The Land Trust is pleased to announce the successful protection of 547 acres of ecologically significant land lying between Pope Creek and Putah Creek. The property includes frontage on Putah Creek, the largest source of water for Lake Berryessa. These newly acquired acres are almost entirely surrounded by federal land, managed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the Bureau of Reclamation (BOR), and State land, managed by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). It also connects to land previously protected by the Land Trust.
The acquisition involved four different landowners. All four transactions closed at the same time. “One of the key reasons to protect these properties was that together, they fill in gaps between existing protected lands,” said Doug Parker, Land Trust CEO. These lands abut thousands of acres of public land managed by BLM, BOR, and CDFW, just north of the 6,400-acre Cedar Roughs Wilderness Area, one of only two wilderness areas in the Bay Area.“
“The Land Trust had previously acquired several other nearby properties,” said Parker. “In total, we now own over 2,100 acres in this area, all acquired in the last few years. These acquisitions help protect most of the land along the lower five miles of both these streams before they empty into the lake.”
This area has been recognized as a conservation priority in CDFW’s five-county 800,000-acre Blue Ridge Berryessa Conceptual Area Protection Plan as well as in the Bay Area Conservation Lands Network.
The land is home to extensive oak woodlands, chaparral, serpentine grasslands, and serpentine conifer forests and includes rare species that exist in this region only, nowhere else in the world. These include Green Jewelflower, which exists in only three counties in this area, and Swamp Larkspur, which occurs in only four counties, centered on Napa.
“The protection of these properties is part of our larger strategy to connect together protected land around Lake Berryessa,” Parker added. “Over the last few years, the Land Trust has protected over 14,000 acres on the east side of Lake Berryessa. Now, there are over 30,000 acres of contiguous protected land there. We are currently working to connect protected land on the west side. These latest acquisitions fill in key gaps, helping make connections that today bring the total of protected land on the western side of the lake to 25,000 contiguous acres.
Read the Napa Register story here.