[env-trinity] Promoting the Delta diversity

[Josh Allen]

Promoting the Delta diversity


Efforts are gearing up to lure visitors to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta with an extensive trail system and activities that tap into the area's farming history


By M.S. Enkoji - Bee Staff Writer


Last Updated 6:25 am PDT Monday, October 15, 2007
Story appeared in MAIN NEWS section, Page A1

http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/433006.html 

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Tim Neuharth farms about 300 acres on Sutter Island in the Delta near Courtland. He'd like to open up his farm to visitors from the city so they can get a taste of the bucolic lifestyle of the area. The idea to develop agritourism is gaining support, as is a plan to create a multi-use recreational trail in the Delta. Sacramento Bee/Anne Chadwick Williams

As autumn chilled the Sacramento Delta, Tim Neuharth steered his pickup truck down off a levee road, into a thick stand of pear trees, an orchard that rooted 100 years ago.

Pears here. Grapevines over there. Cherry trees ahead. After generations of farming, as much as $2 billion in bounty springs every year from the almost 323,000 acres of Delta farms, this levee-laced land that was once tidal marsh.

Neuharth would like nothing better than to show off his share to people who live and work in cities, viewing concrete and glass all day long. 

"For me, it's about enlightening other people so they know what 'ag' is all about," said Neuharth, 58. "It's surprising how few people know the Delta is here. The Delta is the Everglades of the West."

Agritourism, the idea of luring city dwellers out to farms and ranches where they drop tourist dollars and gain an appreciation for agriculture, is growing in the Delta alongside the vineyards and pears and nearly as fast as Neuharth's alfalfa fields.

In other regions where agritourism flourishes, visitors can take cooking classes on a ranch, get married in a vineyard, paint a canvas in an orchard, pick their own strawberries or maybe impersonate a cowboy on a dude ranch.

"It's fun and enjoyable, and it's profitable," said Neuharth, who is contemplating hay rides and pumpkin patches as a way to directly sell his produce.

The Discover the Delta Foundation is already raising money to open near Rio Vista a $2.5 million visitors center, possibly next summer, that would promote the region's farms, its historical and ethnic heritage. Hordes of visitors already swarm to the Delta for annual festivals heralding the pear crop and crawfish.

State legislators have backed a bill that initiates planning for what will be called the Great California Delta Trail, an asset that could ignite another segment of the tourist industry for the Delta, already a fishing and boating haven.

The multi-use trail would meander on the Delta's levee tops through one of the state's richest agriculture and wildlife regions. Slicing through Sacramento County, the trail would run through five counties, ending in Yolo County.

State legislation passed last year gave the Delta Protection Commission the authority to plan the trail, though building the trail will largely be done by local governments in the region. Another companion piece of legislation that would have increased funding opportunities was vetoed by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Saturday, but won't significantly change the project's future, according to Delta planners.

Eventually, the trail would link to one encircling the Bay Area. The Bay Trail is about 300 miles so far, reaching into Contra Costa County.

A Delta trail for paddling, hiking, biking and horseback riding will draw more visitors into an agriculture showplace and ensure habitat preservation for wildlife, said Linda Fiack, executive director of the Delta Protection Commission.

The commission, a state agency that monitors the Delta and protects resources, is already canvassing Delta communities to see how they would like to shape the project, Fiack said.

A finished plan is probably 2 1/2 years away, she said.

It's not a slam-dunk, supporters concede. Getting funding and right-of-ways on private land and establishing a suitable route away from traffic remain the major challenges.

The payoffs warrant the effort, said Democratic state Sen. Tom Torlakson, who lives in Antioch and commutes to the capital through the Delta. "I run it; I bike it; I swim it," he said. "It's a recreation paradise."

He carried both pieces of legislation for the trail because of his kinship to the West Coast's largest estuary and what he sees as the economic vitality of the slowly eroding agriculture lifestyle.

"When you look at growth, the outer Bay Area is growing so fast, you know this area is going to be vital," he said. As agriculture incomes grow less stable, the opportunity for complementary businesses, such as bed and breakfast places, becomes critical, Torlakson said.

Continue reading on next page <http://www.sacbee.com/749/story/433006-p2.html> 

 


About the writer:


*	The Bee's M.S. Enkoji can be reached at (916) 321-1106 or menkoji at sacbee.com.

 

Courtland celebrates the fruit crop that built the town with its annual pear festival, welcoming 8,000 to 10,000 tourists to town. Sacramento Bee file, 2007/Renée C. Byer

 

Isleton cooks up about 15,000 pounds of crawfish for its annual festival, which draws about 40,000 people to the tiny Delta town. Sacramento Bee file, 2006/Lezlie Sterling

 

The Delta, a fishing and boating haven, lures water users with about 1,000 miles of waterways, levees and shorelines to explore. Sacramento Bee file, 2003/Bryan Patrick

 

 

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