A fast-growing Southern California construction company has expanded into Sonoma County, serving a market familiar to the founder.

San Diego-based Same Day Heating, Cooling, Plumbing opened a second location in Windsor in January, according to an announcement Friday. The 5,000-square-foot location at 600 American Way employs 22 people, the company told the Business Journal.

Owner Jonathan Winterstellar was general manager of One Hour Heating & Air Conditioning in Santa Rosa for a year and later held the same position for four and a half years at the company now called Moore Home Services, also in Santa Rosa, the Journal reported. He founded Same Day in early 2019 in his hometown of San Diego and left Moore shortly after it was acquired by a private equity fund in 2019, according to the press release and Journal reporting.

“I am thrilled to be back in the North Bay, a region I know and love,” Wintersteller said in the announcement. “At Same Day, we're not just about providing service; we want to create a different culture in the HVAC industry. Our focus is on building personal relationships with our customers and creating a work environment where our team is valued. I look forward to bringing that ethos to the North Bay region.”

Same Day ranked 84th on Inc. magazine's list of fastest-growing independent companies in the Pacific Rim in 2024, with revenue growth of 165% during 2021-2023. With the new Windsor location, the company employs 94 people.

Moore made the Inc. 5000 list for the sixth and final time in 2019, ranking 1,999th with three-year revenue growth of 201%. He finished 2018 with revenue of $27.6 million and 140 employees, the Journal reported.

The company is led by President and CEO Zachary Johnson, who most recently served as general manager for Republic Services' California and Utah operations, according to Same Day. Johnson holds a master's degree in sports management and an MBA from the University of Michigan.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

Correction, March 12, 2024: Jonathan Winterstellar's name was misspelled.

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Sometimes, what’s beautiful about Sonoma can be found outside of Sonoma. Consider, for example, all the local bottles that grace dining tables and wine cellars around the world.

An elegant and modern Colorado home, designed by Sonoma-based architect Brit Epperson, is another example of a locally designed gem found outside of this region.

Epperson, along with the team at her design firm Studio Plow, created the dwelling at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for a very special client: her parents. She says that her design firm’s ethos is to”tell our client’s story, not our own.” To design her parents’ home, she spent several holidays perusing architectural plans together with her family. 

Epperson also attempts to the tell the story of the place through each design project. The “place” in this case was the base of a 14,000-foot mountain range. The 3000-square foot home sits on a forested ridge and has views of snow-capped peaks, ancient red rock formations and Colorado Springs’ skyline.

The home has exceptional design details, like this organically shaped wood doorknob. (Nicole Franzen)
A bathroom stunningly rich in shapes and textures. (Nicole Franzen)

“The rolling hills and dramatic sunsets of Sonoma Wine Country play differently than the pines and granite, quartz, and mica of Colorado,” Epperson says, adding, “We actually had the client gather rock from the site and mail them to us in San Francisco.” 

The interior color palette takes inspiration from the hues of the natural setting. Epperson lists the “soft greens of the native junipers and sagebrush; the fall colors of the aspen trees; and the soft pinks, browns and ivory of the native limestone and sandstone.” 

The result is an impressive property that is a study in contrasts. The warm-white exterior, clad in slate-colored vertical siding, is both soft and angular. The interior offers additional contrast; it is at once serene and plush. It is nature-focused and authentic, yet in spots it is saturated in colors and patterns. 

Light-filtering linen curtains create a diffused glow from the floor-to-ceiling windows, which allow the views to be the star of the home, while the rich design also catches the eye, including low-hanging lamps, skillfully placed plants, organically shaped design elements and heavily patterned wallpaper. 

Click through the above gallery for a peek inside the home.

Interiors and architecture by Studio Plow, studioplow.com 

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Along the southwestern slope of the Mayacamas, some 1,400 feet above the town of Sonoma, screenwriter and vintner Robert Kamen and his wife, Evonne Kamen Sproat, live in a much-longed-for contemporary Japanese-style hilltop home.

It is their oasis and their dream, they say—a place they never really imagined they would call home. But here, surrounded by 50 acres of organically grown Syrah, Cabernet, and Sauvignon Blanc, along with centuries-old oaks and heritage olive trees, the couple feels at peace.

At sunset, they relax on the expansive deck in modern chairs that hint of an Adirondack past, sipping a rosé made by Robert from grapes grown on the property, with their two standard poodles at their side, siblings named Kashmir and Kaia. The view they take in at the end of each day together sweeps broadly across the entire San Francisco Bay, with silhouettes of Mount Tam, the bridges, and even Mount Diablo.

