Bennett Valley is a northwest- to southeast-trending valley

Valley

In geology, a valley or dale is a depression with predominant extent in one direction. A very deep river valley may be called a canyon or gorge.The terms U-shaped and V-shaped are descriptive terms of geography to characterize the form of valleys...

 in Sonoma County

Sonoma County, California

Sonoma County, located on the northern coast of the U.S. state of California, is the largest and northernmost of the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. Its population at the 2010 census was 483,878. Its largest city and county seat is Santa Rosa....

, California

California

California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...

, USA approximately 1 miles (1.6 km) wide in its northwestern portion, where the southeast extremity of Santa Rosa

Santa Rosa, California

Santa Rosa is the county seat of Sonoma County, California, United States. The 2010 census reported a population of 167,815. Santa Rosa is the largest city in California's Wine Country and fifth largest city in the San Francisco Bay Area, after San Jose, San Francisco, Oakland, and Fremont and 26th...

, California is located. The axis of the valley floor slopes 40 feet (12 m) per mile (a gradient of 0.008 or 7.6 m per km) from the pinched central portion of the valley, where knolls divide the northwestern from the southeastern segment of the valley. Bennett Valley is drained by Matanzas Creek

Matanzas Creek

Matanzas Creek is an year-round stream in Sonoma County, California, United States, a tributary of Santa Rosa Creek.-Course:Matanzas Creek springs from the northern slope of Sonoma Mountain and flows northward into Bennett Valley to join the South Fork Matanzas Creek...

 which is incised into the valley floor; an unnamed stream and Spring Creek

Spring Creek

A spring creek is a stream that flows from a spring. Spring Creek may also refer to any of the following specific places:- United States :*Spring Creek Correctional Center, a state prison in Seward, Alaska...

 drain into Matanzas Creek from the east side of Bennett Valley below the Matanzas Creek Reservoir. A flood-control reservoir on Matanzas Creek in the central portion of the valley collects water from the drainage of the upper portion of the valley. Precipitation in the valley varies from approximately 35 to 40 inches (90 to 100 cm) per year. The latter amount falls on Taylor Mountain, located immediately above Bennett Valley, in an outlier spur of the Sonoma Mountains

Sonoma Mountains

The Sonoma Mountains are a northwest-southeast trending formation of California Coast Ranges in Sonoma County, California, USA. The range is approximately fourteen miles long and separates the Sonoma Creek watershed from the Petaluma River and Tolay Creek watersheds...

 sometimes called the Los Gullicos Range. Rainfall occurs primarily during winters (November to April), separated by warm dry summers. Bennett Valley is accessed chiefly via Bennett Valley Road, which traverses the valley floor to connect southeast Santa Rosa with Warm Springs Road in Glen Ellen

Glen Ellen, California

Glen Ellen is a census-designated place in Sonoma Valley, Sonoma County, California, USA. The population was 784 at the 2010 census, down from 992 at the 2000 census. Glen Ellen is the location of Jack London State Historic Park , Sonoma Valley Regional Park, and a former home of Hunter S....

.

Ecology

Both the upper southwest and northeast sideslopes of Bennett Valley have significant oak woodland. Both forested areas have dominant trees that include coast live oak

Coast Live Oak

Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak, is an evergreen oak , native to the California Floristic Province. It grows west of the Sierra Nevada from Mendocino County, California, south to northern Baja California in Mexico. It is classified in the red oak section Quercus agrifolia, the Coast Live Oak,...

. On the lower slopes and northern valley floor there are considerable numbers of valley oak

Valley Oak

Quercus lobata, commonly called the Valley oak, grows into the largest of North American oaks. It is endemic to California, growing in the interior valleys and foothills. Mature specimens may attain an age of up to 600 years. This deciduous oak requires year-round access to groundwater.Its thick,...

 in relict stands, from a previous dominant cover of these lower elevations prior to agricultural development of the valley floor. According to the 1990 report of Earth Metrics, a large percentage of valley oak

Valley Oak

Quercus lobata, commonly called the Valley oak, grows into the largest of North American oaks. It is endemic to California, growing in the interior valleys and foothills. Mature specimens may attain an age of up to 600 years. This deciduous oak requires year-round access to groundwater.Its thick,...

s near Bennett Valley Road at the northwest end of Bennett Valley were infested with oak apple gall

Gall

Galls or cecidia are outgrowths on the surface of lifeforms caused by invasion by other lifeforms, such as parasites or bacterial infection. Plant galls are abnormal outgrowths of plant tissues and can be caused by various parasites, from fungi and bacteria, to insects and mites...

