundwater conditions in three special areas, including the Bennett Valley Study area. The Kleinfelder study analyzed existing data, such as 40 years of well-drilling logs, to identify pertinent questions for further study and ways to address them. For instance they found evidence that the new wells were having to go deeper to hit water now than previously, although this may possibly have other causes besides depletion of ground-water. The completed Kleinfelder pilot study was dated 9/17/03.

The 11/5/03 Press Democrat article states that Sonoma County Supervisors directed planning staff to draft several possible ordinances on "water-quality tests on all new wells and more rigorous test to prove adequate ground water is available to sustain new homes, businesses and farms." These will be considered for adoption in February.

ground-water regulation ideas, such as requiring well users to monitor their wells' water levels and the amount of ground water they use, will wait for now," this article says, because that will be part of an update of the Water Resources Element of the county's general plan.

Supervisor Mike Kerns said, "Tougher rules on growth in unincorporated areas dependent on ground water could be established by the end of winter... This is but a first step in trying to wrap our arms around this hugely complicated issue." Supervisors Mike Reilly and Valerie Brown are said to be the Board's leading advocates for increased ground-water management.

To quote another article in the Press Democrat by Ann DuBay on Sunday, 11/9/03, "Unfortunately, the board deferred on more stringent ground-water regulations, such as requiring well users to monitor water levels and usage. The supervisors said these ideas were part of an update to the County's general plan. Whether the regulations will be implemented is another story...If the county waits to act until they have perfect information, it may be too late for many rural property owners. And what are they gonna do when the well runs dry?"

Jacobs Ranch Open House

An open house is scheduled at the Jacobs Ranch, 5297 Sonoma Mountain Road on Saturday, December 6th, from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm. At 10 am, Supervisor Valerie Brown will make an acknowledgement to Kip and Marilyn Herzog, Bill and Ruth Jacob's daughter and son-inlaw, for their willingness to sell the ranch to the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District. The purpose of the open house is to welcome neighbors and community members to this recent Open Space acquisition in the Bennett Valley area. If you have any questions, please call Kathleen BrennanHunter with the Open Space District at 565-7360.

To reiterate from the July, 2003 VOICE, the County Supervisors voted to purchase this 168-acre ranch on 7/1/03, using the funds generated from the 1¼ cent sales tax, approved by the voters in 1990 for agricultural preservation and open space in Sonoma County. Located on the northern face of Sonoma Mountain, this property has much of value to preserve including a mix of oak-forested slopes, open meadows, a sheltered redwood forest grove, and the South fork of Matanzas Creek. The land might ultimately become a county or state park, but that could take years because of dwindling public revenues. There has been concern expressed by some Bennett Valley residents about public access from the very narrow Sonoma Mountain Road.

Thank you to the Community Day Auction Helpers The following people gave their time and effort to help with the set up and the smooth running of the live and silent auctions during Community Day in September. We were unable to thank them, publicly, in a timely manner in the last VOICE. Both auctions could not have happened without Suzanne Dougherty, Bobbie Blair, Eve Boling, Sandra Carr, Michael Cronin, Cindy Cunningham, Nancy Dell' Ergo, Gordon Endow, Debbie Engel, Al Fecarotta, Larissa Goliti, Patty Gundry, Mike & Patty Hickey, Ann Hodder, Tom Knox, Heather La Riviere, Terri Lockwood, Deborah Myers, Dave & Sandy Sandine, Claudine Simpson, Bud Souza, and Patti White.

Thanks also to Bryon Reid for being a very energetic auctioneer. This year's auctions brought in just over $10,000 for the Bennett Valley Volunteer Firefighters' Association. Also a big THANK YOU to the community for supporting this annual event for the firefighters!

Bennett Valley Calendars

Now Available At: B.V. Long'S,

B.V. Ace Hardware, Paterson's Nursery and B.V. Fire Station. For further information call Judy, 544-0234 or Suzanne, 542-1608. Bennett Valley Clean-Up Day At the Bennett Valley Roads Clean-Up Day on Saturday, October 25th, 24 people helped to clean up four sections of Bennett Valley Road, and two sections of each of the following; Sonoma Mountain Road, Grange Road, and Crane Canyon Road. If you want your road included next time, be sure to join us and let us know which road(s) you want cleaned.

