Council Member District 2; Vice Mayor 2024, Climate Commission Liaison
City CouncilClimate Action CommissionNorth Bay Water Reuse Authority Board of DirectorsNorth Bay Watershed AssociationSonoma County Water Advisory Committee (WAC)
John Shribbs
Dr. John Shribbs, PhD
Teacher, Scientist, Conservationist
My wife Patty, a retired Hospice Nurse, our two children, Jeanette and Albert, have made Petaluma our home for over 30 years. I bring an extensive educational background with a BS in Biology, MS in Pest Management, PhD in Horticulture, and Teaching Certificate. I also picked up certificates for SSU Technology in Education and UC Naturalist. I bring experience in many different jobs across this country including restaurant, department store, landscaping, sales, research, and teaching.
Before retiring 6 years ago, I had two main careers: teaching high school science for 17 years and before that was in vegetation management for over 25 years.
I taught Science at Casa Grande High School where I built the Outdoor Learning Environment Center and Native Plant Nursery with student and volunteer help. I worked with Sonoma County Water Agency, supplying them with plants for our local creeks. I received grants for building a wind turbine at the off-grid plant nursery and electric car charge stations in front of the school. I have sponsored and mentored many Eagle Scout and Senior Student Projects. While teaching I also coached youth soccer for 13 years.
I have a deep appreciation of agriculture with experiences in cotton, pears, landscape maintenance, nursery and horticulture crops, roadside and utility vegetation management, Christmas trees, sugar beets, and corn. After my Post Doc work at USDA in Colorado, I received “Best Manuscript of the Year” award from the Weed Science Society for developing a bioeconomic weed management model for sugar beet production. I then was a senior research scientist at AstraZeneca focused on global agricultural products for 12 years.
Over the past 20 years I have served on numerous local nonprofit and City of Petaluma committees.
I was Chair of the City Tree Advisory Committee and on the leadership team for ReLeaf Petaluma. I helped write the grants for Urban Forestry Management Plan and Native Tree Plantings in Parks on the east side using recycled water. I was the main author of the Tree Technical Manual recently adopted by the City and currently working on educational materials about trees.
I also served on the Groundwater Sustainability Advisory Committee and General Plan Advisory Committee (GPAC) and lead the Open Space and Natural Resources Workgroup In the GPAC, developing plans and actions for our natural environment. I participate in the Petaluma Watershed Coalition lead by the Resource Conservation District and helped write the upcoming Watershed Enhancement Plan.
I am currently President of Petaluma Wetlands Alliance. I co-wrote the Petaluma Wetlands Field Guide. A couple years ago, I refurbished the benches and kiosks at Shollenberger Park with help from my PWA volunteers and scouts. I worked with Friends of the Petaluma River, STRAW, and City to lead the cleanup of Shollenberger after dredging. I created many of the posters you can see right now at Shollenberger Park which are all about water: supply, flooding, sea level rise, and wetlands.
I helped develop web sites for Petaluma Wetlands Alliance, ReLeaf Petaluma, and my Bridge Club and produced many educational videos on my YouTube channel. I received funding for many projects, all completed, through grant writing and perseverance and received awards for my community service from Petaluma Bounty, Rotary, and CA Parks and Recreation.
I am a Block Leader for the Cool Petaluma Initiative and have completed many of the tasks to conserve water and energy including native plant and food garden, rain catchment, and roof top solar. My wife and I use our 2016 Nissan Leaf electric car for over 90% of our trips, everything under 100 miles roundtrip. I ride a Blix Packa Genie cargo ebike to many local destinations and you can see me hauling various cargo on trailers.
After retirement, my wife and I joined several local bridge clubs, an intense card game that is also social, and traveled to many tournaments throughout the Western US and are now certified teachers and directors of the game. We have both achieved the rank of Silver Life Master. I taught Beginning Bridge in the Petaluma City Adult School and also taught and directed on a cruise ship.
Link to Petaluma Wetlands Alliance, a WordPress website:
Link to ReLeaf Petaluma, a Square Space website:
https://www.releafpetaluma.org/
Link to my YouTube Channel:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCOL0OFx2vxcQM4yb9xM8vVA
My Interview with Madam Mayor Teresa Barrett about Dredging:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DyGM2pI7Uz0
YouTube video of my garden which was part of the Sonoma-Marin Eco-Garden Tour. I participated in the program 3 years, one of which was a video tour only:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OK2VxMjOuv4
Micro-mobility (Bike Car Gap about to be Filled) slide show lecture:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJFMrfzYpwU
Water is our Limiting Factor slide show lecture:
ACBL Unit 512 website I constructed using Google Sites:
Link to Weed Science manuscript and abstract: