In 2015 we set up an automatic camera in protected forestland near our organic vineyards to learn more about the local wildlife.  The camera was placed at a spring high up the mountain.  What a surprise it was to discover that so many animals visited to bathe and drink, including bears, foxes, deer, and many species of birds.  The abundance of bears was especially surprising, as the shy and elusive creature is rarely spotted in person.

Another surprise was footage of a fisher (Pekania pennanti), a sleek and cat-like member of the weasel family, widespread in Canada.  A narrow branch of their territory reaches southward to the northern Rocky Mountains, the Cascade Range in Oregon, the High Sierras, and amazingly along the Northern Coast Range of California where Frey Vineyards is located.  It’s a beautiful creature that needs forestland to survive. 

In 2016 we added a second camera at a bear wallow about a half mile from the first camera.  Familiar faces appeared such as one particularly large, tranquil behemoth of a bear, as well as a wary bear always looking over his shoulder.  In the following years we added a couple more cameras, most of which were lost in the great fire that swept through our area in 2017.  The one that survived captured scenes of a slow-moving forest fire, which we’ll post soon.

The wildlife just a short walk from our home and vineyards reminds us about the importance of farming sustainably and organically, without synthetic pesticide drift to contaminate the water and ecosystems that sustain all of us.  We hope you support organic food production by choosing organic when you can.