The couple say it’s serendipity that brought them to this life, at this rugged site and on this rugged land, which lies 5 miles uphill from downtown Sonoma, the last two of those miles along a mostly dirt road.

“I live a 24-hour romance with the vineyard and with Vonnie. We live in the bubble of love,” explains Robert, a screenwriter known for “The Karate Kid,” “Taps,” “The Fifth Element,” and some two-dozen other blockbuster films. “I just knew I always wanted to live here, and I found the perfect person to do it with. If there’s someone who likes living here more than me, it’s Vonnie.”

A deep soaking tub on a bed of smooth river stones brings a sense of calm to the primary bath. (Adam Potts)

Back in the late 1970s, it was Robert who stumbled upon the site of his home while on a hike with a friend. At the time, the place was strewn with rocks and ryegrass, but Robert found himself utterly seduced by the view. He put down $135,000 to buy the land, the entire paycheck from the first screenplay he ever sold. It was a leap of faith for sure, as there was no electricity at the site, no water, not even a road. Essentially, he bought the view.

For a couple of years, Robert simply hiked and explored the land, getting to know the place. Later, the Bronx native built a simple, rustic studio on the property—a retreat from his apartment on Central Park in New York City, where he raised three daughters from an earlier marriage.

Viticulturist Phil Coturri helped Robert plant his first organic vineyard, convinced that the rocky, volcanic soil could grow great wine. Kamen Estate’s first harvest was in 1986, and for a while, Robert sold the fruit to other producers. But soon, he was drawn to the allure of winemaking, and the first Kamen Estate release was bottled in 1999.

A simplified palette of Corten steel, iron, wood, and concrete complement the structural rammed earth walls and keep the focus on the surrounding landscape and vineyards. (Adam Potts)

Robert left New York to live full time in the small studio on the vineyard in 2010. But these days, he and Evonne, who have been together 11 years, live in a larger Japanese-style contemporary home, designed by Santa Rosa architect Jessie Whitesides of Asquared Studios and completed in 2019.

The day of their first project meeting, Whitesides started sketching out designs with a black marker. “He said it needed to be a pretty simple thing,” recalls Whitesides. “I said ‘I see a couple of interlocking boxes, flat roof.’” And that was it—the basic vision for the project was in place.

“I probably never would have built the house without Vonnie,” Robert says of the three-year construction project Whitesides and her team oversaw. Evonne, a native of Hawaii of Japanese heritage, has always been drawn to the outdoors. She traveled all over the world for 44 years as a flight attendant.

Early in their relationship, Evonne told Robert the story of a fellow flight attendant who envisioned that she would one day live in the mountains near the ocean, surrounded by greenery. Driving up to the vineyard with Robert for the first time, Evonne thought, “My god, this is what she was talking about.”

Perched atop a steep hillside and divided into a series of three interlocking boxes, the couple’s 4,000-square-foot home has just one bedroom and a single office, lit throughout by floor-to-ceiling windows. A natural palette of Corten steel, wood, and glass blends with the surrounding property and with the textural striations of the rammed-earth walls.

The 8-foot-tall windows, imported from Portugal at a cost of nearly $1 million, are an essential feature of the design. “We take great pleasure in them, because our whole idea was we wanted to live inside and outside,” says Robert. “If it’s 100 degrees, we want to live inside. If it’s pouring rain, we want to live inside. But the rest of the time we want an inside/outside environment, and the windows afford us that.”

A marble Buddha greets guests as they enter the home through a massive oak front door, which pivots to open directly into the great room, where the view sweeps out through the windows to the spectacularly layered landscape beyond.

An open kitchen flanks one side of the entry, with an entertainment area at the other side. Nearby, there’s a yoga room with soaring windows, a wine storage area, and a Japanese-style bathroom with an elevated shower and soaking tub, opening to a zen garden.

Robert and Evonne have filled the home with art they’ve collected, including rugs, paintings, and textiles, many by friends and family. The early 1900s Japanese silk kimono Evonne’s grandfather’s wife wore for her wedding hangs on the bedroom wall, and polished Hawaiian driftwood sculptures made by Evonne’s mother share space with tapestries and paintings from Dutch actor Jeroen Krabbé.

Robert still writes daily in his large office on a desk inlaid with mother-of-pearl, which he purchased long ago in India, near the Taj Mahal. Photographs of his three daughters are displayed on long, open shelves, alongside piles of scripts from over the years, each inked on the side with the name of the film.

