Close to Home: Defacing a Santa Rosa monument

The north face of Taylor Mountain is visible from much of Santa Rosa, and the city’s residents can gaze upon its beautiful visage at any time when seeking respite from their frenzied lives.

The mountain has enclosed Santa Rosa’s southern border since the city’s birth, and it will continue to do so for centuries to come. In recognition of its significance, the county of Sonoma purchased the western half of Taylor Mountain several years ago and eventually opened it to the public as a regional park that everyone can enjoy.

Sadly, a faint cut appeared on the left side of the mountain’s forehead last year in the form of a broad section of tilled land. That cut has since blossomed into a fully infected and festering wound on the verge of gangrene. In other words, a redundant, steeply pitched and water-guzzling vineyard.

The responsible party, needless to say, is Big Wine, which owns the eastern half of Taylor Mountain. Big Wine consists of money grubbers who are beginning to rival Big Oil in their despoiling of the landscape.

To add insult to injury, Big Wine has erected an imposing fence around the vineyard and their other land atop the mountain. The result of this further travesty is that access to the summit is completely blocked. Hikers who undertake the 45-minute trek to the “summit” of Taylor Mountain Regional Park are rewarded with a constricted view of the surrounding landscape. The view is wonderful to the north, south and west but obliterated to the east, just 100 or so feet short of the mountain’s true summit.

Among the many instances of Big Wine thumbing its nose at the public, this is the most egregious I’ve seen. What gives Big Wine the right to denude highly visible and historic hillsides, just like their brethren strip miners in West Virginia? Why does Big Wine get exempted from water restrictions in the most severe drought we’ve ever experienced? Why do county officials cater to their every whim?

The answer, as in all such cases, is Big Money, the guiding light of those who worship profit above all else. No matter how rude the insult or how devastating the consequences of their unrelenting expansion, Big Wine always seems to defeat the public good because its money is so much greener than Sonoma County’s native plants.

Perhaps for once Big Wine could assess the damage they have caused to Taylor Mountain and make a genuine effort to fix it. They could start by giving the public access to the true summit of Taylor Mountain. Then they could rip out the vineyard that serves as a raised middle finger to the residents of Santa Rosa and replant that beautiful hillside with native grasses. By addressing these problems, Big Wine could begin to restore the necessary balance between private profit and public good.

Steve Osborn, a writer and editor, lives just outside of Santa Rosa.