Mill operatioins supervisor Jeff Creque oversees the ecology of the 550-acre McEvoy Ranch.
Sometime in the next year, a 138-foot-tall wind tower on a grassy slope above the orchards of McEvoy Ranch will be up and generating the electricity needed by the organic olive oil operation nestled in a verdant corner of northeast Marin County.
The decision to harness the wind came during a lunchtime discussion with owner Nan McEvoy. "The sole impulse was to look at our energy footprint and do something about it," says mill operations supervisor Jeff Creque, who oversees the ecology of the 550-acre ranch. The largest organic olive oil producer in California, it supports 18,000 Tuscan-pedigree trees growing on 82 acres of picture-perfect countryside.
With McEvoy's support, Creque says, research began in earnest on the wind-power idea, first with a wind audit - the average wind speeds of 10 to 12 miles per hour on a treeless knoll were enough to sustain the project - followed by consultation on available turbine technology, today a world away from the 20-year-old machines that sit atop Altamont Pass in eastern Alameda and Contra Costa counties.
Landscape Says It All
The first project proposal to the Marin County Planning Commission, in 2005, was rejected - neighbors were concerned about the height of the turbine, its appearance, and the noise.
But earlier this year, the Marin County Board of Supervisors gave the project the go-ahead after the McEvoy team returned with modifications to the original plan - the turbine is shorter by 100 feet and will be installed closer to the center of the ranch than to the property line.
Switching from the electrical grid to wind is in keeping with what Creque describes as the ranch's philosophy of terroir, a French term that relates to special qualities of geography - a growing region's "sense of place" - which, in Mc-Evoy's case, means that the olives growing on the property grow there naturally, "soaking up the character of the natural environment they occupy," says Creque.
"Oil quality is paramount, and it's the single most important issue at the ranch," says Creque, who has a Ph.D. in rangeland ecology and 25 years of experience in orchard management. "And we realized that the only way to ensure quality was to produce our oil organically. The idea of allowing the landscape to express itself through the final product means we work with what's here, allowing the fruit to mature through natural processes."
What's there is a rolling landscape lined with olive trees representing the offspring of the first 1,000 saplings McEvoy imported from Tuscany when the ranch was founded in 1991. "For thousands of years, olive oil was made without synthetic materials, without herbicides or pesticides," says Creque.
"In reality, it is possible today to produce something truly natural and safe to eat," he adds, citing among other incentives: Some pesticides adhere to fats that can "potentially end up in the oil itself."
Taking Responsibility for the Ecosystem
This commitment to working alongside nature as an organic grower - and now a grower that is switching to renewable energy - has helped McEvoy Ranch to become a more sustainable operation.
When the turbine is switched on, the ranch will reduce the amount of carbon spewed into the atmosphere. And by being an organic producer, McEvoy Ranch is taking responsibility for what happens beyond its borders, which falls under the sustainable umbrella of ensuring that what grows there does not degrade the quality of the greater ecosystem.
Being organic is not just a matter of eschewing harmful chemicals. Certification covers all aspects of the growth cycle, including water sources. At McEvoy, the ponds are rain-fed, and the runoff water leaves the ranch as clean as it arrived.
"As an organic grower, we have accepted the responsibility for what happens both on and beyond our property," says Creque, "on ecological issues that range from watershed health and water quality to soil development and waste management.
"We work within the ecosystem," he says.