Robert and Evonne insist on a simple, purposeful life up in the hills, marked by long walks with their dogs through the vineyards, alfresco lunches, and evenings surrounded by the view. Robert writes in his office most mornings and practices karate daily, a habit he’s kept since he was 17 years old. Later, the couple might head down the hill to the Kamen Estates tasting room on the square in town, or host wine club members on the skydeck near the house.

This time of year, the promise of the upcoming harvest is tangible, as clusters hang on the vine and crews of fieldworkers prepare for the pick. It’s often windy, but at other times, it’s perfectly still except for the beat of the workers’ radios—here and there, they might even catch someone singing and humming along as the grapes come in. The work comes hard and fast, usually starting in late August for the whites, and late September for the reds. “It is beautiful to hear,” Evonne says.

Evonne believes that the way their life experiences and cultures intertwine are no mere coincidence, coming back to the concept of serendipity. “His whole life has come full circle, don’t you think?” she says.

“Everything happens for a reason,’’ echoes Robert. “I didn’t buy this property to plant a vineyard. My entire ethos and nature was all formed in a city housing project in the Bronx. Who would have thought a skinny little kid with a big mouth would end up here?”

Resources

Architecture: Jessie Whitesides and Tony Garcia, Asquared Studios, Santa Rosa, asquaredstudios.com

Contractor: Richard Kirby, Annadel Builders, Santa Rosa, annadelbuildersinc.com

Landscape Architect: David and Nancy Roche, Roche + Roche, Sonoma, rocheandroche.com

Rammed Earth: Dan Alvarado, Rammed Earth Works, rammedearthworks.com

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For 55 years, Sonoma resident Bernie Krause has documented the world through sound—rainforests, prairies, and beaches—and beginning June 10, he will share the sounds of nature with the world in a new exhibit at the San Francisco Exploratorium.

Krause’s exhibition entitled “The Great Animal Orchestra” includes recordings of whale songs, bird calls and a cacophony of insects as well as other sounds of the natural world and thus fulfills a lifelong dream of the bioacoustician and author.

“My vision of art is to create sonic performances of natural wonders,” Krause said, adding, “Most of all, I want others in this world to hear and see.”

“With this program, visitors can listen to the consonant voices of natural habitats – marine and terrestrial – in a new way.”

The Great Animal Orchestra premiered in Paris in 2016 and, according to Krause, has been seen by 1.5 million people thanks to the Cartier Foundation for Contemporary Art, which also sponsors the Exploratorium exhibition.

“It’s wonderful to be celebrating Bernie here in his own backyard,” said Kirstin Bach, interim director of art at the Exploratorium. “And that’s why it felt so natural and right for us to really create this exhibition… this marriage of creative practice, science and observation.”

The Exploratorium at Pier 15 in San Francisco has been described as a “mad scientist’s penny arcade,” and the exhibit explores Krause’s unorthodox form of storytelling.

“Typically, as in film, where image dominates the media, sound is used to carry the emotional weight of each scene,” he wrote. “This exhibition turns that model on its head.”

Oppenheimer, rock ‘n’ roll and a dream

Krause pioneered the use of synthesizers in the 1960s, which had a tremendous impact on popular music and film.

He played the synth on the Monkees song “Star Collector” in 1967 and brought the Moog III synth to the Monterey Pop Festival in June of that year to share his vibes with the eclectic audience.

The synthesizer soon became a fixture on the musical spectrum.

A year later, Krause founded the bioacoustic company Wild Sanctuary to document and archive the sounds of the world to preserve them for future generations.

At 2 a.m. on an October morning in 1968, he recorded the Russian Hill Symphony in San Francisco. “I recorded the sound of the splices in the cables running under the tracks as the splices passed over the guide wheels under the road,” he said. “I was trying to record metallic, industrial-sounding beats that we could then repeat and use as opposed to natural sounds — sounds that I later recorded for an album that my late music partner Paul Beaver and I created for our first Warner Brothers Release titled “In a Wild Sanctuary”.

It was an unintended opening night for the future exhibition that would eventually show his life’s work.

A stranger stood in the glow of a street lamp and watched Krause at work. The character then asked what Krause was doing and introduced himself as Frank Oppenheimer, the brother of J. Robert Oppenheimer, inventor of the atomic bomb. Oppenheimer invited Krause over for coffee and presented him with an ambitious idea for the Bay Area.

“He enthusiastically presented his plans for the new museum he wanted to open in 1969 and, since he knew almost nothing about my life or work, asked me if I would be interested in contributing to an exhibition,” said Krause. “At his invitation, I went to the Palace of Fine Arts in the Marina, his future venue. It was clear that the space would be too reverberant for a successful sound installation.”

