Napa County Resource Conservation District

 
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Napa River Watershed Owner's Manual


Table of Contents

   


Summary & Introduction

This manual is a collection of recommendations from the Napa County Resource Conservation District that have been developed with the advice and participation of community representatives; federal, state, and local government agency representatives; private citizens; and local citizen interest groups. Where possible, specific practices are listed that may be adopted by landowners and managers. Because there is usually more than one way to pursue any given land use, the practices include many alternatives from which to choose, dependent on specific site conditions and personal preferences. In many cases, the recommendations are to fill gaps in existing information to help develop additional practices to help the citizens of the Napa River watershed maintain a healthy, sustainable natural resource system. It is designed to be flexible, and will be updated as new information and new techniques become available. The recommendations in this manual are intended for use as a technical and educational resource for landowners and managers in the watershed who want to help ensure the long term protection of the soil, water, and other natural resources of the watershed.

The recommendations in this Manual will be reviewed for effectiveness and completeness during the next two years, including public workshops and forums to provide the widest participation possible. Implementation assistance such as funding and technical assistance will be sought to supplement the local effort, and a thorough monitoring plan will generate needed information to maintain a proper assessment of the effectiveness of implementation. With that information, adjustments can be made, and further recommendations can be developed to help maintain the health of the watershed for the use and enjoyment of future generations.

Voluntary, cooperative resource conservation

Historically, natural resource management planning has been done based on one resource only, or to deal with a single problem. This plan is an attempt to begin integrating the many parts of the watershed through recommendations for land use practices and programs developed with the complexity of the system in mind. Stated problems are presented as interests to be addressed, rather than as the purpose of planning. Voluntary implementation of the recommendations in this plan will not only help deal with identified problems, but will prevent others from occurring. Thus, this type of watershed planning is intended more as preventive maintenance than as an "after the fact" clean-up or mitigation program. Solutions to problems identified by citizens, agencies, public interest groups, etc., are more easily realized when problems are treated as interests to be addressed instead of positions to be defended. This plan is meant to provide the basis for a voluntary effort of the citizens of the Napa Valley to jointly address the concerns expressed while protecting and preserving their natural and community resources in an economically reasonable manner. As with personal health or home maintenance, preventive care is the least burdensome and least expensive way of keeping a watershed healthy. This manual provides a first step toward the mutual education within the community that will provide the basis for broad cooperative action. Community participation in development of a long term plan to manage and maintain the uniqueness of the Napa Valley will ensure that the positive attributes of the valley will persist for the constructive enjoyment of the citizens of Napa, and that elements that threaten that enjoyment will be recognized and avoided by cooperative action. Programs to expand long term planning will be introduced in the rest of the County in coming months, in order to allow the County as a whole to begin conscientious local management of its invaluable natural resources.

Several recent legislative and regulatory actions have noted the importance of the Napa River to the health and well-being of San Pablo Bay. Identification of the Napa River by the US Environmental Protection Agency and the San Francisco Bay Regional Water Quality Control Board as a priority pollutant contributor to San Pablo Bay has emphasized the need for proper management of the watershed to control sediment and other nonpoint sources of pollution in the watershed. In addition, the implementation of the Coastal Zone Management Act Reauthorization Amendments of 1990, and the State Nonpoint Source Pollution Management Program will address land management practices in the watershed in order to control pollutant loading (chiefly sediment) in the River and San Pablo Bay. The National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting requirements, and the programs proposed in the reauthorization of the Clean Water Act also address different land management practices in the watershed. Other programs and regulations such as the Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan for the San Francisco Bay Estuary, Napa County Flood Plain and Riparian Ordinance, and the Napa County Resource Conservation Regulations emphasize the public desire to protect the natural resources on which the residents of Napa County so heavily depend. Many other regulations such as endangered species protection plans and agricultural pesticide use monitoring highlight specific areas of concern as well.

Each of these regulations and programs have an individual focus, frequently based on a demonstrated or assumed problem in the watershed. Some, however, conflict with one another because they do not take into account the complexity of a natural watershed system and the interaction of community systems within the watershed. Wetland and riparian corridor protection plans sometimes conflict with flood control efforts and insect vector control, for instance. This manual begins a process of finding solutions to such overlaps and conflicts by considering the interaction of each interest with other interests and programs. No amount of government funding or regulation can equal the effects of broad voluntary participation on the part of individuals in the effort to provide long term protection to the watershed’s natural resource system.

Plan Goals and Objectives

This integrated resource management plan is designed to accomplish the goal of maintaining a sustainable river ecosystem for the Napa River watershed. With increasing population and diversity of land use in the watershed, systems management becomes more necessary in order to decrease negative impacts of human activities and to increase the positive impacts. Economic vitality is necessary to enable the community to address and solve resource problems such as non-point source pollution, and maintaining a healthy natural resource base is necessary for sustaining economic vitality. In order to keep the system in balance, land use and land management decisions must be made with full knowledge of the likely long term results of those decisions. Establishment of a goal oriented management program can prevent problems before they occur, and will result in much less expensive and much more efficient use of community energy.

Of the basic natural resources that make up a watershed, water is perhaps the most critical. The quality and quantity of water available to the community and its ecological system is important not only from an empirical standpoint, but also because the status of the water resource in a watershed is an excellent reflection of the health of the watershed in general. For this reason, two additional goals have been established that will enable the maintenance of a genuinely sustainable river ecosystem. These two goals are to increase water quality in the watershed, and to increase water quantity available for beneficial use of watershed human, plant, and animal communities.

The effort to attain the three listed goals will include programs to reach several listed objectives of the plan. These objectives are measurable milestones that will enable the community to track progress toward maintaining a natural balance in watershed resources. Most of the objectives are to promote and encourage practices and behavior that will support development of a healthy environment for the watershed. Education is therefore a major characteristic of this planning and management program. Education is desirable regarding not only the technological issues related to watershed management, but also social interaction that promotes more complete understanding of the respective needs of the citizens of Napa Valley. The nine objectives chosen for the program include:

This plan is meant to provide the basis for a voluntary effort of the citizens of the Napa Valley to jointly address public and private concerns while protecting and preserving their natural and community resources in an economically reasonable manner.

© Copyright Napa County Resource Conservation District, 1996.

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