Comments on: Draft rules out on hillside vineyard tree removal

By: Vowel Movement

Vowel Movement — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 21:46:42 +0000

Completely undeserving of a response (as usual).

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By: Skippy

Skippy — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 15:41:34 +0000

If you want to decide what happens to the land, then step up and buy it.
When it belongs to you, do what you want.
Until then, who cares what you think?
The adults are speaking now; we’ll listen to you later.

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By: Vowel Movement

Vowel Movement — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 23:10:12 +0000

Fantastic news! Completely concur with Tom-ato… further, hillside vineyards cannot be dry farmed as the roots are simply too far above the water table. Flat land can be converted into dry farming operations thereby significantly reducing their dependance on water.

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By: Tom-ato

Tom-ato — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:27:31 +0000

This should not be too hard to understand: Forestland is not Farmland.

A vineyard cannot replace the natural tree leaf canopy and root network that holds soil in place on hillsides and ridgetops. Vineyards belong on stable unforested terrain, and there is plenty of that in this county.

The arguement that this proposal hurts the “Little Guy” – neglects to say who these guys are. “Little Guys” need $30,000 – $35,000 per acre to create a producing vineyard on flat ground, making it affordable for a small family business. But it takes $50,000 – $55,000 per acre to convert forestland to a vineyard – costs beyond the reach of most “Little Guys”. Most of this work is done for corporate agriculture by professional vineyard management companies – not by family farmers.

It seems the vineyardists don’t believe that Forestland is not Farmland and it can be engineered into production – but just in case there are problems they want exemptions from: paying 1.5% of costs for feasibility studies, recognized soil-loss engineering standards, and failures that result in sedement run-off pollution.

Producing wine from hillside vineyards doesn’t make it taste any better, it just makes it more expensive. Let’s not be fooled into passing-up this opportunity to preserve our watersheds.

Eat your veggies!

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