But Krause cataloged the idea in the back of his mind for a day when he could showcase his work with a suitable venue. He was now working around 80 hours a week in the studio and forming musical partnerships with artists such as George Harrison, the Doors, Peter Gabriel, Barbara Streisand and the Bryds.

“I got sick, the pace and the pressure made me sick,” said Krause about the work in the 1970s until he stopped in 1979. “I couldn’t wait to get out into nature without the egos and drugs that were rampant everywhere.”

The world is a studio

But his fate changed in 1978 when he put on headphones while on safari and couldn’t put them down. Krause has recorded over 4,500 hours of audio from 15,000 different species on six continents.

“The sounds of the wild biomes I sought out were able to calm my raging case of ADHD, and I’ve been using it as a pain reliever ever since,” Krause said.

After being “fired more than half a dozen times” on the set of the award-winning film Apocalypse Now in 1979, Krause went back to school to earn his PhD in Sound Art and Bioacoustics. Then Krause made his way into the wilderness from the arctic tundra to the misty Amazon rainforest.

“I camped on the shores of the Beaufort Sea for several weeks attempting to record bowhead whales as part of a whale bioacoustics study to determine population densities,” Krause wrote. “I was nearing the end of my session…just days before scheduled pickup when I heard the slow rhythmic sound of footsteps outside my tent early one morning. When I unzipped, a polar bear was standing about 20 meters away and slowly closing the gap between him and me.”

Armed only with a flare gun, he loaded the chamber and crawled out of the tent. When the bear approached him just a few meters, he stood on his hind legs and straightened up, “and blocked almost the entire habitat with his mass,” said Krause.

Krause aimed the flare gun at his chest and pulled the trigger.

“The torch did no harm,” Krause said, “except briefly igniting a few tufts of fur when the magnesium was lit.” Smelling the smoke, the animal turned and sauntered to the water, where it was never seen again became.”

Having traveled the frontiers of the animal kingdom and science, the exhibit at the San Francisco Exploratorium feels like home, so many years after that fateful night that cable cars were recorded on Polk Street.

“I remember paraphrasing the late David Bowie’s aphorism,” Krause said, “‘The future belongs to those of us who can hear it coming.’ This program is key.”

Contact Chase Hunter at chase.hunter@sonomanews.com and follow @Chase_HunterB on Twitter.

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JW Hanson Heating & Air takes a big step from just a garage business.

Founded in 2005, the Santa Rosa-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning services, repair, retrofit and installation company has operated from a 930 square foot industrial condominium at 3200 Dutton Ave., Unit 225.

Then, on January 6, founding couple James and Kimberly Hanson purchased the 26,156 square foot former Bergy Door & Window facility at 3999 Santa Rosa Ave. for $2.65 million, according to public records and the Bay Area Development Company, one of the funders.

According to the announcement, a showroom, storage space, office space and a parking lot for vehicles are planned for the new location. The Hansons could not be reached for comment.

The Santa Rosa Avenue sale comes a few weeks after the nearly 70-year-old Bergy Door company conducted a liquidation sale of its trucks, trailers, woodworking equipment, tools, inventory of doors and windows, and storage and office supplies, according to a press release on the auction .

“We really appreciate serving Sonoma County since 1953 and since 2007. Personally, I have enjoyed working with all my customers and suppliers over my 29 years in the door and window industry and I will miss them all,” said Gregory Soos, owner of Bergy Door & Window Company, in the auction announcement. “It was a very difficult decision and I wish everyone the very best. I will truly miss serving Sonoma County and helping others with my years of knowledge in this industry.”

Bergy Door founder Harold Bergstrom came to Santa Rosa in 1948 and worked as a carpenter hanging doors on construction sites before starting his own business five years later, according to the auction announcement. Soos bought the company from Bergstrom’s son. Health problems in Soos’ family have led to the liquidation of the company since the beginning of last year.

Demi Basiliades of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented the Hanson trust in the purchase of Santa Rosa in 3999. Kevin Doran, also of Keegan & Coppin, represented the seller, G&L Santa Rosa LLC, led by Gregory Soos.

Walnut Creek-based Small Business Administration financing firm Bay Area Development Company partnered with Lincoln Capital Management and Harvest Commercial Capital to fund the SBA 504 program.