. Gall wasp

Gall wasp

Gall wasps , also called Gallflies, are a family of the order Hymenoptera and are classified with the Apocrita suborder of wasps in the superfamily Cynipoidea...

s of the family Cynipidae produce a single sex

Sex

In biology, sex is a process of combining and mixing genetic traits, often resulting in the specialization of organisms into a male or female variety . Sexual reproduction involves combining specialized cells to form offspring that inherit traits from both parents...

ual generation within a structure that resembles an apple. Some valley oaks on the site are infested with these "fruits," and on first glance appear as apple

Apple

The apple is the pomaceous fruit of the apple tree, species Malus domestica in the rose family . It is one of the most widely cultivated tree fruits, and the most widely known of the many members of genus Malus that are used by humans. Apple grow on small, deciduous trees that blossom in the spring...

 trees. This infestation is considered mild, and should not affect the oaks' ability to survive. Some valley oaks in this area were also noticeably infested with dwarf mistletoe in the 1990 survey. This facultative epiphytic parasite can lead to the detriment of oak trees if allowed to persist and spread among trees

Soils

The dominant surface soil category of Bennett Valley is Clear Lake clay, a soil type occurring here on slopes ranging from zero to two percent gradient. Clear Lake clay is poorly drained and occurs on long smooth flood plains. Clear Lake clay is found on both sides of Matanzas Creek, which flows northwesterly along the axis of Bennett Valley. Clear Lake clay is dark gray in appearance and manifests a fine to medium granular structure, most commonly supporting hay production in the Bennett Valley. In addition, Zamora silty clay loam is found in several large patches on the valley floor; Zamora silty clay loam is a grayish brown firm, sticky and plastic soil type and is also characteristic of alluvial fans; it has a neutral pH

PH

In chemistry, pH is a measure of the acidity or basicity of an aqueous solution. Pure water is said to be neutral, with a pH close to 7.0 at . Solutions with a pH less than 7 are said to be acidic and solutions with a pH greater than 7 are basic or alkaline...

 and occurs at minimum depths of about two meters. Due to the economic demand for wine grapes in this region, pressure began in the 1980s to develop some of the Bennett Valley soils for viticulture

Viticulture

Viticulture is the science, production and study of grapes which deals with the series of events that occur in the vineyard. When the grapes are used for winemaking, it is also known as viniculture...

.

Luxury residential and vineyard landrush

Economic factors of land scarcity for upscale

Luxury good

Luxury goods are products and services that are not considered essential and associated with affluence.The concept of luxury has been present in various forms since the beginning of civilization. Its role was just as important in ancient western and eastern empires as it is in modern societies...

 residential development and for premium wine grape cultivation led to an explosion of land values in Bennett Valley starting generally in the 1980s. This trend is shaped by policies of the County of Sonoma, which discourage small lot residential development in Bennett Valley. These effects have led to a decrease in available natural habitat as well as decreased area available for hay farming and pasture usage. Some of the grapes are used locally for wine production such as in the case of the Matanzas Creek Winery, while some are sold to production facilities elsewhere in Sonoma County. As a result of this recognition of the Bennett Valley AVA

Bennett Valley AVA

The Bennett Valley AVA is an American Viticultural Area located in Sonoma County, California. The boundaries of this appellation lie completely within the North Coast AVA, almost completely within the Sonoma Valley AVA and overlaps into some areas of the Sonoma Coast AVA and Sonoma Mountain AVA...

 as a premium wine-grape subregion, a new American Viticultural Area

American Viticultural Area

An American Viticultural Area is a designated wine grape-growing region in the United States distinguishable by geographic features, with boundaries defined by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau , United States Department of the Treasury....

named Bennett Valley has been recently approved.

Residential development has empahsized new construction of custom homes typically built on parcels ranging from five to 40 acres (161,874.4 m²). Most of these homes are of the size range greater than 3,500 square feet (330 m²) and characteristic values of these newer homes as of 2007 are in the range of $1.5 to 3.0 million. Most of the Bennett Valley housing stock is nevertheless of more modest pre-1980 characteristics, and in many of these cases valuations are dominated simply by land value.