We want to give special THANKS to the following people who helped in this great semi-annual effort: Bill Allen, Bobbie Blair, Eve & Norm Boling, Suzanne Dougherty, Rick Girvin, Mike & Patty Hickey, Dagmar Hoheneck, Rusty, Vicki & Genny Jump, Tim Murphy, Mike, Debbie & Jennie Pavone, Darryl Roberts, Dave & Sandy Sandine, Lu Schultz, Ron Simpson, Mike Treinan, Pat Werth, and Chris Wills.

Notice Of December Meeting Of The

General Plan Citizens' Advisory

Committee (Cac)

The Citizens' Advisory Committee (CAC) For ; The Sonoma County General Plan Update will meet on Thursday, December 4th, 2003, 5:00 - 9:00 ipm, PRMD Hearing Room, 2550 Ventura Avenue, ! Santa Rosa. Policy issues for consideration at this i meeting include, as time allows, continued CAC : consideration of Urban Service Boundaries and Local : Coastal Plan interface with the General Plan. There i may also be time for some consideration of the ¡ policy language for Indicators, to review the system i in place and develop an environmental report card ; on an ongoing time-line.

It is also expected that the CAC Circulation ¡ Subcommittee will be meeting sometime in the first ; couple of weeks in December. That announcement i can be expected shortly. You are encouraged to attend and participate ! in these upcoming meetings where there will ¡ opportunities to participate in and learn more about ! the update. If you have questions, please contact i Scott Briggs at 565-1936.

Bennett Valley Fire District Information

• Bennett Valley Firefighting Staff

Firefighting Engineers, 24-hour shifts: Brian Campbell, Mike Musgrove and Bryon Reid Part-time Firefighters, 8am to 5 pm: Kevin Burris, Matt Tognozzi, Danny Connelly • SHIFT ASSIGNMENTS — There is a highly structured schedule for the firefighters at the Bennett Valley Fire Station, which includes paid staff, volunteers and administrative staff. One of the firefighting engineers is always on duty, 7 days a week, 24-hours a day. The firefighting engineers average 56 hours per week throughout the year. One of the part-time firefighters works each day from 8 am to 5 pm.

Then there are two night-time firefighters who stay at the fire station generally from 5 pm until 8 am and qualify for a stipend of $25 a night. They are usually volunteers, but they may also be part-time firefighters, after their daytime shift is over. Each shift also includes an Explorer, one of the high school volunteers who is actively participating in firefighter training.

For administrative supervision of the firefighters, there is a Battalion Chief assigned to each shift, as well as a volunteer Firefighter Captain. With each of these different levels, there is a total of 7 firefighters for each day, 3 paid and 4 volunteers, under the overall direction of the Fire Chief. Each day throughout the year is designated as either A, B or C shift. The firefighters assigned to a particular shift, such as the A shift, work every other day for six days and then have four days off-duty. The same firefighters at the different levels usually stay assigned to the same shift.

When you add to this schedule vacations, sick leave and participation in mutual aid as part of a Strike Team, then it becomes essential to have a pool of qualified substitute firefighters to draw on. When the Strike Team which included Bennett Valley Fire District was away in Southern California, the blackboard at the fire station had the names of the different substitutes filling in for the absent firefighters for each shift.

• Some Bennett Valley Firefighter

EMERGENCY CALLS during the last two months, not including Strike Team activities: • In September there was a fire in an almost completed boat house on Pressley Road. It was located 15 feet offshore in a lake, so there was less fire danger to the surrounding areas than usual. Apparently someone had left some oily rags on the deck and they erupted into a fire. Engineer Brian Campbell explained that this is a frequent occurrence when oily rags are left out.

• As usual, there was a number of mutual aid calls with other fire districts, including one fire on September 10th, at Cream's Dismantling Wrecking Yard in Rincon Valley and a big fire in a cleaners on West College, close to G & G Supermarket. On October 1st, they also helped with an automobile accident on Yulupa Ave., when a single car had gone off the road into a tree, with five passengers in the car. It took 40 minutes to extricate the driver from the car.

• On October 16th, near the intersection of Sonoma Mountain Road and Bennett Valley Road, not too far from the fire station, two cars had a collision and went off the road into the ditch on the north side of the road. A female CHP officer was directing traffic around the accident, when apparently another driver who was looking at the accident didn't see her.

