Land-Use of the North Bay Region

Native Californians:

The natives that inhabited this area are believed to not have undergone systematic agriculture like elsewhere in the nation due to the comparatively drier climate. Instead subsistence on fruit and nut trees, as well as the local wild grape, Vitis Californica, are thought to be the major components of native diet (1). Part of the reason for the lack of development of agriculture in the region may have been the relative bounty that could be harvested from the freshwater rivers/streams and costal fishing grounds, with shellfish and salmon having been plentiful in the region pre European settlement (2). Fishing grounds were reached primarily through the use of dugout canoes carved from the local redwood trees, with evidence of other designs similar to those of Southern Californian's using planks and tar for waterproofing also having been seen in the region. 

Ripe Vitis Californica (3)

Spanish Missionaries 

The mission at San Francisco Solano, modern day Sonoma, was the last of the missions the Spanish erected in California, with its establishment in 1823 signifying the beginning of the now unbroken settlement of Europeans in the area. As a part of the mission system, native peoples were forced to labor for the Spanish, with the dominant form of this labor being establishing farms in the area. It was only through this enslaved population could farms with proper irrigation systems be established without modern technology (4). Santa Rosa, the now biggest city in the region, was also established using native slave labor. 

Mission San Francisco Solano (5)

American Expansion + Goldrush 

Desired by the US due to its geographically advantageous position on the coast, the Mexican-American war was started and resulted in the ceding of California to the Americans in 1848. This, in addition to the discovery of gold in the mountains, led to a mass rush of settlers out to the state. In addition to the mass influx of people to the region, the mining activities in the mountains caused unsustainable erosion, with the dirt and tailings from these activities flowing down the river into the bay area. This caused a minor ecological disaster in the region, with parts of the bay being filled in with up to a meter of tailings (6). 

Modern Era 

Since the establishment of farms by the Spanish, agriculture has increasingly grown in the North Bay, with wineries becoming so ubiquitous that the region is now known as "Wine Country." The reason for the ubiquity of wineries in this region is due to the incredibly fertile soil of the region, deriving its richness as a result of both the silts and clay eroded from the mountains, as well as the volcanic activity of the region. 

Winery in Sonoma County (7)

The region has also been experiencing a drought thought to be the most intense in 1200 years (8). This drought has threatened both the sustainability of agriculture in the region, which already was a draw on water supplies, as well as the current hosing regime, with many neighborhoods built in regions that without fire suppression would have experienced wildfires 

Citations: 

1. https://foodforward.org/food-security/land-water-and-colonization-californias-agricultural-history/#:~:text=Some%20of%20these%20tribes%20included,nuts%2C%20berries%2C%20and%20fish.

2. https://www.nobhillgazette.com/people/profile/a-brief-history-of-the-bay/article_52e11481-3e60-5f02-8bc4-1be8a6c76843.html

3. https://www.laspilitas.com/nature-of-california/plants/688--vitis-californica

4. https://californiamissionsfoundation.org/mission-san-francisco-solano/

5. https://www.sonomavalley.com/listing/mission-san-francisco-solano/414/ 

6. https://www.nobhillgazette.com/people/profile/a-brief-history-of-the-bay/article_52e11481-3e60-5f02-8bc4-1be8a6c76843.html

7. https://www.sonomacounty.com/regions/valleys-vineyards

8. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/western-megadrought-is-the-worst-in-1-200-years/