Free workshops for property owners in Sonoma County

Learn to make your landscape fire-safe

The Grove Street Fire Safe Council, a Sonoma Valley organization dedicated wildfire preparedness, will hold an online workshop Saturday on how to create landscapes that are attractive, sustainable and fire-smart. The free workshop, featuring a panel of experts and a Q&A session, will be held virtually from 10 a.m. to noon, July 25.

Three panelists will discuss methods for creating fire-wise landscapes that support biodiversity while meeting Sonoma County’s defensible space requirements around a home.

Proper selection, placement and maintenance of plants can lead to attractive landscapes that provide habitat for wildlife and reduce fire risk at the same time.

The workshop panelists are Mimi Enright, program manager of the UC Master Gardener Program of Sonoma County; April Owens, executive director of Habitat Corridor Project and chair of the Milo Baker Chapter of the California Native Plant Society and Ellie Insley, specialist and board member with the Sonoma Ecology Center.

To sign up for the virtual workshop hosted by the Sonoma County Master Gardeners and to receive a link visit tinyurl.com/yy5asr9w. For information call 707-565-2608 or email mgsonoma@ucdavis.edu

Community workshop on groundwater

A free community workshop on groundwater for well owners and farmers in the Santa Rosa Plain will be held virtually on July 29.

The meeting is a chance to learn about groundwater in the Santa Rosa Plain and help agencies define local, sustainable management of the resource.

“The development of the Groundwater Sustainability Plan will guide how we manage our groundwater in the future,” said Supervisor Lynda Hopkins, chair of the Santa Rosa Plain Groundwater Sustainability Agency. “Community workshops help us get ideas and feedback from those who have wells in the basin and who rely on groundwater for their livelihood.”

A Groundwater Sustainability Plan is a 20-year plan to ensure the responsible use of groundwater within a particular groundwater basin. The agency is one of three groundwater sustainability agencies in Sonoma County that are partnering in a series of workshops this month.

The Santa Rosa Plain workshop will be held from 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m. Wednesday through Zoom. Participants must RSVP online at SonomaCountyGroundwater.org. Click on the link to Santa Rosa Plain.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at 707-521-5204 or meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com. OnTwitter @megmcconahey.