Jeff Quackenbush is involved in wine, construction and real estate. Before joining Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for the Bay City News Service in San Francisco. Reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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A few weeks after the fire assessors’ survey, a team from Habitat will return to Monte Rio and work with Levy to identify necessary improvements like grab bars, ramps and low-threshold showers that will allow her to age at home for years to come. As a final step, the Habitat team will allocate a workday to make the improvements Levy needs, as well as hardening the house – like replacing old windows with tempered glass – and defensible space, like removing a combustible pile of firewood from her porch.

Megan Hennessy, program manager at Habitat Sonoma, sees firsthand how critical these repairs are for elderly residents, especially after three major fires in Sonoma County in the past four years.

“It struck me that older homeowners are very, very, very concerned about what would happen if a fire started,” Hennessy said.

Shawn Connally stands in front of her home in Occidental. (Isaac Ceja/KQED)

According to the US Fire Department, adults over the age of 65 are more than twice as likely to die in a fire compared to the general population. “Rural and semi-rural communities, which are among the oldest in the state of California, tend to be among the most vulnerable,” said Andrew Scharlach, professor of aging at UC Berkeley. Older rural homeowners, especially low-income homeowners, are less able to make fireproof home improvements, move to a lower-risk area before a fire and evacuate if a fire inevitably breaks out, he said.

Shawn Connally, a 56-year-old resident of Occidental in Sonoma County, often worries about fires. She keeps her car in the back so she can evacuate at any time. She has a holdall in her mud room packed with a small souvenir statue from New Zealand, two sets of salt and pepper shakers (chosen from the hundreds she inherited from her grandmother), several family rings and her important paper documents.

Wildfire Services director Andrew Carrillo (left) and Brandon North work together to fire-test a home in Monte Rio. (Isaac Ceja/KQED)

Connally lives on a sprawling lot shaded by towering trees and perched on a steep, winding driveway. She used to tend the overgrown bush on her property herself, but multiple sclerosis has made that impossible.

“If I tried that, it would probably blow my mind for a few days,” she said. That’s why she participates in the Fire Safe Sonoma and Habitat for Humanity programs.

Connally’s hope is that Fire Safe Sonoma and Habitat can rail the steep steps leading to her home and basement and remove the combustible vegetation that has accumulated around her property. The winding driveway also poses a problem as it would be difficult for a fire engine to negotiate the narrow path. Habitat will aim to make her house as resilient as possible so that even if firefighters can’t reach Connally’s house, it still has a good chance of surviving a fire.

No sweat, no expense

Sonoma’s Habitat subsidiary has been building and repairing homes for 35 years and has one of the more robust on-site aging programs in California. Although Habitat affiliates across California facilitate on-site aging, the offerings of these programs vary widely, and many affiliates require beneficiaries to provide “weld capital” in the form of labor or participate in an amortization program. Habitat and Fire Safe Sonoma, on the other hand, can perform this work at no cost to the homeowner.

Andrew Carrillo, director of Wildfire Services, completes a home assessment checklist for the Wildland Fire Assessment Program in Occidental. (Isaac Ceja/KQED)

In 2020–21, the California Legislature allocated $25 million for home hardening and defense and allocated an additional $25 million over the next two fiscal years. The California Office of Emergency Services then selected pilot districts based on a high risk of fire and other criteria, including proportion of the population over the age of 65.

But the program was slow to roll out, and homeowners are still waiting for grants and support. Until government investments in fire safety are realized, local programs must fill the gaps.

As fire investigators dispatched by Fire Safe Sonoma walked around Levy’s home, she recalled her early years in California. At 19, Levy quit her job as a library assistant in her hometown of Philadelphia and came to San Francisco for the 1967 Summer of Love.

A few years later, she was camping near her current home on the Russian River and fell in love with the vastness of the country and the cheap rents. There she began working as an accountant for a child care resource and placement agency in Guerneville.

“Growing up in the city, I always wanted a farm,” Levy said, recalling the chickens she used to raise — until the raccoons devoured them.

Andrew Carrillo points to trees he recommends removing to improve fire safety at Franceen Levy’s home. (Isaac Ceja/KQED)

Levy’s chickens and cheap rent are in the rearview mirror. Now she has new worries – namely fire. Levy knows she has to live with that risk because she never wants to leave her rural surroundings. With her new home modifications, she’s expecting just that.

Reporter Kate Raphael and photographer Isaac Ceja are in the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism’s Investigative Reporting Program. They covered this story through a grant from the SCAN Foundation.

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JW Hanson Heating & Air takes a big step away from a garage operation.

Since the Santa Rosa-based heating, ventilation and air conditioning service, repair, retrofit and installation company began operations in 2005, it has been operated from a 930 square foot industrial condominium at 3200 Dutton Ave., Unit 225.

