NAPA >> Last weekend, Rep. Mike Thompson (D-4th) honored Clay Shannon, wine vineyard owner for his efforts to adhere to sustainable farming practices.
Thompson announced 2024 Lake County Climate Crisis Champion “In 2018, Mr. Shannon began farming his 2,500 acres of land organically. Mr. Shannon’s work to advance environmental stewardship in the 4th District’s farming community is inspiring, and I am honored to name him a Climate Crisis Champion,” said Rep. Thompson in a press release.
Rep. Thompson awarded this year’s Climate Crisis Champions across each of the five counties in the 4th District: Lake, Napa, Solano, Sonoma, and Yolo. Through their advocacy, Champions are helping to build a more sustainable future for all, said his office.
Shannon said they are “sheeping” (introduce grazing livestock) the vineyards. And Shannon noted he is serious enough to have acquired 1,000 head of sheep and serious enough to have those sheep run through their vineyards from post-harvest to Bud break. “It’s bud break now, so these sheep are leaving our vineyards and going into our non-crop areas on another ranch next week to keep the weeds and grass down, so we don’t have to weed spray and mow and burn fossil fuels and if we leave the grass high we’ll have potential fires and get smoke damage in the fruit and fires also harm the clean air in Lake County,” he said.
He said the average grower would be herbicide spraying in November through January using contact and pre- emergent herbicides. “These herbicides leech into the groundwater. When we sheep the vineyards, we’re not using herbicides.”
Shannon added that since going organic they have learned what sustainability is. Sustainability, explained Shannon, is to sustain a business. “And keeping our employees and families fed, and keeping our bills paid, which keeps other families fed, that’s a big part of sustainability to me,” he said. Sustainability is also about preserving the Earth and the air, we breathe and leaving it in better condition than when we arrived and setting up the future generations for healthy safe, successful lives.
Where they formerly used to fertilize the vineyards with fossil fueled based fertilizers, they went back to traditional agriculture, where they rotate crops and plant nitrogen fixing plants, to create the nitrogen to build carbon in the soil, to build porosity and ability to hold moisture and nutrients and just by doing that over the last several or more years, they were able to almost double the yields they were getting off their organic vines so now it is comparable to what they were getting when they were farming their vines chemically. However, the big difference is the flavor, since they now have a living soil down in the ground. The microorganisms are all at work in the soil and making nutrients available to the vines to make more fruit.
They think by sheeping the vineyards on the natural clover that grows on the mountain vineyards, the sheep will provide, by their manure, enough fertility to where the farm can stop fertilizing the vineyards. “That would be a huge asset by reducing the use of fossil fuels (and fertilizers),” he said. So, we’re building up our flock so, by a year from now, we’ll have a 2,000 head of sheep.
A complete listing of 2024 winning candidates comprise the following:
Clay Shannon (Lake)
Napa Schools for Climate Action (Napa)
Ian Anderson (Solano)
Dr. Lisa Micheli (Sonoma)
Maria Contreras Tebbutt (Yolo)
According to Lauren Ott from Rep. Thompson’s office, they had roughly 50 people in attendance at the Climate Crisis Champions Awards last weekend. All the awardees were in attendance, along with Napa County Supervisor Anne Cottrell and Napa County Supervisor-Elect Amber Manfree.
