The buzzword for California planning in the 21st century has been “resilience.”
Sonoma County has seen more cause than some for this to be a cornerstone of organizational development. Fires, drought, and storms have given Alliance Redwoods different measures of difficulty every year, be it evacuations, power outages, flooding, property damage, or dry wells. In pursuit of resilience, Alliance Redwoods has just completed and began several infrastructural improvements.
For almost 30 years, Jim Blake worked to provide Alliance Redwoods with its own water system, partnering with the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District as well as Camp Meeker and Occidental to create its own water utility. The ribbon was cut on this new system in May 2025, at Jim Blake’s retirement weekend, after decades of hard work.
At the same weekend, the ground was broken on a new solar installation, the largest of its kind in Sonoma County.
This solar farm, built in partnership with Vital Energy, will allow the camp to save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on power as well as provide it with sustainable, clean energy.
And finally, as a part of the solar installation, Alliance Redwoods received a $4.1 million dollar award from the U.S. Department of Energy as a part of the Critical Facility Energy Resilience Program. Working with Inlyte Energy, Alliance Redwoods will be outfitted with a 200kW/4MWh battery system to store power for emergencies, eliminating the need for gas generators in a crisis and allowing ARCG to provide power for neighboring properties as well.