His vehicle hit her and threw her about 8 feet through the air to the center of the road. While she was released from the hospital the same day, CHP reports that she will not be able to return to work for a couple of months. After she had been hit, she asked a tow truck driver to have the firefighters return to the accident scene, from the fire station, to provide her with assistance until the ambulance arrived.

• Sonoma Co. Fire Districts' Association This organization, made up of the 19 Fire Districts in Sonoma County, was originally formed by Fire Chiefs and the Board of Directors of the different Fire Districts, to help each other identify and solve similar problems and to lobby in Sacramento to protect fire districts.

What is a fire district? A Fire District has an elected Board of Directors and receives some tax money to provide fire protection for specific areas. While most cities have their own fire departments supported by city taxes, Cloverdale, Cotati and Windsor do not. Instead these communities are served by independent fire districts. The Association meets every other month at a dinner sponsored by one of the Fire Districts. On November 20th, it is being sponsored by Bennett Valley Fire District. Money is raised for the Association through raffle prizes.

Bennett Valley Fire Protection District Board of Directors 6161 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa (707) 578-7761 or 578-8471 Matt Phillips, Chairman Dan Felciano, Deborah Haarstad, Marilee Jensen, Mark Richardson The Board meetings are on the 2nd Tuesday of each month, at 7:00 pm. at the Bennett Valley Fire Station.

Everyone is welcome to attend, but it is always a good idea to confirm the meeting date in advance. You can call a Bennett Valley firefighter at 578-8471 if you have any questions or concerns. In addition, you may call one of the firefighters if you want to request a fire safety check for your home and surrounding property. Also please feel free to call the Bennett Valley Fire Chief, Andy Pforsich, at 823-1084.

Nature Condos For Barn Owls 3055 Fairmont Court, Madera, CA 93637 (559) 675-0923 Get Your Order Form at www.naturescondos.com "If gophers, mice or rats are creating a problem, Nature Condos can help. They manufacture a full line of raptor nest boxes that can be easily installed at your business, residence or farming operation.

Once established, the birds will go to work to help eliminate your rodent overpopulation problem... 7 days a week, 24 hours a day. Nature Condos builds the nest boxes from completely recycled agricultural wood products originally destined for landfills. The top quality, heavy-duty construction of the boxes creates an environmentally friendly, chemical-free solution to rodent control that will last for years.

Nest boxes are shipped fully assembled and ready to mount. They are pre-drilled for easy hanging and contain trap doors to make cleaning trouble free. A key feature to all Nature Condos nest boxes are the routed climbing ladders both inside and out. These ladders assist the birds as they enter and exit their nest.

Barn Owls are one of the most skillful hunters of all raptors and have proven effective in helping to eliminate rodents in farming operations, gardens pastures, lawns and on open ground. Their long wings and unique feathers allow them to glide silently, covering up to 100 acres each night in search of gophers, rats and field mice. Their highly developed hearing and keen sense of night vision enables them to locate and seize the smallest prey in almost total darkness. It has been determined that one pair of Barn owls and their young can consume 25,000 mice a year...

Nature Condos builds Owl boxes in two styles. The horizontal or "barn box" design and the vertical box which represents a natural tree cavity. Both contain a unique entrance that is designed to admit the owls but exclude large predators that may pose a threat to owls and their young.

Nature Condos is a small part-time family run business that was established in 1996 by Bruce Norton and is now run by his wife Tere and their two elementary-aged daughters, Courtney and Samantha. Norton, Plant Manager for Sunsweet Dryers in Madera, California at the time was looking for a use for the scrap plywood generated from the facilities annual field bin repair. He was frustrated with having to haul useable by-product to the landfill, so he contacted a local high school wood shop teacher about making owl boxes and....Nature Condos was formed.

Nature Condos provides the high school with the salvage plywood. The enterprising students manufacture them into a line of owl, kestrel and wood duck boxes. Sixty-six percent of the sale of each nest box goes into a vocational scholarship fund that is divided amongst the participating students at the end of each school year. To date this unique program has generated in excess of $43,000 in scholarship and research money...

All in all, Nature Condos is a win-win situation that benefits all those involved... Whoo-Whoo, Who needs an owl box... You do! • Control gopher and mice populations. • Built by high school students. • Proceeds from sales go to student vocational scholarships."

Growing Native Flowers

By Eve Boling (Some excerpts) As one crosses over the city limits from Santa Rosa into Bennett Valley, there is a change from an urbanized landscape to open vistas where one can see vineyards and Oak savannahs. In addition, the valley has large areas of denser chaparral, and stands of Douglas fir, California Bays and Redwoods.

