Select Page

About Lafferty

 

Protecting Petaluma’s Wildlife

Alternative Park Options

History of Lafferty

Our Story

The mission of the Sonoma Mountain Conservancy is to protect Sonoma Mountain’s natural resources.

As such, we seek an end to the development of the Lafferty Ranch property. Due to its sensitive nature, unrestricted access to the Lafferty Ranch poses a serious threat to imperiled wildlife, critical habitat for fully protected species, and a safety hazard for residents and visitors.

Biologists, fire departments, and residents agree that pursuing Lafferty as a park is an ill advised pet project of a small group of politically connected individuals who are attempting to conceal the risks of the project from the public. 

Lafferty presents enormous ongoing financial and environmental costs that will far outweigh any potential public benefit.

Environmental Issues

During an eventually failed mediation process between the Friends of Lafferty Park and opponents, biologists Jeff Wilcox and Jeff Alvarez were hired as environmental consultants to provide expertise. Their findings were that the proposed project would numerous several protected species at risk which are confirmed to reside at Lafferty:

California red legged frog (threatened), Foothill yellow legged frog (special status), California giant salamander (special status), Western pond turtle (special status), Central Coast steelhead (threatened), Golden eagle (fully protected), White tailed kite (fully protected), and the Grasshopper sparrow (special concern).

Over the last century this sensitive riparian ecosystem was heavily degraded by municipal water diversion. The City of Petaluma now obtains all of its water from other sources and the water diversion facilities were officially closed in the fall of 1992. As the City began the process of surplusing the property a small group, known as “Friends of Lafferty Park,” started a campaign to instead have the property developed into a City Park. Due to multiple political, environmental and regulatory issues the property has sat undisturbed for the last 3 decades during which time the natural pre-disturbance riparian ecosystem began to reestablish itself. The site now contains a series of sensitive wetlands now known to be occupied by a number of fully protected threatened and endangered species.

As a method of sidestepping this process, the Friends of Lafferty are continually attempting to open the park in a piecemeal fashion. As a method of evading blame and liability, the City of Petaluma has contracted LandPaths to build trails and lead tours on Lafferty park. The group effectively acts under the complete discretion of the Friends of Lafferty Park. Under the disguise of “docent led” tours, of which the majority of docents are members of Friends of Lafferty, the group has tried to establish a presence on the property until they can no longer be removed. They will continue to install infrastructure until they are legally forced to stop doing so, at which point they are hoping it will be too late for the regulatory agencies to do anything about it.

An environmental impact report was prepared in the 90’s for the project however the site and the regulatory environment has changed dramatically since the project was conceived 30 years ago. The cost to amend the EIR has become astronomical along with the restrictions such a project would now face. In an attempt to circumvent this the Friends of Lafferty have attempted to begin developing the site while circumventing this process which has already resulted in enforcement actions by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.

In addition a number of other barriers still remain preventing Lafferty from becoming a park. There is still no legal access to the property for purposes beyond maintaining a water utility, and the project has received an immense opposition from fire and transportation officials as posing a safety hazard for the public. In 2011 the City of Petaluma and Friends of Lafferty engaged in a lawsuit lasting almost a decade attempting to establish access for a park which ultimately again ended unsuccessfully. 

Protected Species

Red Legged Frog photo

California Red-legged frog

Red Legged Frog photo

Foothill yellow legged frog (special status)

Giant Salamander in Adobe Creek

California giant salamander (special status)

Western Pond Turtle photo

Western pond turtle (special status)

Close up photo of Golden Eagle

Golden eagle (fully protected)

Breeding pairs of Golden Eagles have been well documented on the South side of Sonoma Mountain for decades.

Steelhead in Adobe Creek photo

Central Coast steelhead (threatened)

White-tailed kite perched on a branch

White tailed kite (fully protected)

Fire:

I ran some calculations using essentially the same data as used in the report…when that first Rancho Adobe engine arrived the fire would be to the top of the hill and out of their reach. They would have neither the equipment or the personnel to follow that fire up the slope. An attack from the bottom to contain flanks would require at least 2 district and 2 CDF engines to be effective. Additionally their progress would be such that they would never catch the head of the fire.”

Excerpt from fire safety analysis completed by Roy Sprague, California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection

Alternative Park Options

Lafferty Ranch is poised to be prohibitively expensive to develop and only accessible to a limited number of people.

In Sonoma County, there are 50 regional and 11 state parks, many of which are already underfunded and lack proper infrastructure. Instead of bolstering these existing spaces or acquiring new, more accessible land, millions would have to be allocated to even make Lafferty Ranch accessible. The funding required for safety improvements to Sonoma Mountain Road is estimated to cost upwards of $5 million alone. Lafferty has no real trails and no infrastructure yet, and installing those things will be extremely costly. Given these figures, it is worth noting that Petaluma’s road infrastructure and existing open spaces are among the least developed in the county, and that the challenging landscape and terrain of Lafferty Ranch means it will only be accessible to a select few. 

Flowers in field with sun poking through the trees

History

The original inhabitants of Lafferty were the Coastal Miwok and Wappo people. They lived off the bounty of Sonoma Mountain for centuries before Spanish settlers arrived. This began the era of agricultural operations in the area. General Vallejo’s “Rancho Petaluma” encompassed most of Sonoma Mountain. His lands were parceled off, and in 1877, Marshall Lafferty purchased what is now the “Lafferty Ranch.” The property went through multiple owners, and eventually fell into the hands of the City of Petaluma. For many years, the property supplied all the water for Petaluma. In 1992, the water facilities at Lafferty were abandoned, favoring removal of water from the Russian River. At this time, a small group of local politicians set sights on Lafferty for use as a regional park. 

They faced decades of resistance from locals and conservation groups, who knew that Lafferty was unsafe to be a park and that constructing it would negatively affect the ecosystem. Still now, 30 years later, Sonoma Mountain Conservancy exists as an entity to protect and preserve Lafferty Ranch in perpetuity.