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Sonoma County, California

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Sonoma County, California
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Map
Image:Map of California highlighting Sonoma County.svg
Location in the state of California
Image:Map of USA CA.svg
California's location in the USA
Statistics
Founded 1850
Seat Santa Rosa
Area
 - Total
 - Land
 - Water

1,768 sq mi (4,579 km²)
1,576 sq mi (4,082 km²)
192 sq mi (497 km²), 10.88%
Population
 - (2000)
 - Density

458,614
290/sq mi (112/km²)
Website: www.sonoma-county.org

Sonoma County is on the northwest coast of California, one of the northernmost parts of the greater San Francisco Bay Area, U.S. Its population at the 2000 census was 458,614. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa.

Sonoma is the southwestern county of California's Wine Country region, which also includes Napa, Mendocino, and Lake counties. It has thirteen approved American Viticultural Areas and over 250 wineries. In 2002 Sonoma County ranked as the thirty-second county in the United States in agricultural production.[1] As early as 1920 Sonoma County was ranked as the eighth most productive U.S county,[2] largely due to the abundance of high quality irrigation water. More than 7.4 million tourists visit each year, spending more than $1 billion in 2006. Sonoma County is the home of Sonoma State University and Santa Rosa Junior College.

In earlier times, Sonoma County was the home to several distinct Native American tribes, who lived within the carrying capacity of the land; by 1850, European settlement had set a new direction that would prove to radically alter the course of land use and resource management of this region. As of 2007, Sonoma County has rich agricultural land, albeit now largely divided between two nearly monocultural uses: grapes and pasturage. The voters have twice approved an open space initiative[3] that has provided considerable funding for public acquisition of natural areas, which has preserved forested areas, coastal habitat, and other open space.

Contents

Geography and environment

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Sonoma County has a total area of 1,768 sq mi (4,580 km²). 1,576 sq mi (4,082 km²) is land, and 192 sq mi (498 km²) (10.88%) is water. Adjacent counties are Marin (to the south), Mendocino (to the north), Lake (northeast), Napa (to the east) and Solano (to the southeast).

The county lies in the North Coast Ranges of northwestern California. Its ranges include the Mayacamas and the Sonoma Mountains, the southern peak of the latter being the prominent landform, Sears Point. The highest peak in the Mayacamas within the county is Hood Mountain. It has uncommon occurrences of pygmy forest, dominated by Mendocino Cypress. The highest peak of the Sonoma Mountains is Sonoma Mountain itself, which boasts two significant public access properties: Jack London State Historic Park and Fairfield Osborn Preserve.

Distinct habitat areas within the county include oak woodland, redwood Forest, Northern coastal scrub, grassland, marshland, oak savanna and riparian woodland. The California oak woodland in the upper Yulupa Creek and Spring Creek watersheds in Annadel State Park is a relatively undisturbed ecosystem with considerable biodiversity. These forested areas have been characterized as some of the best examples of such woodlands.[4] An unusual characteristic of these forests is the high content of undisturbed prehistoric bunch grass understory, testifying to the absence of historic grazing or other agriculture.

Trees of the oak woodland habitat include Pacific Madrone, Douglas fir, Coast live oak, Garry oak and California laurel. Common understory plants are toyon, poison oak, and at the fringes coast silk-tassel.

Threatened/endangered species

A number of endangered plants and animals are found in Sonoma County including the California clapper rail, Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse, Northern Red-legged Frog, Sacramento splittail, California freshwater shrimp, Showy Indian clover and Hickman's potentilla.

Species of special local concern include the California Tiger Salamander and some endangered plants, including Burke's Goldfields (Lasthenia burkei), Sebastopol Meadowfoam (Limnanthes vinculans), and Sonoma Sunshine or Baker's Stickyseed (Blennosperma bakeri).

Endangered species that are endemic to Sonoma County include Sebastopol Meadowfoam, Sonoma Sunshine, and Pitkin Marsh lily, Lilium pardalinum subsp Pitkinense.

The Sonoma County Water Agency has had a Fisheries Enhancement Program since 1996. Its website says [1]:

"The primary focus of the FEP is to enhance habitat for three salmonids: Steelhead, Chinook salmon, and Coho salmon. These three species are listed as threatened under the U.S. Endangered Species Act. The California Department of Fish and Game considers the Coho salmon endangered."

Ocean, bays, rivers and streams

Image:Russian River mouth on California coast.jpeg
Goat Rock Beach as viewed from the Jenner Cliffs looking south, showing the mouth of the Russian River at the Pacific Ocean.