Today, many gardeners are interested in landscaping in which environment, climate, and restricted water supplies are taken into account. This makes Bennett Valley an ideal location for natural or semi-wild gardens which blend in with the surrounding plant communities. The mini-climates in Northern California support a great variety of native plants, and these grow easily where they have already acclimated. During a drought, these native plants tend to survive better than exotics. In an area with many Oaks, one must keep in mind that too much water harms these trees, and therefore, droughtresistant natives make good companion plants.

Bennett Valley has a Mediterranean climate with dry summers and wet winters. The area has some ocean influence. There are many adaptable plants from California's foothills, coastal regions, meadows, and streamsides that would be easy to grow in most gardens here. To get started on such a garden, one must keep in mind slope of the land, rockiness of the location, type, number, and location of trees, amounts of light and shade, and availability of water. To decide what plants are appropriate, observe what plants grow in your yard or in this area. In addition, many excellent publications are available with information on garden designs, different plants groupings, and plant lists and their requirements. Finding a source of seed and plants is also not difficult since Sonoma County is very fortunate to have nurseries that specialize and carry native plants and seeds. Contacting the Native Plant Society or attending their meetings or visiting wildflower shows held throughout the area is another way to research what to grow and how to go about it...

Grange Road Bridge

Levi Gurule from Sonoma County Public Works reports that the county is now in the process of acquiring all the necessary property rights, most of it for an easement to build the temporary bridge. The temporary bridge will be built before the old bridge is torn down and will be a significant improvement over the old bridge in terms of being a little wider with a better grade. It will be located on the upstream side of the old bridge. The county is hoping that everything will be in place so they can start construction in the spring.

Excerpts from "Living with Fire in Sonoma County, A Guide for the Homeowner", 2002 For copies of this publication, call 565-1152.

How Do I Change The Vegetation On

My Property To Reduce The Wildfire

THREAT? The objective of defensible space is to reduce the wildfire threat to a home by changing the characteristics of the adjacent vegetation. Defensible space practices include: • Increasing the moisture content of vegetation. • Decreasing the amount of flammable vegetation. • Shortening plant height.

• Altering the arrangement of plants. This is accomplished through the "Three R's of Defensible Space."

The Three R'S Of Defensible Space

Removal - This technique involves the elimination of entire plants, particularly trees and shrubs, from the site. Examples of removal are cutting down a dead tree or cutting out a flammable shrub. Reduction - The removal of plant parts, such as branches or leaves, constitute reduction. Examples of reduction are pruning dead wood from a shrub, removing low tree branches, and mowing dried grass.

Replacement - Replacement is substituting less SOURCES flammable plants for more hazardous vegetation. Keator, Glenn. Complete Guide to the Native Perennials of California. 1990. Chronicle Books, San Francisco Removal of a dense stand of flammable shrubs and. planting an irrigated, well maintained flower bed is Schmidt, Marjorie G. Growing Calif. Native Plants. 1980. Univ. of an example of replacement.

Calif. Press, Berkeley

Bennett Valley

Homeowners' Association (Bvha)

Board Of Directors

P.O. Box 2666, Santa Rosa, CA 95405 BVHA Web-Page <bennettvalleyhomeowners.org> Marilee Jensen, President & VOICE Editor (576-0405; phone # and FAX #) Michael Friedenberg, Vice-President (579-5310) Helen Bates, Treasurer (695-8760) Bobbie Blair, Recording Secretary & Mailing List/Membership Coordinator (542-1608) Leanore (Lolly) Mesches, Corresponding Secretary (545-8684) Eric Burns, Web-Page Coordinator (584-7531) Jennifer Combs, Director (546-1190) Tim Murphy, Director (542-7114) Marilyn Stocks, Director (528-2458) (For 2003 or 2004 BVHA Membership, send $15 to Blair/Dougherty, 7373 Bennett Valley Road, Santa Rosa, CA 95404.)

Bvha Board Of Directors

Tentative Agenda For Meeting

Wednesday, November 19Th, 2003, 7:30 Pm

Bennett Valley Fire Station

• Call to order, 7:30 pm. • Public Input, Approval of Treasurer's Report and Minutes of Last Meeting • Monthly Reports: Board of Supervisors, Open Space District, Sonoma Co. Public Works & Permit Resource & Management Dept. (Stacia Derickson and Daniel & Martha Skiles) • Updates; BVHA Web-page, Morley Winery public hearing (12/11/03, 1:05 pm), BV Calendars for 2004 • The process of filing amendment to the BVHA Articles of Incorporation.