On January 6, founding couple James and Kimberly Hanson acquired the 26,156 square foot former Bergy Door & Window facility at 3999 Santa Rosa Ave. for $2.65 million, according to public records and the Bay Area Development Company, one of the deal’s backers.

Plans for the new location include a showroom, storage area, office space and a yard for vehicles, according to the announcement. The Hansons could not be reached for comment.

The Santa Rosa Avenue sale came a few weeks after nearly 70-year-old Bergy Door held a liquidation sale of its trucks, trailers, woodworking equipment, tools, door and window inventory, and storage and office supplies, according to a press release about the auction.

“We are very honored to have served Sonoma County since 1953 and since 2007. Personally, I have enjoyed working with all my customers and suppliers in my 29 years in the door and window business and all will be missed,” said Gregory Soos, owner of Bergy Door & Window Company, in the auction announcement. “It was a very difficult decision and I wish everyone the best. I will truly miss serving Sonoma County and helping others with my years of knowledge in this industry.”

Bergy Door founder Harold Bergstrom came to Santa Rosa in 1948 and worked as a carpenter hanging doors on construction sites before starting his own business five years later, the auction announcement said. Soos bought the company from Bergstrom’s son. Health problems in the von Soos family led to the dissolution of the company at the beginning of last year.

Demi Basiliades of Keegan & Coppin Co. Inc. represented the trust of Hanson in the purchase of Santa Rosa in 3999. Kevin Doran, also of Keegan & Coppin, represented the seller, G&L Santa Rosa LLC, led by Gregory Soos.

The Walnut Creek-based Small Business Administration-treasury Bay Area Development Company worked with Lincoln Capital Management and Harvest Commercial Capital to fund the SBA 504 program.

Jeff Quackenbush covers wine, construction and real estate. Before joining Business Journal in 1999, he wrote for the Bay City News Service in San Francisco. You can reach him at jquackenbush@busjrnl.com or 707-521-4256.

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Just before the Hood Mountain Regional Park parking lot, a narrow road barely big enough for a car climbs into the forest. Paved in parts, the road twists and rises until it reaches a mountain meadow that has served as a family’s gathering place for five generations.

Offering sweeping views of Sonoma County, the 289-acre property, called El Recreo, burned in both the 2017 and 2020 wildfires.

But it has recovered slowly, and all the while shaped the lives of its caretakers in the Perrin, Bucklin, Tilt and English families. Now, in a deal with the Sonoma County Agricultural Preservation and Open Space District, El Recreo is set to remain preserved as conservation land.

The district is in the homestretch of purchasing a $898,000 conservation easement for the property – a complicated process that has taken about nine years, needing buy-in from all of the property’s 13 owners. The easement will extinguish future development rights on the land, meaning it would be permanently protected even if sold.

“It just seemed like the natural thing to do,” said Arden Bucklin-Sporer, whose family owns the property.

It borders Hood Mountain on the north side, overlooking Oakmont. The property will not be opened to the public and will remain available for the family’s private use.

But the benefits of preserving land like El Recreo as a conservation area extend beyond public recreation, said Lauren Alpert, a community relations assistant for the open space district.

“When you’re protecting areas like this you’re protecting watershed, clean air,” Alpert said. Wildlife habitat – the property takes in headwaters for both the Santa Rosa and Sonoma creek drainages – and scenic viewsheds are other conservation benefits.

Alpert added that El Recreo will also serve as an important wildland buffer for its neighboring developed communities including Oakmont and Kenwood.

This is not the family’s first foray into conservation. Bucklin-Sporer’s mother and stepfather were Anne and Otto Teller, local land stewardship visionaries who helped found the Sonoma Land Trust.

It was Bucklin-Sporer’s grandmother, Adelaid Perrin, who began that family legacy, when she purchased El Recreo for around $48,000 in the 1950s.

Born in Guatemala, Perrin spent her early childhood on a coffee farm until the family moved back to California following her father’s death from malaria, Bucklin-Sporer said.

An “ardent admirer” of nature, independent and with “energy off the wall,” Perrin turned her attention to finding a family retreat once her three daughters were grown. It was El Recreo’s wild meadow nestled near the top of the mountain that sealed the deal, Bucklin-Sporer said.

Over the years the family left much of the land untouched, but built two homes and a swimming pool near the meadow. It was there that Anne Teller would bring her four children from their home in San Francisco during the weekends, and for weeks during the summer. She used it to teach them self-sufficiency, economy and an appreciation for the natural world.

“I think all of us are the way we are because of this place,” Bucklin-Sporer said.

