Date: Wednesday, April 2
Time: 2:00 – 4:00 p.m.
Location: Ridge Vineyards
Cost: Free
Join Sonoma RCD and Ridge Vineyards for a tour of hedgerow projects that provide habitat for pollinators, pest predators, and wildlife in the vineyard. Participants will learn about the multiple benefits of hedgerows and how they can serve as a valuable part of the overall farm management system.
Speakers
David Gates, Jr. is Senior Vice President of Vineyard Operations for Ridge Vineyards. David grew up on a hundred-and-sixty acre farm in central Minnesota, and decided to escape the cold winters by coming to California for school. His love of plants and agriculture led him to UC Davis, where he received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Viticulture, and met and married his wife, Donna. After an obligatory stint in Napa Valley, he made his way to Ridge in 1989. David’s duties include managing the historic Monte Bello vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains, the Whitton Ranch at Geyserville, and the Lytton Estate vineyards at Healdsburg, as well as monitoring and helping all Ridge growers in Sonoma, Napa, Santa Clara, Contra Costa and San Luis Obispo Counties.
Keith has been active in agriculture for over thirty-five years, as a producer and advocate of sustainable agriculture. His expertise includes building on-farm soil health, optimizing water use efficiency and management, hedgerow design and implementation, and grower outreach and education. Keith provides technical assistance to farmers and rural landowners on the use of compost, cover crops, reduced tillage, soil sampling, native plant installation, precision irrigation, and more. Keith has been involved with agricultural enterprises and education since graduating from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 1990, where he received a B.A. in Environmental Studies/ agricultural ecology.
Maddy Kangas serves as a Monarch Butterfly Conservation Planner and NRCS Partner Biologist for the Central Coast of California, providing technical assistance on monarch conservation and habitat creation for producers, landowners, and land managers. Her previous work has included integrated pest and pollinator management, habitat restoration, and community outreach and education. Maddy completed her master’s degree in natural resources and environmental sciences at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, where she researched both native bee community composition and pest insect presence within agriculturally based pollinator habitat restorations.