• Proposed meeting schedule for 2004. • Distribution of Bennett Valley brochures. • Speakers for BVHA meetings in 2004. Brief Summary of BVHA Board Meetings (For a copy of the minutes, please call Bobbie Blair, 542-1608.) September 17th, 2003 • Laura Barnthouse was the speaker from The Environmental Health Division of Health Services.

She provided a very rapid presentation on water quality; what that means, where to go to ask questions, what to look for, and what you can do. There were a number of handouts. She welcomes phone calls with questions or concerns, at 565-6511. • The BVHA web-page will now be costing us about $25 per month, but that is what we had anticipated initially. It seems well worth the cost.

• The President of the O.W.L. Foundation (see Page Two) will be our speaker at the BVHA January meeting, discussing ground-water concerns. Michael Cronin is arranging to have a speaker on planting native plants, perhaps in March. We're interested in hearing any other ideas for speakers from BV residents.

• A BVHA community meeting is being planned, probably on a Saturday in April, to discuss ways to reduce the possibility of hillside fires in Bennett Valley, with presentations being made by both BV Fire District and CDF staff. October 22nd, 2003 • Copies were handed out of the original Bennett Valley Study to all the Board members to better understand a request to increase density through the 20-40 PA table, which is a part of this original plan.

• The County Dept. of Pesticide Regulation has paid almost $14,000 for pesticide use information that will be available electronically to the public. • Eve Boling, nominating committee member, presented the BVHA election results. The restated Articles of Incorporation were approved by 96% of the voters. Also Marilee Jensen, Lolly Mesches and Marilyn Stocks were re-elected to the BVHA Board.

• After the Board meeting was adjourned, the Board held a closed session to elect officers for the next year. By consensus, the officers of the Board remained the same.

Bennett Valley Community Calendar Be sure to get these dates on your calendar! 1.) Bennett Valley Homeowner's Association -The BVHA Board meets on the third Wednesday of every other month. The next meetings are on November 19th, at 7:30 pm and January 21st, at 7 pm, at the BV Fire Station. Be sure to come to hear H.B. Downs talk about our invisible but disappearing ground-water at the January meeting at 7pm. You can check our web-page at <bennettvalleyhomeowners.org> for more information about BVHA meetings. Everyone is invited to attend these Board meetings.

2) Bennett Valley Fire Protection District -The Board of Directors meets the second Tuesday of each month, 7:00 pm, at the Bennett Valley Fire Station. Everyone is invited to attend these Board meetings. 3.) Bennett Valley Grange # 16 - On Friday, November 21st, the Grange is having a Harvest Feast.

They will be providing turkeys for this potluck Feast. Those attending would be asked to bring salads, vegetables or desserts. If you're interested in attending, be sure to call Patty Allen, at 5443721, so she'll know how many to expect. There is also a Christmas potluck on Friday, December 19th. Again, if you're interested in attending, be sure to call Patty Allen, at 544-3721 in advance.

4.) Sonoma County Board Of Supervisors meets every Tuesday (except on weeks when there is a holiday) at 575 Administration Drive, Santa Rosa. Valerie Brown is the Supervisor for our First District. You may call her or Lynn Morton-Weil, her Aide, at 565-2241, if you have any questions or concerns.

Page Two Page Three Page Four Page Five Page Six Page Seven Inside This Issue Ground-water concerns; speaker, 1/21/04 Jacobs Ranch Open House, 12/6/03 THANKS! Auction Helpers & Clean-up Day BV Fire District Information Nature Condos for Barn Owls Growing Native Flowers Grange Road Bridge Reducing Wildfire Threat BV Board, Meetings, Agenda Bennett Valley Homeowner's Association P.O. Box 2666 Santa Rosa, CA 95405 BVHA web-page <bennettvalleyhomeowners.org> BVHA Mission Statement: "Committed to promoting & preserving the rural character and natural environment of Bennett Valley." Return Service Requested

By 2004 Calendars

ALBY Long's Ace Hardware, paterson's, By Fire Station Groundwater Disappearing? Come hear sneaker 1/21/94