Sarah Keiser on Fire Mitigation with Sheep!

Scribe: Tom Boylan Editor: Natalie Lim Introduced by: JB Leep

President Pam Moulton rang. The bell at 7:30 and turned to guest Scott Bonin to lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

John How took us out to the ballgame and we all got to root root root for the Giants!

Wally Krutz gave us a Rotary moment letting us know his “ah-ha” moment, that moment that makes you look at life in a different kind of way. For Wally it was a Rotoplast trip to China to take care of children with cleft palate. The ability to be in the presence with the team of physicians and nurses, and the children made the trip inspirational, but it was one of the last patients of the day, when a young child was being taken to recovery when the child’s parents rushed him and he was caught off guard. What he initially thought were screams of anger, became excited cries of joy. Handing the child to the parents made him feel the power of his Rotary moment.

Rotarians on ZOOM:

• Heather Cullen, John LeCave, Mike Freedman, Chris Landwher, Beth Smith, and Karen Ricketts.

Visitors to our meeting:

• JB Leep welcomed Rodrigo, and Sarah Keiser, our speaker for the day.
• Barbara McChesney welcomed Terry Andreschotti from Forestville.
• Dr. Scott Bunin was introduced by former dentist Kurt Michener

Pres Pam gave us an update on the Board meeting. A lot was discussed and it shows how hard the Board has been working. Here are the notes from the whirlwind presentation:

BUDGET (Carol and Ed)

• All Good!

YOUTH (Pegi)

• Great Chance for Interact to start up – Community Based model for 12 – 18 year-olds
• Both LONG TERM and SHORT-TERM student exchange paperwork is in – start in 2022
• Dictionary Project is ON and will be held in February 2022
• GOLF TOURNAMENT in Arcata (9/25/21) to support fund for clubs and students in Youth Exchange
• SERIOUS consideration for Youth Exchange to hold Golf Tournament in May in Windsor (stay tuned!!)

CLUB OPERATIONS (Chris)

• All is good with calendar that Chris sent out with assignments – if you CAN’T do what you are assigned – Please get a replacement.
• We are including ZOOM meisters to assist on a weekly basis to support MJ and JB

RECOGNITION (DOUG)

• LOTS OF options to recognize our local First responders – banners? Meetings? Coffee vouchers?
• Maybe a program related to what goes on with our Fire Fighters when they are deployed
• OUR Veteran’s Day event will be on NOVEMBER 16th – looking at options to honor Vets

FOUNDATION

• NO NEW POLIO CASES

Club Culture (Joan)

• Socials are being discussed once SCARC is over, including a hike in Jenner, a Social at Barbara McChesney’s home, a trip on the Smart Train, a Strolling Social, etc.

COMMUNICATION (John LeCave, Wally and JB)

• DACdb is where we will hold all our documents , including calendar, etc
• Some of you need to UPDATE your PHOTOS PLEASE
• Please use BCC when emailing many in the club so as to conceal personal emails
• Website is likely to go live around SEPTEMBER 10th

ENVIRONMENTAL COMMITTEE (Barbara McChesney)

• Monthly calendar on DAC will detail upcoming events for volunteerism/education

SERVICE (Sue Nelson and Susan Cole)

• both Local and International Committee mtgs scheduled (8/24/21 and 8/31/21)
• highlighting International history of Windsor Rotary Club

FUNDRAISING

• Board to start discussion of Fundraising issues/needs etc at special meeting
• Steve Klick shared there is a September 11th chili cook off to support families of First Responders. He needs people to serve… above self, and talk to others about Rotary.

Barbara McChesney gave us an update on ESRAG. She is now the chair for the District ESRAG committee, or as Pres Pam alluded to, the Queen of the environment.

On the 26th of August JB Leep needs a few volunteers to help at the “Summer Nights on the Green” to help recycle those drink cups we plan to be selling, and more.

Pegi Ball let us know that Tina Castelli let her know there is a Mimosa Booth being manned by Lions, but their license is out of order, so Rotary is being asked to take over the booth for Sundays in August, September, and October… It turns out we are all tucked in at home enjoying Mimosa’s.

Bill Bolster invited Maureen Merrill to the front and center so he could recognize Maureen’s year as the president of our COVID club. She brought us ZOOM, and kept us together.

Renee Hyde stepped forward and invited Mike Rausch to stand and be recognized as a returning member. Rotary is what he does when not running the Windsor Police Department. Brian Williams is back and offering Rotarians tickets to the September 3rd Windsor High football game.

The secret greeter for today was Barbara McChesney… she quickly sent notice that there were only three people were not greet full and that is $5 each.

JB Leep took over the mic to let us know that he had to change computers and that gave him an opportunity to promote Wasteless Windsor, by manning the booth, conveniently located across from the Windsor Bar.

PROGRAM

After the commercial, JB introduced Sarah Kaiser, with Wild Oak Hollow natural soaps and more, but her other business and the topic for the day was presented as the director of the Penngrove grazing program that places sheep in grassy areas around Sonoma County to help reduce the risk of wildfires.

Sheep and goats together are called a fled, which consists of ruminants (cud chewing) animals.

Wild urban interface is the target for the program and placing the right animal in the right setting is key to its success. Sarah let us know that her roots in the Midwest gives her a background of community support. She started her current program seven years ago.

Animals are the best way to knock down fire fuel, because fires typically start with mowing machines, whereas animals can benefit the land with their ability to provide soil benefits with their droppings and their urine. We also learned that the hooves of the animals tend to allow for aerating the land.

Ruminants are shared by community, because the animals are herded from one neighbor to another. According to Sarah, these animals become the neighborhood ambassadors. The process of moving animals on the hoof is known as transhumance, which would allow animals to pass from one property to the next with a safe place for passage similar to pedestrian access.

A visual aid showed how the grazed areas on one side of a fence showed no impact from fire, while the other side of the fence showed the scars and blackened land where fire had taken a toll on the land.

Intersectional Land Stewardship is a program that develops recommendations to promote partnerships with multiple agencies to coordinate the work that has proven successful for fighting fires with grazing animals. The success of the program can be shared worldwide as we see the increase of fires due to climate change. For more information on this organic fire fighting method, visit Sarah’s website at Wildoathollow.com/community-grazing-cooperatives, or feel free to reach out to Sarah via email at Sarah.keiser@wildoathollow.