California Wildfires and the Wine Community - What You Need To Know
Wildfire season has begun. Earlier this week, more than 10,849 lightning strikes started more than 367 fires in three days across the state of California. At the time of writing, fires are burning across more than 343,000 acres, with several major wine regions across Northern and Southern California affected.
With the 2020 harvest only days in, wine country communities up and down the state braced for another life-threatening fire season, with many still recovering from the tragic events of 2017, 2018 and 2019.
As of Thursday, August 20th, the fires mostly remain uncontained. Given the high heat advisory, and limited resources, containment is some time away. It’s an unfathomable situation but for those who are interested in understanding more about these conditions, here is what you need to know.
The most active fires impacting wine regions are:
LNU Lightning Complex – including Napa County, Sonoma County, Lake County Solano County and Yolo County.
CZU August Lightning Complex - Santa Cruz and San Mateo counties
SCU Lightning Complex including Santa Clara County, Alameda County, Contra Costa County, San Joaquin County, and Stanislaus County.
River Fire – Monterey County
(Source: CAL FIRE Incident Reports)
Watching this unfold from a distance is heart-wrenching, so here are some reminders on ways that you can be helpful at this time:
1. Use News Sources for Reliable Updates.
The major daily news outlets provide reliable updates through online, social media and print. The LA Times Wildfires Map, Monterey Herald and KSBW for Southern California fires, and The Press Democrat and SF Gate (San Francisco Chronicle) and The Mercury News for the Northern California are useful and credible sources.
2. Read, Follow and Share Credible Information.
Cal Fire updates and NIXLE Alerts provide critical information on fire status for potentially impacted communities. Local vintner groups are managing updates to their respective communities, and they’re connected to the efforts of the local Fire response teams. Shout out to Sonoma journalist Sara Steirch for her tireless updates on road closures, evacuation updates and donation centers for Sonoma and Napa counties through her Twitter account @Sarah_Steirch.
3. Up Your California Wine Spend Online.
Californian wineries need your financial support more than ever, so consider directing your online wine purchases toward those producers located in the affected areas. Every bottle purchase helps.
4. Donate or volunteer your time.
Rescue and recovery efforts are underway and until the impacts are known in the coming days, it is difficult to ascertain what will be needed. The American Red Cross is a reliable place to start for disaster relief. You may also consider supporting the most vulnerable populations through organizations such as Undocufund.org or Sonoma Family Meal.
5. Check on Loved Ones, Family and Friends
Many in the community have been affected in ways we cannot understand. That gives us an opportunity to start a conversation, offer up an extra room, shelter or food for those in need. We are all connected somehow, and people need a little help. Especially now.
On top of everything going on in the world right now, it can feel impossible to find hope. But it is also through these incredible times of adversity and tragedy when we can also find safety and comfort in community and shared experience, and a safe space to be grateful for what we have.
Take care, everyone.
Namaste,
Beck
What We're Reading:
Here's what has piqued our interest this week in the world of wine and mindfulness.
A Call to Action for the Wine Industry: Diversity Organizations Need Your Support by Maryam Ahmed for Vinepair
Co-written by Maryam Ahmed, who created the Diversity in Wine Leadership Forum, and advisor Elaine Chukan Brown.
Five-Minute Coronavirus Stress Resets by Jenny Taitz for The New York Times
In this emotional equivalent to an ultramarathon, it’s key to have some stress-reducing strategies available that work quickly and efficiently to help you hit the reset button.
Foods That Battle Stress During the Coronavirus Pandemic by Elizabeth Bernstein for The Wall Street Journal
How to craft an eating plan to help manage your emotions.
5 Steps To Heal a Leaky Gut – ExperienceLife.com
Here are the “five Rs” — remove, replace, reinoculate, repair, and rebalance — of leaky-gut treatment.
Why I Chose to Go On a Silent Meditation Retreat – The News Pocket.com.au
Author Christine Jackman shares her perspective on “turning down the noise” on a meditation retreat.
Meet the Community!
Our community is only as strong as the company we keep, and here we meet some of the folks who make our profession so dynamic.
Jeff Harding, Beverage Director, Waverly Inn, (New York City, USA)
Years in the Industry:
Over 25 years bartending in downtown NYC, managing all over. Then the wine world, mainly at Waverly Inn.
My Biggest Challenge to Wellness:
We all have alcohol around us all the time, and it’s just too easy to escape the stress or emotional strife by having a drink (or more). Ostensibly it’s to relax, but often we’re escaping the issue that is not resolved. So that issue will probably come up again.
After a long time meditating now, I notice that my fuse is longer when something inevitably happens at work that is anger-making. I think if you have anger or fear and anxiety inside (who doesn’t?) and you expend energy suppressing it, when something small happens you are quicker to explode. I’ve found that a morning practice where you address these emotions lets you access them and open the steam valve in the privacy of your home. That way it takes much more to light the fuse later in the day. I definitely don’t always succeed.
How I Keep It Together To Stay Well:
It’s taken a LONG time to learn the importance of exercise, even just for a half hour walk each day. I’m trying lately to do that without my phone which is VERY hard.
After a couple of years I have also developed a very regular regime of mediation via Headspace. (I like the directed meditations, I could never just do it on my own.) Also ETF tapping has helped me tremendously with personal growth, anger management, learning about myself, professional growth and development, self-esteem and achieving goals.
Tapping is the main way I’ve learning to access these emotions I mentioned. It somehow allows your body to stay calm – it does this by connecting the meridians used in Chinese medicine – so that you are able to process ancient hurts or issues that you couldn’t handle at the time. Sometimes it’s just to identify why exactly you are stressed out or why some situation makes you angry. It’s sorta meditative, but the prompts by the app and localizing where in your body you feel an emotion are really great at helping work through it.
You can connect with Jeff on Instagram @jeffharding and Twitter @jeffharding or online at http://www.thisis.wine/
The Shoutout:
Spreading the love for those people who support A Balanced Glass in our endeavors in their own special way.
From the simple idea that by putting pen to paper we can reconnect, create community and stimulate self-love and kindness the Pen2Paper Project was born.
Join the Community.
Love reading the weekly news? Share the love!
If someone has passed along this weekly news, you can receive your own copy by signing up on the website here: Join the Community or at the A Balanced Glass Facebook Group.
You can also connect through Instagram @abalancedglass and Twitter @abalancedglass
