Sonoma County Battle Lines Drawn Over Grapevine Killer

As he awaits the coming spring, organic farmer Shepherd Bliss wonders which prospect poses a bigger threat to his county’s wholesome way of life: a pesky insect that endangers the local wine industry or what he calls the state’s draconian effort to eradicate it.

Like Bliss, anxious agricultural officials are watching for signs of the glassy-winged sharpshooter, a hardy half-inch bug that carries Pierce’s disease--an incurable virus that is plaguing California grapevines.

So far, the leaf-hopper has hitch-hiked its way to 13 counties aboard ornamental nursery shipments from Southern California, causing at least $100 million in losses--mostly in the state’s central and southern vineyards.

With nursery shipments hitting their busiest season this month, battle lines are being drawn across Northern California’s wine country.

But nowhere have tensions flared as they have in eco-sensitive Sonoma County, where armies of organic farmers coexist with a $2-billion-a-year wine industry.

What angers residents is a state plan that, in cases of serious infestation, would allow agricultural officials to seek a court order to spray pesticides on private property, even against the owner’s wishes.

Forced spraying is not only bad science, but it smacks of agricultural martial law, sacrificing the rights of individuals to protect the interests of big business, Bliss and others say. Although only one sharpshooter has been found in Sonoma County, infestations occurred last year in Butte, Contra Costa, Sacramento and Fresno counties.

“This is tantamount to chemical trespass and assault,” said Bliss, a member of the new No Spray Action Network who for 10 years has run a two-acre farm. “The issue here is quite simple: the wine industry’s wealth or our health. They gain, we lose. They benefit, we pay the health costs.”

State officials say their chosen pesticide--carbaryl--is an over-the-counter flea killer that is not harmful to humans and would be used only as a last resort.

The chemical has been applied on 3,133 private properties statewide without any incidents of forced spraying, they say.

In recent months, the pesticide debate has caused growing tensions between Sonoma County’s 654 organic farmers--whose numbers are second only to those of San Diego County--and about 225 winemakers who produce some of the nation’s most popular brands, including Clos Du Bois, Kendall-Jackson, Geyser Peak, Kenwood, Gallo and Korbel sparkling wine.

In 1999, the last year for which figures were available, grape growers represented 56% of Sonoma County’s agricultural production. And officials say the figure could soon reach 70%.

“Sonoma County is among the country’s most prosperous wine producers. So this is ground zero--the place where the battle over the glassy-winged sharpshooter is going to take place for the entire state,” Bliss said. Pete Opatz, vineyard manager for the Clos Du Bois winery in Geyserville, said many Sonoma County residents resent the wine industry because much of the area’s agricultural land has been converted to grape growing.

“For most people, forced spraying isn’t an easy pill to swallow,” he said. “I myself wouldn’t want storm troopers invading my property. And that’s the way it’s been posed: Big Brother is coming.”

Now the issue is forging an unusual alliance of politicians and activists in this environmentally conscious county. Last month, three cities--Sebastopol, Sonoma and Windsor--passed resolutions against the state’s sharpshooter control program, which had been approved by the county Board of Supervisors. Santa Rosa recently deadlocked on a similar resolution.

Although the moves carry no legal weight, they suggest a growing tide that has been joined by a cross-section of doctors and artists, teachers and parents.

Activists are circulating petitions and staging seminars on methods of nonviolent civil disobedience--a grass-roots protest that they say harks back to the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. and environmentalist Rachel Carson.

Seeking to avoid what they call the insanity of state-sanctioned helicopters that once sprayed malathion to eliminate the Medfly, organizers say their tactics could include locking arms in a human blockade to prevent officials from reaching private land.

“Once again, state officials are throwing around war terminology, saying they’re ready to employ weapons of war against this insect,” said Sonoma City Councilman Larry Barnett. “Well, when the state starts its search-and-destroy mission, we don’t want to become collateral damage.”

But there is also a hinted threat of violence by such activists as an organic winemaker who has joined the no-spray ranks.

At his winery in Forestville, an hour north of San Francisco, Michael Topolos has hung signs meant to warn state officials against forced spraying.

“Any chemical trespass will be prosecuted, but first they’re going to have to deal with me--and I’ll be out there with my shotgun,” said Topolos, owner of Topolos at Russian River Vineyards.

