Place, Stories, and Consequences: Heritage Narratives and the Control of Erosion on Lake County, California, Vineyards

摘要: Faced with a visible and controversial instance of erosion on vineyards, the Lake County, California, Board Supervisors founded an unusual organization—the Erosion Protection Education Commission (EPEC)—to offer nonbinding advice to grape growers concerning relevant agro-management practices. This study uses in-depth interviews, fieldwork, secondary sources contextualize EPEC within county’s stories about place—within its heritage narratives. The dominant narrative (depicting County’s character as agriculturalist, cooperative harmonious, antiregulatory) is shown be major factor shaping justifying creation operation EPEC. Despite existence counternarratives, prefigured emergence helped reinforce way handling growth growing in region resulting problem. article argues for greater attention role community narratives place i...