Napa River Restoration Phase 1 Is Done
Vineyard owners sacrificed land to rebuild riparian habitat
by Paul Franson, Wines & Vines, Nov 24, 2009
Members of the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team tour the first completed stretch of an ambitious project to repair Napa River habitat.
Rutherford, Calif. -- Yesterday, the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team celebrated completion of the first stage of its ambitious plan to restore the Napa River to reduce erosion and provide better habitat for fish and other animals.The small ceremony at vintner Agustin Huneeus’ home at Quintessa Estate marked the restoration of the river’s east bank for 1.5 miles south of Zinfandel Lane, along the boundary of Quintessa. Land owned by the Guggenhime family is also affected, and excess dirt removed is being stored at Carpy-Connolly Ranch for building new levees.
Vintner Agustin Huneeus sacrificed up to anacre of precious Rutherford vineyardto accommodate the restoration. Huneeus admitted, “I entered this process reluctantly, as any proprietor feels strongly about his land.”
Vineyard owners sacrificed land to rebuild riparian habitat
by Paul Franson, Wines & Vines, Nov 24, 2009
Members of the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team tour the first completed stretch of an ambitious project to repair Napa River habitat.
Rutherford, Calif. -- Yesterday, the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team celebrated completion of the first stage of its ambitious plan to restore the Napa River to reduce erosion and provide better habitat for fish and other animals.The small ceremony at vintner Agustin Huneeus’ home at Quintessa Estate marked the restoration of the river’s east bank for 1.5 miles south of Zinfandel Lane, along the boundary of Quintessa. Land owned by the Guggenhime family is also affected, and excess dirt removed is being stored at Carpy-Connolly Ranch for building new levees.
Vintner Agustin Huneeus sacrificed up to anacre of precious Rutherford vineyardto accommodate the restoration. Huneeus admitted, “I entered this process reluctantly, as any proprietor feels strongly about his land.”
“The only reason I agreed was that I never thought it would happen,” he added, probably jokingly. “John Williams (of Frog’s Leap Winery) and Andy Beckstoffer were the cheerleaders, but I had to be the first guinea pig.”
The group is seeking more funds. Next year it hopes to restore the west bank along the same stretch, then proceed south. The project will ultimately restore 4.5 miles of the river to Oakville Cross Road, where vineyard owners are planning a similar project. It’s funded by the landowners, Napa County Measure A funds and the recent Federal Stimulus Act.
Measure A is the Napa River flood control project, approved by Napa County voters in 1998, which primarily supports watershed activities in the county’s unincorporated areas. It includes funding from a county sales tax.
It’s a large project that involves sacrifice on the part of the landowners. Huneeus said he lost between 0.5 acres and 1 acre of vineyards, and the total project will take out about 18 acres of Napa land that might sell for as much as $250,000 per acre and produce expensive wine. Huneeus acknowledged, however, that he still has about 180 acres of vines on the hilly 280-acre property. He added, “It’s giving up a small amount of land to protect the rest.”
The project began in 2002, when the board of directors of the Rutherford Dust Society, an association that includes more than 30 wineries and 60 grapegrowers in the Rutherford AVA, voted unanimously to create a subcommittee, the Rutherford Dust Restoration Team (RDRT), and initiate a plan to manage and restore the river.
This committee is chaired by board member Davie Piña, owner of Piña Vineyard Management, and includes more than 25 riverside property owners. There are 29 landowners along this stretch; a few have declined to participate in the project.
In the intervening years, RDRT pioneered an innovative private-public partnership with Napa County to start the restoration. It took more than five years of engineering and ecological studies involving the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, National Marine Fisheries, California Department of Fish and Game and the State Water Board. Even archeological review was required.
A comprehensive design for the entire 4.5-mile reach was released in October 2008 for environmental and regulatory review; construction started in July 2009 at the upstream end of the project area at the Zinfandel Lane Bridge.
The project is one of the most ambitious initiatives of its kind, and one of the few comprehensive restoration projects in the region to move beyond planning into implementation.
The effort demonstrates how private initiatives can work both to enhance the quality of vineyard lands and help recover threatened aquatic species like native trout and salmon, species critical to the health and biodiversity of the San Francisco Bay estuary, into which the Napa River flows. County supervisor Diane Dillon, whose district includes the projects, said, “We didn’t need regulations to have this happen. It was a voluntary effort by the landowners.”
“To repair the main stem of the Napa River, to restore habitat, we need owner commitment, a holistic approach and supportive government agencies,” said John Williams, president of Frog’s Leap Winery and original RDRT co-chair. “So far, we have all three.”
RDRT is a constructive response to working in a highly regulated river environment. Historically, vineyard owners were often discouraged from pursuing their own restoration programs by the high cost and time required to coordinate with the multiple government agencies that oversee such programs. RDRT aggregates all these projects under one umbrella, which allows the group to coordinate investments and plans more efficiently than any individual landowner could by acting independently.
The project had multiple goals, including to stabilize the riverbanks to reduce erosion and fine sediment pollution, reduce flooding and protect and enhance fish and wildlife habitat. It provides a continuous corridor of riparian habitat for birds and wildlife.
It also brings some positive benefits for vineyard owners, including saving the valuable Rutherford dirt, and creating a riparian buffer to protect agricultural land uses and reduce Pierce’s disease-pressure on vineyards. Huneeus said that the winery had installed 25-foot-tall plastic sheets to prevent having its vineyards invaded by sharpshooters that live along the river; this project removed their host plants (notably periwinkle and blackberries) and also created a buffer.
The river’s path was widened by cutting away the banks for a gentle slope, and stabilizing the bank with temporary matting and then permanent plantings of native plants and trees like willows.
The effort typically moves the river reach back about 20 feet -- more in some locations. It also will replace sharp levees in flat areas with gradual slopes that can include vines. The total setback t o vines averages 50 feet.
The project also restored the habitat for salmonids and other aquatic species, including existing runs of steelhead trout and Chinook salmon, by creating more riffles, reducing sediment burial of spawning gravels, and increasing cover and shade. Invasive plants were replaced with native species.
In addition to Oakville growers in Napa Valley, who will extend the restoration nearly to the flood project restoration in the City of Napa, a similar project is planned in Sonoma County’s Dry Creek Valley. Despite his initial misgivings, Agustin Huneeus will attend a conference in Chile next month devoted to how Napa County has maintained its agricultural preserve. He intends to feature the river project as an example of the valley’s leadership in land stewardship.
