Wife and I just did a Napa and Sonoma wine tour in April. Its sad the destruction.

Im curious how this will hurt the wine business. We learned many of the grape vines are well over 50+ years old and are basically irreplaceable. If you planted a new vine today it would take about 5 years to produce fruit.

Maybe France will give us some vines. You know, since we gave them ours to help their wine industry get back on its feet after World War 2...

Yesterday and today, here in Napa we had blue-bird days, clear skies, very little smoke. Fires are all but nonexistent from various vantage points. Two fires burn north, one behind Mondavi winery in Oakville (in-between Yountville and Rutherford) and the other north of Calistoga, where that town has been evacuated but, the fire is progressing northward away from town.

The next valley to the West in Sonoma, a different story. They're dealing with a fire-line that's less than a mile from the town square where the historical buildings are located. Smoke is heavy, as it stretched from the Sonoma Valley all the way into SF Bay.

There's a lot of assets from all over, chinook and blackhawk helos from the CA Nat'l Guard along with fire crews from all across the west have converged on the area. Fortunately, the high-winds that were predicted earlier never came, if anything a mild breeze was able to blow the smoke out of Napa Valley while giving fire teams a chance to reinforce their lines and start guiding the fires.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:
Maybe France will give us some vines. You know, since we gave them ours to help their wine industry get back on its feet after World War 2...

It was Robert Dunstan that saved the French vineyards from aphid-like insect that was decimating the vineyards of France. He was also responsible for developing a blight resistant Chestnut tree. He was just a backyard hobbyist.

...........................
Bob Dunstan went to college at Trinity College (now Duke University), paid for with skins he hunted and trapped in the Albemarle swamps near Windsor. He majored in languages, receive his PhD, and became a professor of Romance Languages at the Women's College in Greensboro, NC. While he was in college, he was house-sitting for a professor who was away on sabbatical in France. The professor collected roses and sent home some grape vines along with rose plants. This was how Bob Dunstan became interested in the plants and soon began experimenting with growing grapes. He said that on the weekends he would play grapes instead of golf.

The French wine grapes sent by his professor died, killed by a virus called Pierce's disease, while the native American muscadines and scuppernongs thrived. Bob Dunstan set about trying to cross the two species to see if he could create a hybrid that would bear the beautiful bunch grape fruit that made the wonderful wines of France and California. Because the two species have different numbers of chromosomes, all of his efforts in breeding failed; the hybrids were sterile. However, by chance, Dunstan tried doubling the number of chromosomes using the mutagenic chemical Colchicine. The use of the tetraploid vines enabled the hybrids to become fertile and produce seed! He sent plants to geneticist, Dr. Haig Dermen, at the USDA Station at Beltsville. Dermen confirmed the hybridity and Dunstan published a ground-breaking article in the Journal of Heredity describing his work.


The hybrid grapes produced by Dunstan's crosses proved to have excellent resistance to Phylloxera, an aphid-like insect that was decimating the vineyards of France. By grafting the French wine grapes onto the hybrid rootstock, the vines became resistant to the infestation. This discovery saved so many vineyards in France that the Societe du Vin gave Dunstan a national award of honor, and he traveled to Paris and gave his acceptance speech in French.



http://mrec.ifas.ufl.edu/grape...story-peopleline.pdf

This technique became very important in the effort to establish a wine grape industry in the eastern United States. Dunstan became widely known in plant circles for his work and retired to Alachua, FL in 1962 to continue his breeding efforts full time. He became known as one of the "3 Bobs", a trio of amateur ("those who do it for love") grape breeders along with his close friend Bob Zehnder of Summerville, SC and Bob Farrer. He produced a number of new varieties and his genetic material was used in further crosses by many other breeders. Grandpa jokingly referred to himself as "a pimp to pollen"!
http://www.chestnuthilltreefar...obert-T-Dunstan.aspx

This should be interesting, particularly if any evidence can support it - will the legal pot growers / CA citizens become anti- sanctuary / anti-cartel?


Law enforcement officials and legal marijuana industry leaders alike are beginning to suspect the Mexican drug cartels played a role in starting deadly the fires.

While massive wildfires are far from uncommon in California’s forests, they usually occur in December and January, not October. Moreover, this year’s have widely been described as unprecedented in size and destruction. Some 16 fires have burned over 200,000 acres of land in Northern California so far:

You won’t hear this stuff from the lying mainstream media. Keep the GotNews mission alive: send tips to editor@gotnews.com or donate at FreeStartr.com/GotNews.

Law enforcement authorities – including senior Department of Homeland Security officials – and key people within the legal marijuana business quickly noticed that the areas hit hardest by the fires are the same places that California’s marijuana industry legally grows cannabis, and are now starting to suspect foul play.

The suspicious timing and sheer destruction of the fires has led them to believe the Mexican drug cartels – infamous for their ruthless tactics – had a hand in starting them. These cartels, which run a large share of the world’s multi-billion dollar illegal drug trade, certainly have the means to pull of an attack like this.

They also have an enormous incentive to drive up prices and hurt their competitors, and these fires are already accomplishing that. If Mexican drug lord involvement is confirmed, it will likely spark an international crisis between the United States and Mexico over the latter’s failure to rein in its criminal cartels.

Facebook photos provided to GotNews show the wildfires have caused staggering damage, with several before-and-after pictures revealing the extent of the devastation:

The New York Times reported yesterday that tens of thousands of marijuana growers live in this area, the vast majority of whom have no insurance. Furthermore, since marijuana remains an illegal drug under the Controlled Substances Act, the industry still uses cash.

GotNews can confirm that millions of dollars in cash has already been lost to the fires, in addition to tens of millions more in property damage.

According to NBC News, thousands of acres of marijuana have already been burned, and the fires have also wiped out “recent investments in infrastructure to comply with licensing regulations in preparation for recreational marijuana legalization next year.”

The total damage caused by these fires will be unclear for a while, as many of them are still burning:

Stay tuned for more.


http://gotnews.com/exclusive-l...alifornia-wildfires/

https://api.mapbox.com/styles/...47058/-122.75273/6.2

This is an infrared map of the area. The white spots are what used to be structures. I drove through a lot of it the past few nights. It looks like a bomb went off. Coffey Park was literally disintegrated.

quote:

This should be interesting, particularly if any evidence can support it - will the legal pot growers / CA citizens become anti- sanctuary / anti-cartel?

Only the sensible ones, which seem to be a small minority in that state.

Illegals (in some form) were my first go-to suspicion when I heard about the fires. Just couldn't place a motive. Terrorism crossed my mind too.

Welcome to sanctuary state status California - and don't let Trump build his wall! Brilliant.

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
I’m curious how this will hurt the wine business. We learned many of the grape vines are well over 50+ years old and are basically irreplaceable. If you planted a new vine today it would take about 5 years to produce fruit.

FWIW, I had a conversation with someone whose family lives and works in Napa (and had to evacuate) and they stated that “probably 90%” of the grapes for the season had already been harvested. Interestingly, they expressed concern about how the fire detritus would affect future crops. From what they could ascertain, most of the actual vines seemed to have not been burned up.

I read yesterday that the vines actually act as a natural fire line and stop the fire's progress without sustaining much damage, typically. It sounds like the vineyards might receive significant damage to structures, etc, but the vines tend to come through it fairly well. Hopefully this is the case.

Not that it would be conclusive but is there an overlay of where the fires started, where they burnt over time and the MF farms?

Why fire? Why not salt the earth (do something that kills the current crop as well as prevent future crops from growing)? Otherwise, this seems like it would be a 1 harvest deal -- what, are the cartels planning to have fires every year?

A little dubious....

It isn't just about the crops. All the assets of these businesses that burned, equipment, supplies, cash, everything. All with no insurance...the insurance industry is still trying to figure out the whole "legal" marijuanna issue in terms of new policies to cover it. To my knowledge theses business don't have insurance now do to exclusions for illegal activity and insurance policies define that as something illegal under state or federal law.

Came across this pertinent feel-good story today: LINK

quote:

Goat-Herding Dog Refused To Abandon Flock Amid Firestorm, Miraculously Survived
October 16, 2017 2:17 PM

SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) — With the deadly flames of the Tubbs Fire bearing down on his property, Roland Tembo Hendel knew it was time to round up his family, dogs and cats flee.

But there simply was no room for the family’s flock of goats.

“By 11:10 we could see the first of the flames across the valley,” he wrote on his Facebook page. “By 11:15 they were growing larger and the winds went mad. We had loaded up the dogs and cats, but Odin, our stubborn and fearless Great Pyrenees would not leave the goats.”

Odin — living up to the Norse god he is named after — would not abandon the flock.

So the family reluctantly and with heavy hearts, watched Odin was they were departing, hoping they would see him again but knowing it was likely he would not survive.

“Even under the best of circumstances it is nearly impossible to separate Odin from the goats after nightfall when he takes over the close watch from his sister Tessa,” Hendel wrote. “I made a decision to leave him, and I doubt I could have made him come with us if I tried.”

The escape proved harrowing as the fire erupted along Mark West Springs Road. The journey through the flames would prove deadly for one of Hendel’s neighbors — Lynne Powell — but his family finally reached safety.

“Cars behind us on Mark West Springs Road were pouring flames out of the windows as they roared down the road,” he wrote on Facebook. “Later that morning when we had outrun the fires I cried, sure that I had sentenced Odie to death, along with our precious family of bottle-raised goats.”

After the fire subsided enough for the Hendel family to return to their burned out home, they braced for the worst.

“We were able to make it back to the smoldering wasteland of our forest,” Hendel wrote on Facebook. “Every structure is in ruins. Trees are still burning.”

But suddenly, the goats appeared and raced toward the family. And there was Odin — fur burned, whiskers melted, limping on his right leg. The battle injuries suffered in his desperate fight with the flames.

During the firestorm Odin not only protected his flock, he also seems to have adopted several baby deer who were huddled around him for safety.

“Odin has lived up to his namesake,” Hendel wrote. “Pray for him and his charges. He is our inspiration. If he can be so fearless in this maelstrom, surely so can we.”

Like many evacuees, Odin, Tessa and their goats were spending Sunday in a evacuation center — the Sonoma County Fairgrounds.

The family set up a funding site to help pay for Odin’s medical care — https://www.youcaring.com/odin...itrescuegoats-978792

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:
Law enforcement officials and legal marijuana industry leaders alike are beginning to suspect the Mexican drug cartels played a role in starting deadly the fires.

Plausible but, doubtful. There's at least ten other counties in NorCal that a vengeful cartel could've hit to do their sabotage to result in a net positive for their business. Of all the fires, the one that hit Redwood Valley would be the most suited for such an act. While there will be impact, to MJ business, it won't be as much as people are suspecting.

Right now, the principal speculation has been trees blown-over during to the fierce gusts that blew on Sunday, laid on power lines, or brought down live lines and ignited the surrounding vegetation. Local power provider PG&E was found to be negligent in the '15 Butte Fire that hit Calaveras Co, due to not maintaining their equipment (power poles, wires, transformers) and insuring proper fire-breaks and spacing (over grown vegetation, leaning tree/branches) around their property.

quote:

Originally posted by tanner:

quote:

Originally posted by gpbst3:
I’m curious how this will hurt the wine business. We learned many of the grape vines are well over 50+ years old and are basically irreplaceable. If you planted a new vine today it would take about 5 years to produce fruit.

FWIW, I had a conversation with someone whose family lives and works in Napa (and had to evacuate) and they stated that “probably 90%” of the grapes for the season had already been harvested. Interestingly, they expressed concern about how the fire detritus would affect future crops. From what they could ascertain, most of the actual vines seemed to have not been burned up.

Correct. 90% of the harvest had taken place during the weeks prior to the fires starting. The fruit that remains have thick enough skins where the smoke/heat wouldn't affect them.

