The Yolo County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to table the county’s new cannabis land use ordinance on March 9 for a few months at the request of the Yocha Dehe Wintun Nation.
The move happened after the Yocha Dehe proposed a plan to help relocate cannabis production out of the Capay Valley, the ancestral homeland of the tribe.
Omar Carillo, Yocha Dehe director of government affairs, said at the meeting that the Capay Valley, which constitutes the tribe’s ancestral and present day homeland, has become overrun with cannabis cultivation. The area represents eight percent of the Yolo County’s landmass, he said, but produces about half of the cannabis in the county.
“Cannabis operations are simply incompatible with the unique topography character of the valley, not to mention the rural way of life and the culture for the people who live there,” Carillo said. “The tribe respectfully submits that the Capay Valley is a Yolo County treasure, it deserves special land protection akin to that provided to other special areas with the goal of relocating all cannabis cultivation out of this agricultural gem.”
The tribe wishes to relocate cannabis cultivation elsewhere by giving cannabis producers in the area a “soft landing” by compensating them for the land they purchased in the Valley while also paying a premium to help cover relocation costs, Carillo said.
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