Growing up, Bucklin-Sporer and her siblings would ride horses, care for injured birds they found including owls and a vulture, and acquired skills including identifying animal tracks.

Many have since pursued careers connected to land stewardship and ecology, including farming, restoration and nonprofit work, Bucklin Sporer said.

Supervisor Susan Gorin, who represents the area encompassing El Recreo, praised the family’s “extraordinary legacy they have, and continue to leave.”

“You need to take responsibility and manage the land,” Gorin said. “Especially in threat of fire.”

The family is both city and country, Bucklin-Sporer joked as she walked a grassy path to a knoll on a recent sunny morning.

Strolling along in Birkenstocks, undaunted by the prickly underbrush and ever-present threat of rattlesnakes, Bucklin-Sporer chewed on a blade of grass and led the way to a knoll overlooking Hood Mountain. Her rescue dog Xochi followed behind.

The destination held special meaning. It is where Bucklin-Sporer’s brother got married, and where their grandmother, mother and aunts’ ashes now rest.

“They burned twice so that’s good,” Bucklin-Sporer said, sharing some of her dry humor as she referenced the 2017 and 2020 wildfires

The wildfires ripped through El Recreo, leaving behind scorched trees and taking the family’s two homes.

The foundation and chimney of the house that Bucklin-Sporer’s parents built stood still. A partial brick wall also remains, holding a rusted sign bearing the home’s 8000 address.

Bucklin-Sporer said she visits the site frequently to check on its status.

The loss was devastating.

Though the family’s many generations are now far flung, with members in San Francisco and beyond, El Recreo remains their heart, Bucklin-Sporer said.

The property now serves as their camp. Two tents and an Airstream trailer sit around a pool that survived the fires at the far end of the meadow. An outdoor wooden stand spruced up with string lights and complete with a sink, grill and griddle make up a kitchen of sorts.

The choice to keep the property “wild” is a reflection of Perrin’s love for all things nature, and Anne Teller’s commitment to low-impact living, Bucklin-Sporer said.

“That was my mother’s perspective,” she noted. “You want to keep it simple, you don’t want a lot of water use, you want to keep it thrifty.”

Following the wildfires, the family has watched the land grow back slowly and in some surprising ways.

Bucklin-Sporer said they have seen new types of woodpeckers on the property, as well as more quail.

Her youngest son, August Sporer, 30, observed that more wildflowers are visible in the places where trees burned.

The conservation deal allows the owners to build two homes on the property, to replace the ones that burned. Bucklin-Sporer and her siblings and cousins ​​have left that decision to the next generation.

“I’m curious and keen to know what they want to do with it,” Bucklin-Sporer said.

The rest of the property will remain as is, and much like it was decades ago.

August Sporer praised the decision.

“This was a fantastic way to make sure this stays in the family,” Sporer said.

You can reach Staff Writer Emma Murphy at 707-521-5228 or emma.murphy@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @MurphReports.

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SANTA ROSA (CBS SF/BCN) – Sonoma County officials announced this week they are ramping up efforts to recruit foster parents and adoptive families to address a shortage of foster homes in the county.

County officials announced an expansion of a partnership with the national group RaiseAChild to recruit families willing to take in foster children, according to a news release issued Friday.

READ MORE: UPDATE: Kidnapped San Jose Infant Brandon Alexis Cuellar Found; 3 Suspects In Custody

The county has entered into a $25,000 contract with RaiseACild for a year-long campaign of community events and multimedia promotions to raise awareness of the needs of local children in foster care.

Fifty to 75 local children are in temporary housing in the county, most at Valley of the Moon Children’s Center — the county’s emergency shelter for youth — according to Meg Easter-Dawson, program development manager for the county’s Department of Human Services’ Family, Youth and Children’s Division.

READ MORE: San Francisco-Based Visa’s 2nd Quarter Profits Jump 21% As Pandemic Eases

“We are experiencing a shortage of foster homes for the children and teens in need,” Easter-Dawson said in the statement. “Valley of the Moon Children’s Center is meant to only provide temporary housing for up to 10 days. But we have children, especially teens, who must stay much longer because we don’t have a foster home for them to go to. Not having a stable foster home just furthers their trauma and makes it harder for them to heal.”

Learn more about the benefits of becoming a foster or foster-to-adopt parent by attending a free informational meeting on Zoom. The next webinar in English will be held on Thursday, May 12 at 6 pm and the next webinar in Spanish will be held on Wednesday, May 11 at 6 pm

MORE NEWS: University Of California Waiving Tuition For Native American Students

For more information, see Advocate@RaiseAChild.org or call (877) 417-1440. More events and information are on the nonprofit’s website.