Sonoma County is bounded on the west by the Pacific Ocean, and has 76 miles of coastline. The major coastal hydrographic features are Bodega Bay, the mouth of the Russian River, and the mouth of the Gualala River, at the border with Mendocino County.

Six of the county's nine cities, from Healdsburg south through Santa Rosa to Rohnert Park and Cotati, are in the Santa Rosa Plain. The northern Plain drains to the Russian River, or a tributary; the southern Plain drains to the Russian River via the Laguna de Santa Rosa.

Russian River

Much of central and northern Sonoma County is in the watershed of the Russian River and its tributaries. The river rises in the coastal mountains of Mendocino County, north of the city of Ukiah, and flows into Lake Mendocino, a major flood control reservoir. The Russian flows south from the lake through Mendocino to Sonoma County, paralleled by Highway 101. It turns west at Healdsburg, receiving water from Lake Sonoma via Dry Creek, and empties into the Pacific Ocean at Jenner.

Laguna de Santa Rosa

The Laguna de Santa Rosa is the largest tributary of the Russian River.[citation needed] It is 14 miles (23 km) long, running north from Cotati to the Russian River near Forestville. Its flood plain is more than 7,500 acres (30 km²). It drains a 254 square mile (658 km²) watershed, including most of the Santa Rosa Plain.

The Laguna de Santa Rosa Foundation says [2],

"The Laguna de Santa Rosa is Sonoma County's richest area of wildlife habitat, and the most biologically diverse region of Sonoma County (itself the second-most biologically diverse county in California). ... It is a unique ecological system covering more than 30,000 acres (120 km²) and comprised of a mosaic of creeks, open water, perennial marshes, seasonal wetlands, riparian forests, oak woodlands and grasslands. ... As the receiving water of a watershed where most of the county's human population lives, it is a landscape feature of critical importance to Sonoma County's water quality, flood control, and biodiversity."

The Laguna's largest tributary is Santa Rosa Creek, which runs through Santa Rosa. Its major tributaries are Brush Creek, Mark West Creek, Matanzas Creek, Spring Creek and Piner Creek.

Other water bodies

The boundary with Marin County runs from the mouth of the [[Estero Americano] at Bodega Bay, up [[Americano Creek], then overland to San Antonio Creek and down the Petaluma River to its mouth at the northwest corner of San Pablo Bay.

The Petaluma River, Tolay Creek, and Sonoma Creek enter the bay at the county's southernmost tip. The intertidal zone where they join the bay is the vast Napa Sonoma Marsh.

Americano Creek, the Petaluma River, Tolay Creek, and Sonoma Creek are the principal streams draining the southern portion of the county. The Sonoma Valley is drained by Sonoma Creek, whose major tributaries are Yulupa Creek, Graham Creek, Calabazas Creek, Schell Creek and Carriger Creek; Arroyo Seco Creek is tributary to Schell Creek.

Lakes and reservoirs in the county include Lake Sonoma, Tolay Lake, Lake Ilsanjo, Santa Rosa Creek Reservoir, Lake Ralphine, and Fountaingrove Lake.

History

The Pomo, Coast Miwok and Wappo peoples were the earliest human settlers of Sonoma County, between 5000 to 8000 BC, effectively living within the natural carrying capacity of the land. Spaniards, Russians, and other Europeans claimed and settled in the county from the late 16th to mid 19th century, seeking timber, fur, and farmland. Sonoma was one of California's original counties, created at the time of statehood in 1850. It contains many historical monuments.

The Mission San Francisco Solano, founded in 1823 as the last and northernmost of 21 California missions, is in the present City of Sonoma, at the northern end of El Camino Real. El Presidio de Sonoma, or Sonoma Barracks (part of Spain's Fourth Military District), was established in 1836 by Comandante General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo. His duties included keeping an eye on the Russian traders at Fort Ross, secularizing the Mission, maintaining cooperation with the Native Americans of the entire region, and doling out the lands for large estates and ranches. The City of Sonoma was the site of the Bear Flag Revolt in 1846.

Six nations have claimed Sonoma County from 1542 to the present:

Spanish Empire, 1542, by sea, voyage of Juan Rodríguez Cabrillo as far as the Russian River. Later validated by voyage of Sebastián Vizcaíno, 1602.
Kingdom of England, June 1579, voyage of the Golden Hind under Captain Francis Drake at Bodega Bay (exact location disputed).
Spanish Empire, October 1775, the Sonora at Bodega Bay, under Lt. Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra until 1821, when Mexico gained Independence from Spain.
Russian Empire, by Russian-American Company expedition led by Ivan Alexandrovich Kuskov, the founder of Fort Ross and, from 1812 to 1821, its colonial administrator. Note: There is an overlap of rule with the Mexican Empire (next item), until the Russians sold Fort Ross in 1841 to John Sutter, before leaving the area in 1842.
First Mexican Empire, 24 August 1821, under Emperor Agustin Iturbide (October 1822, probable time new flag raised in California) until 1823.
Mexican Republic, 1823 until June 1846.
California Republic, 14 June 1846 until 9 July 1846.
United States of America, 9 July 1846 to present.

Etymology

According to the book California Place Names, "The name of the Indian tribe is mentioned in baptismal records of 1815 as Chucuines o Sonomas, by Chamisso in 1816 as Sonomi, and repeatedly in Mission records of the following years." [5]

According to the Coast Miwok and the Pomo tribes that lived in the region, Sonoma translates "valley of the moon" or "many moons". Their legends detail this as a land where the moon nestled, hence the names Sonoma Valley and The Valley of the Moon. (May,Indian Country) This translation was first recorded in an 1850 report by General Mariano Guadalupe Vallejo to the California Legislature. (Hanna, p. 311). Jack London popularized it in his 1913 novel The Valley of the Moon

In the native languages there is also a constantly recurring ending tso-noma, from tso, the earth; and noma, village; hence tsonoma, ‘earth village’.[6] Other sources say Sonoma comes from the Patwin tribes west of the Sacramento River, and their Wintu word for "nose". Per California Place Names, "the name is doubtless derived from a Patwin word for 'nose', which Padre Arroyo (Vocabularies, p. 22) gives as sonom (Suisun)."

Bowman(CFQ 5:300-302 [1946]) theorizes that Spaniards found an Indian chief with a prominent protuberance and applied the nickname of Chief Nose to the village and the territory (cf. Alfred L. Kroeber, AAE 29:354 [1932]). Beeler believes the name applied originally to a nose-shaped geographic feature (WF 13:268-72 [1954])[5]

Demographics

At the 2000 census², there were 458,614 people, 172,403 households, and 112,406 families in Sonoma County. The population density was 291/sq mi (112/km²). There were 183,153 housing units at an average density of 116/sq mi (45/km²).

The racial makeup was 81.60% White, 1.42% Black or African American, 1.18% Native American, 3.07% Asian, 0.20% Pacific Islander, 8.44% of other races, and 4.09% of two or more races. 17.34% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. 12.1% were of German, 10.6% Irish, 9.8% English and 8.9% Italian ancestry according to Census 2000. 80.4% spoke English and 13.8% Spanish as their first language.

Of the 172,403 households, 50.30% were married couples living together, 34.80% were non-families, and 10.40% had a female householder with no husband present. 31.90% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 25.70% were individuals, and 10.00% were 65 years of age or older living alone. The average household size was 2.60, and the average family size was 3.12.

The median age was 38 years. 24.50% were under 18, 8.80% from 18 to 24, 29.20% from 25 to 44, 24.90% from 45 to 64, and 12.60% were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 97 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 94 males.

The median household income was $53,076, and the median family income was $61,921. Males had a median income of $42,035, females $32,022. The per capita income for the county was $25,724. About 4.70% of families and 8.10% of the population were below the poverty line, including 8.40% of those under age 18 and 5.70% of those age 65 or over.

Government

Sonoma County's governing board and legislative body is a five-member Board of Supervisors [3]. Supervisors are elected by district [4], at the Consolidated Primary Election, and serve for four years. The Supervisors also sit as directors of several local jurisdictions, such as the Water Agency [5], and Agricultural Preservation & Open Space District [6].

Three current Supervisors were elected in 2004: Valerie Brown (1st District), Tim Smith (3rd District), and Mike Reilly (5th District); and two in 2006: Mike Kerns (2nd District) and Paul L. Kelley (4th District). Supervisor Brown is the current Chairwoman. The Supervisors appoint the members of 59 boards, commissions, and committees [7].

The County Administrator [8] is the county's chief executive officer, reporting to the Board of Supervisors. The administrator (currently Bob Deis) manages the county's departments, such as the regional parks department.

Cities and towns

Sonoma County has nine incorporated municipalities: eight cities and the Town of Windsor. In order of 2006 estimated population, they are[7]: Santa Rosa (154,212), Petaluma (54,660), Rohnert Park (41,083), Windsor (25,294), Healdsburg (10,961), Sonoma (9,897), Cloverdale (8,129), Sebastopol (7,557), and Cotati (7,170).

Unincorporated Communities A-C Unincorporated Communities D-G Unincorporated Communities H-N Unincorporated Communities O-Z

Adjacent counties

Places of interest

Languages
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