Sonoma County Agricultural Commissioner John Westoby is concerned over the potential violence. “We know there’s a possibility for problems, but we just hope that we don’t find the sharpshooter to begin with,” he said.

Nick Frey, director of the Sonoma County Grape Growers Assn., says residents have unfairly charged his industry with muscling aside personal property rights: “Would they take the same position if a colony of fire ants was found near a public park where families picnic? Or an African bee colony turned up in a yard near a playground?

“This insect isn’t the first dangerous pest to invade California and it won’t be the last. So, do we deal with it right now, or just sit back and see what happens with our crops?”

But Marc Lappe, a toxicologist and former head of the state hazards evaluation system, says carbaryl isn’t a harmless flea spray.

“Over time, if repeatedly used, it could pose a danger, particularly for kids and newborns,” said Lappe, director of the Center for Ethics and Toxics. “Mixtures of pesticides including carbaryl have also been associated with some types of cancer.”

State officials deny the claim.

“I don’t like to say that any chemical is safe and harmless, but they can be used in a safe and harmless manner,” said Peter Kurtz, senior medical coordinator for the state Department of Food and Agriculture. “And research shows that carbaryl does not represent a significant hazard to the public when used according to its label instructions.”

Pierce’s disease first appeared in 1998 in Temecula, where some growers have lost 30% of their vines to it.

Bob Wynn, the Pierce’s disease control program coordinator for the state agriculture department, said every county south of Kern has been infested with the insect. Under the terms of a bill passed by legislators last summer, state officials will spend $20 million this year alone--using rigorous inspections and spraying--to ensure that Pierce’s does not spread to Northern California, officials say.

“The goal is to stop this insect from moving north,” he said. “If not checked, it could devastate the entire Northern California wine industry and other crops as well.”

The sharpshooter feeds on a plant’s xylem, or water-conducting tissues, transmitting a bacteria called Xyella fastidiosa. The disease creates a gummy material that blocks the vine’s ability to move water and nutrients, ultimately killing the plant, officials say.

Officials will spend $4.5 million this year researching nonchemical alternatives to pesticide spraying--ranging from introducing parasitic wasps that feed on sharpshooter larvae to the long-term goal of developing grapevines that are resistant to the disease, Wynn said.

But officials say places like Sonoma County have to be patient.

“We’ve opened dialogues with cities to remind them that we’re doing everything we can,” Wynn said. “We’re looking for a solution for organic growers. But they need to understand that this insect must be stopped at almost any cost.”

Those words don’t sit well with Sebastopol Mayor Larry Robinson.

Last year, his city became the first in the area to ban all pesticide use on city property and launched an education campaign to encourage residents to give up their backyard chemicals.

Most county residents--more than 84% of whom voted in the last election, one of the highest percentages in the nation--strongly resent the state’s forced spraying plan and may take their concerns to the polls, he said.

The city’s stand against forced spraying has drawn interest elsewhere. Officials from Santa Cruz, San Luis Obispo and Mendocino County have already contacted him, Robinson said.

“People moved here from the Bay Area and other places to escape this kind of intrusion,” Robinson said. “We won’t stand for it.”

Activists say tense relations with area winemakers could be further strained once spraying starts. “Continuing this chemical madness could prompt an anti-wine-industry campaign,” Bliss said.

Standing among rows of organic boysenberries, Bliss said the prospect of chemical spraying on his land--which could cost him his organic growers certification for three years--almost prompted him to leave the county he has come to love.

“When I heard about the spraying, my first response was, ‘I’ve got to get out of here,’ and I started looking for land elsewhere,” he said. “But then I decided to stay and fight. This land is my soul.”

Under his goal to “farm without harm,” Bliss and others will keep trying to prompt state officials to drop their forced-spraying plans.

In a statement to the Santa Rosa City Council, he hinted at the violence that officials seek to avoid: “Let me be clear. If the poison-sprayers come to my land, they will spray only over my jailed or dead body.”

Although researchers say the glassy-winged sharpshooter has no known natural predators, Topolos said they haven’t visited his vineyards. “I’m not afraid of this insect,” he said, “because what I’ve created on my property is an oasis for bugs, and I say, ‘Let them work it out.’

”. . . My spiders would just as soon eat the sharpshooter as anything else. Those spiders are like the cats of the insect world. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see that.”