At Napa Land Trust, our mission to protect and steward Napa County’s natural landscapes includes a critical focus on community wildfire protection and improving the health and resilience of our forests. As wildfire seasons grow longer and more intense with climate change, our ongoing fuels reduction and forest restoration efforts are more important than ever.
One of our achievements is the forest stewardship work at our Linda Falls Preserve near Angwin. In late 2022, we completed thinning dense understory trees and shrubs – reducing the volume of dense vegetation that had built up over decades of fire suppression – across a 120-acre project area.
Linda Falls Preserve pre-project forest conditions.
High density of small trees, many dead and dying.
Our primary goal is to make this forest more resilient to climate change and wildfire, especially given its proximity to Angwin and other developed areas.
Specifically, our objectives are to:
- Decrease fire severity and tree mortality by reducing ladder fuels and clearing buildups of woody debris from the base of mature trees.
- Enhance the health and growth of remaining trees by reducing competition for resources.
- Increase habitat diversity by allowing for the persistence of a variety of tree species, such as oaks, ponderosa pines, madrones, and maples, alongside the dominant Douglas fir.
This work involved targeted, hand-crew treatments to minimize soil disturbance and avoid non-target impacts to native vegetation. The work included thinning dense stands of small trees and shrubs, limbing remaining vegetation, and piling and burning woody debris while retaining habitat structures.
However, vegetation in the understory naturally regrows. To address this, we recently completed additional maintenance-focused treatments across the entire 120-acre project area at Linda Falls. These treatments are essential for preserving the progress we’ve achieved. They focus on thinning the dense regrowth of resprouting trees and shrubs.
Forest stewardship isn’t a one-time action. Forests are dynamic ecosystems that require ongoing, active stewardship to preserve the benefits of initial treatments.
These efforts come with significant costs, and while initial treatments are often grant-funded, securing money for maintenance is more challenging. This is where the support of our community becomes indispensable. Your contributions allow us to continue this vital work, ensuring that our preserves remain ecologically healthy, resilient, and safe for generations to come.
We invite you to stay involved and informed about our ongoing projects. Together, we can protect Napa’s forests and the communities that depend on them.
One of hundreds of woody debris structures constructed across the Linda Falls forest stewardship project area to enhance wildlife habitat values.
Mature, unburned Douglas fir forest within the Linda Falls Preserve. This forest stewardship project aimed to reduce fire severity and tree mortality in this forest during future fires.