© Copyright 2022 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The post Sonoma County Growing Efforts To Discover Foster Mother and father, Adoptive Households – CBS San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Good morning, Bay Area. It’s Thursday, April 21, and the Bay Area will get another round of wet weather by the weekend. Here’s what you need to know to start your day.

A Sonoma County town is the guinea pig for a California project that will relocate buildings and roadways from a rapidly eroding coastline.

For years, state officials have opted to brace California’s sweeping cliffs to allow developers to build on the edge. They’re now also asking coastal towns to consider “managed retreats,” the relocation of beachfront homes and structures inland, before powerful waves do it for them.

It’s a contentious idea for locals who fear having their private property bought out, or are opposed to the imposition of a coastal management program. Policymakers and planners are watching Gleason Beach to see whether the controversial proposal will save that part of Highway 1 and the scenery there.

• More climate news: A marine “heat wave” forming in the North Pacific Ocean has the potential to get close to the California coast by fall.

Expert Opinion

Commuters with and without masks travel on a BART train in San Francisco on Tuesday.

Scott Strazzante/The Chronicle

COVID guidelines are changing rapidly, the most recent of which was the rescinding of mask mandates on public transit. Should you still heed prior precautions?

If you ask Bay Area medical experts, the answer is yes. Much is still unknown about the long-term effects of a COVID infection. Plus, it’s possible advances in treatments and vaccines can further reduce the severity of sickness.

Not everyone can avoid the virus, one Stanford doctor said, so taking precautions to minimize community transmission can make things safer for people who are more vulnerable to the virus.

Read more from Danielle Echeverria on what experts recommend doing as mask mandates drop across the country.

• COVID hospitalizations are falling in California despite a rise in infections.

What to eat

Ishiyaki is a hot stone rice bowl mixed with different types of fish.

Justin Katigbak/Special to The Chronicle

The headline on Chronicle restaurant critic Soleil Ho’s latest review baffled me at first: “Why the most unforgettable dish at this Japanese restaurant is a bowl of rice.”

It’s not simply a bowl of rice, it turns out — at San Mateo’s Yuzu, it’s a mishmash of crispy, seared grains mixed with whatever fish that chef-owner Yoichi Arima decides to add in that day. Toasted rice is the star of the show at Yuzu, influenced by a variety of other cuisines.

Can’t make it down to San Mateo? Whet your appetite for Japanese food with The Chronicle’s recommendations for the top Japanese and sushi in the rest of the Bay Area.

Around the Bay

Bay Area may get even more rain this month.

Nick Otto/Special to The Chronicle

• Drought updates:
More rain is heading to the Bay Area, and more snow is bound for the Sierra Nevada this week.

• “We made it”
: A San Francisco man has walked free after 31 years in prison for a wrongful murder conviction.

• New find: A “stunning” jellyfish species has been identified for the first time in Monterey Bay.

• More space: The Presidio’s historic Battery Bluff will be San Francisco’s next urban park, with nearly 40 acres of green space available to the public.

• Identified: The family of an Oakland woman who was shot dead in her home is “shocked” after the devastating incident.

• Over the rainbow: Join Chronicle arts and culture writer Tony Bravo on a walking tour of San Francisco’s preeminent gayborhood, packed with history, landmarks and tales of queer heroes.

• Election win: What happens to District 6 now that Supervisor Matt Haney is headed to the Assembly? Analysis: Here’s what Haney’s Assembly victory means for YIMBY activists making inroads into progressive factions.

• Opinion: Why are SF’s supervisory district boundaries set geographically? Here’s a better way to ensure fairness.

Breaking down the numbers

Admission policy for Lowell High School in San Francisco is still a contentious point.

Bronte Wittpenn / The Chronicle

San Francisco’s elite public high school, Lowell, is still embroiled in a public battle over competitive admissions.

Its next freshmen class will be the second selected largely by lottery rather than academic merit, after the school board permanently rehauled the process, arguing the old method was elitist and discriminated against underrepresented Black and brown students.

But how does the racial makeup of his student body compare to others around the city?

Asian American students have made up an image of the student body at Lowell for the past four decades. But the numbers show that two other high schools in the district have larger shares of Asian students, while several others have less diverse populations compared with Lowell.

See the data from Nami Sumida.

Bay Briefing is written by Gwendolyn Wu (she/her) and sent to readers’ email inboxes on weekday mornings. Sign up for the newsletter here, and contact the writer at gwendolyn.wu@sfchronicle.com.

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