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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
“Rural landowners play a huge role in conservation and are critical to the economic vitality of our state,” Sen. Dodd said. “This bill would encourage farmers and ranchers to continue their stewardship, boosting the land’s resiliency and production. It’s an important step that will allow people and the environment to reap the benefits.”
California agriculture is a $54 billion industry with 76,000 farms and ranches statewide. It generates at least $100 billion in related economic activity. Benefits include preservation of open space and wildlife habitat and recreational opportunities.
In recent years, especially around droughts, conservation practices have declined, in part because of rising agricultural production costs, including water and energy costs.
Senate Bill 1028 would revitalize conservation, providing assistance to agricultural producers who want to voluntarily make wildlife-friendly improvements on their land.
The program would provide financial and technical assistance to create fish and wildlife habitat. It would provide added environmental benefits such as improved water quality, erosion control and conserved groundwater. Eligible land would include cropland, rangeland, pastureland and other farm or ranch lands.
SB 1028, which is similar to a measure introduced last year by Sen. Dodd (SB 253), is supported by The Nature Conservancy and the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts.
“Working landscapes provided by California’s farmers and ranchers provide an essential element of the habitat conditions that migratory birds, fish and wildlife rely on,” said Jay Ziegler of The Nature Conservancy. “Scientific analysis shows that the on-farm practices necessary to meet wildlife needs have declined substantially both during and after our recent drought. The legislation Sen. Dodd has introduced is designed to provide incentives for farmers to provide wildlife habitat consistent with their farming and ranching operations. This is a critical step forward in helping to protect wildlife habitat across California.”
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
“The revised tariffs are a huge win for our American wine community. While I disagree with the current 25 percent rate, I applaud the ambassador for not instituting additional levels,” Thompson said Friday.
“Ensuring that wine tariffs do not increase from the current status is something I have been fighting for since December as such an increase would harm our American wine community, putting jobs and local economies at risk. I wrote to the ambassador asking him to take this important step and I am glad to see it put into place today. This is a win for our wine community. It will benefit everyone from consumers to vineyard workers. I will continue to fight to keep wine off the next list of potential tariff increases,” Thompson said.
In January, Thompson and 107 other members of the Congressional Wine Caucus wrote to United States Trade Representative Robert E. Lighthizer, asking him to refrain from including wine in potential retaliatory tariffs in response to the European Union’s illegal Airbus subsidies.
The letter’s signers highlighted the potential harmful effects on the American wine community, which has a year impact of $220 billion on our economy.
Thompson is proud to represent California’s Fifth Congressional District, which includes all or part of Contra Costa, Lake, Napa, Solano and Sonoma counties.
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- Written by: Lake County News Reports
Last year, as the Kincade fire burned in Sonoma County forcing the largest evacuation in the county’s history during one of the biggest public safety power shutoffs in California history, hundreds of cell towers residents have come to rely on went dark.
This left hundreds of thousands of Californians in harm’s way without their cell phone during a disaster.
Sen. Mike McGuire introduced SB 431 last year, which would mandate telecommunication providers have backup power systems for their cell towers.
This week, that bill was strengthened even further when Senator McGuire and Senator Glazer joined forces and introduced amendments that will add cable service providers to the power backup mandate, and lengthen the amount of time the backup power system operates to no less than 72 hours.
“During last year’s power outage debacle, nearly 2 million Northern California residents had their landline, cell phone and cable service interrupted. Our phones are our lifelines. It’s how we keep in touch with the rest of the world and how we receive emergency alerts. Telecom representatives assured us this worst-case scenario, hundreds of cell towers going down due to the lack of power, wouldn’t happen. It’s simply not true. It’s time California steps up and mandates cell towers have backup power. This bill isn’t about checking your Facebook status. It’s about life and death,” Sen. McGuire said.
SB 431 requires that cell towers located in high fire-threat zones (these high-risk areas are where the majority of power shutoffs have been happening) have backup power for no less than 72 hours by July 1, 2021.
It empowers the California Public Utilities Commission to develop desperately needed regulations to keep cell towers energized during extended power shutoffs.
Bay Area Sen. Steve Glazer is a joint author of SB 431.
“It is critical that Californians be able to communicate during power outages, whether planned or caused by an emergency. During last fall’s outages, thousands of residents in my district were left without the ability to receive alerts from public agencies or seek help, even as fires raged nearby. This is unacceptable. SB 431 is the first step toward ensuring that this won’t happen again,” Sen. Glazer said.
In Sonoma County, during last year’s Kincade Fire and Public Safety Power Shutoff, 118 cell towers were down.
Many evacuated residents from Sonoma County found themselves in Marin County for shelter where another 160 cell sites were down. Hundreds of more sites were down across California, which puts lives at risk.
SB 431 is co-authored by a bipartisan group of legislators including Senators Stern, Gonzalez, Wilk, Nielsen, Beall, Caballero, Hill, Dodd, Monning, Wieckowski and Dahle, and Assemblymembers Bauer-Kahan, Rubio, Wood and Levine.
The bill is currently in the Assembly Committee on Communications and Conveyance and will be heard in the coming months.
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- Written by: California Department of Food and Agriculture
There are currently 11 board members with terms of office expiring on May 31, 2020, and Senate Bill 153 added two additional board members, effective Jan. 1, 2020.
The board advises CDFA and makes recommendations on matters including, but not limited to, industrial hemp seed law and regulations, enforcement, annual budgets, and the setting of an assessment rate.
The term of office for board members is three years.
Members meet at least once per year but may meet more frequently if needed.
The members receive no compensation but are entitled to payment of necessary traveling expenses in accordance with the rules of the California Department of Human Resources.
Funded by the industrial hemp industry and implemented by the Industrial Hemp Program at CDFA, enforcement of California Industrial Hemp Law ensures an orderly market of industrial hemp registration and compliance.
The Industrial Hemp Advisory Board makes recommendations to the CDFA Secretary on all matters pertaining to industrial hemp seed law and regulations, enforcement, annual budgets, and the setting of an assessment rate required to accomplish the purposes of the California Industrial Hemp Law.
The board has the following vacancies:
• Five of the board members shall be registered cultivators of industrial hemp.
• Two board members shall be members of an established agricultural research institution (as defined in FAC § 81000).
• One board member shall be a representative as provided by the California State Sheriffs’ Association and approved by the secretary.
• One board member shall be a county agricultural commissioner.
• One board member shall be a representative of the Hemp Industries Association or its successor industry association.
• Two members shall be representatives of businesses that sell industrial hemp products.
• One board member shall be a member of the public.
The successful candidates will be appointed to serve a three-year term that expires May 31, 2023.
Individuals interested in being considered for these Board appointments should send a letter of interest, indicating which position(s) they are eligible to fill, and a brief resumé to Michelle Phillips by March 15, 2020, at California Department of Food and Agriculture, Pest Exclusion Branch, 1220 N St., Sacramento, CA 95814, Attention: Michelle Phillips.
For additional information, visit the Industrial Hemp Program webpage at https://www.cdfa.ca.gov/plant/industrialhemp/, contact the Nursery, Seed, and Cotton Program at 916-654-0435, or send an email to