Registration is open for our annual meeting in Yolo and Colusa Counties. Please make your plans to attend and, as usual, enjoy mixing with your fellow resource professionals and visit some extraordinary places in the green and accessible reaches of northern California. This year’s tour has been designed to allow us to experience many of the good things the region has to offer at a time of year (and especially in this year of favorable rains) when the crops and landscape are at their best. Our itinerary will include the following events and experiences:
Thursday Evening, 25 April 5:30pm-8:00pm Opening reception at the Center for Land-Based Learning just north of Woodland at their beautiful new facilities and agricultural training center at the historic Best Ranch. 40140 Best Ranch Road, Woodland
Friday, 26 April 8:00am-5:30pm An all-day bus tour (lunch included), leaving Woodland (streetside Ag Museum 1958 Hays Lane) first thing, heading first to the Colusa County towns of Maxwell and Sites, the location of California’s next most likely reservoir development, the Sites Reservoir Project, where we will tour the general location of the proposed dam and reservoir. We will have several presentations on the project and on the environmental resources of the area, as well as the opportunity to examine some of the soils landforms, and ecological features of the region. Then we head south to visit Matchbook Wines to take a look at some unique grape and olive farming operations on some special soils and endure a wine-tasting social hour at the Matchbook tasting room.
Friday, 26 April 5:30pm-9:30pm From there, we will head back to Woodland to the California Agriculture Museum (1958 Hays Lane, Woodland) for tours of the museum’s extensive collection of all things agricultural, with a cocktail hour, catered dinner, and our annual business meeting.
Saturday, 27 April 8:00am-Noon On Saturday morning, we will carpool from the Ag Museum streetside, and assemble at the site of what was at the time of its construction in the early nineties the largest wetland mitigation project west of the Mississippi River, the Kachituli Oxbow (19756 Old River Road, West Sacramento), for a tour of the 250- acre riparian oak forest and wetland preserve, led by the folks who designed, permitted, and built the project. We will be able to spend some time observing wildlife (bring your binoculars) and ecological restoration techniques, and perhaps evaluating the success (and failures?) of a truly soils-based ecological restoration effort that was undertaken over thirty years ago. (This will be your departure location for your trip home; we will be coordinating ride-sharing in private autos to get to the site. The site is in eastern Yolo County within minutes of I-5 and the Sacramento International Airport.)
These events will be generally pedestrian friendly, accessible, and spectacular. Details to come
soon, along with suggestions for accommodations, travel arrangements, and other particulars.
Registration cost will be:
$300 for current PSSAC members
$325 for non-members
$200 for current students
Registrations due by April 15, 2024.
Pay by PayPal or send check to:
PSSAC
PO Box 1464
Atascadero, CA 93422
Member Registration ($300) plus PayPal fees ($11.36)