As for a natural fire break...just depended on how intense the approaching fire was. If the fire was simply creeping up, than the turned soil around the vines would be enough to halt the fire's advance. If it was intense, than nothing was going to stop it, the heat itself would've killed the vines and ignited the plant themselves.

May or may not be relevant to the other fires, but the PD is reporting this:

quote:

A man suspected of arson was arrested at Maxwell Farms Regional Park in Sonoma on Sunday afternoon after he was seen leaving a creek bed where a fire was burning, authorities said.

Three Sonoma County Probation officers patrolling the area because of ongoing fires in the region noticed Jesus Fabian Gonzalez, 29, walking out of the creek area and a plume of smoke behind him, Sheriff’s Sgt. Spencer Crum said.

Sheriff’s Deputy John Grohl was called to the scene and extinguished the fire, which was then completely doused by Sonoma Valley Fire Protection District personnel.

Gonzalez was wearing a trench coat and told officers he started the fire because he was cold, Crum said.

Gonzalez lives under a bridge nearby and is well known to law enforcement, he said.

He was arrested fon suspicion of felony arson and transported to the Sonoma County Jail for booking.

Link

I presume "well known to law enforcement" means not well known to ICE, this being California.

quote:

Originally posted by sjtill:
I presume "well known to law enforcement" means not well known to ICE, this being California.

I just saw where an ICE detainer has been issued for Jesus.

http://www.breitbart.com/calif...nist-in-sonoma-jail/

so are they going to let him go before ICE arrives?

If he's being detained by the Sheriff's Office, the Sheriff has a history of refusing to cooperate with federal agents seeking illegals.

He's not a suspect in the big fires. He's a crazy tweaker troll who lives under a bridge by the park. Breitbart is drawing their own conclusions.

well, this was just posted today...

http://www.breitbart.com/calif...ico-sanctuary-state/

ICE Director: Suspected Wine Country Arsonist Is Illegal Alien Mexican National



by Michelle Moons 19 Oct 2017

WASHINGTON, DC — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Acting Director Tom Homan confirmed on Thursday that a man arrested in connection with setting a fire in Sonoma County Wine Country is an illegal alien from Mexico who has been twice returned to his “home country.”

Homan also confirmed that ICE has issued detainer requests for Jesus Fabian Gonzalez five times now in the past year alone, including the one issued on October 16 in relation to his most recent arrest on suspicion of arson. All of the arrests were made “by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges,” according to Homan.

Sonoma County is considered a sanctuary jurisdiction and does not fully cooperate with federal immigration officials. That includes not honoring ICE detainer requests. “ICE was never notified of Mr. Gonzalez’ various releases,” Homan wrote in the statement regarding Gonzalez.

There were several fires in the region, and it is not clear what role the fires Gonzales allegedly set played in the overall disaster.

Homan’s public statement highlights the lack of cooperation from Sonoma County officials and the devastating wildfires that have ravaged the region:

Once again, a non-cooperative jurisdiction has left their community vulnerable to dangerous individuals and preventable crimes. ICE lodged a detainer against Jesus Gonzalez with Sonoma County jail officials on October 16, following his arrest on felony charges for maliciously setting fire to a property. This is especially troubling in light of the massive wildfires already devastating the region. Over the past year, ICE has lodged detainers against Mr. Gonzalez after four separate arrests by Sonoma County on various felony and misdemeanor charges. ICE was never notified of Mr. Gonzalez’ various releases. Additionally, Mr. Gonzales has been returned to his home country of Mexico on two separate occasions. The residents of Sonoma County, and the state of California, deserve better than policies that expose them to avoidable dangers. Non-cooperation policies – now enshrined in California state law – ensure only one thing: criminals who would otherwise be deported will be released and left free to reoffend as they please.

California Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed into law a bill that makes California a sanctuary state.

I have kinfolk in north California. Inquired about them and was assured they were not affected. Very glad to hear it.

Prayers for those who were.

flashguy