Fish Friendly Wine

The Napa Valley is not a very big place being just 30 miles long and only five miles across at its widest point.  The Napa River bisects the Valley from north to south, flowing through the world-famous vineyards.  Every inch is valuable to vineyard owners so it is truly commendable to see them come together to restore the river’s riparian habitats protecting endangered Coho salmon, steelhead trout and birds.

California Land Stewardship Institute and a dozen agencies, working with wineries and vineyard owners along the river, will restore about 35 acres of river bank by widening and leveling the selected areas and designing special channels for juvenile fish to stay safely during the heavy spring run-off.  Besides removing non-native invasive plants, the program means ripping out 10.7 acres of vines, which may not sound like a lot but at the price of land and grapes in the Napa Valley, it is considerable.  For the participating wineries and vineyards, the benefit is reducing damaging flooding, limiting erosion and in some cases removing vegetation that harbors vine-destroying diseases.

The wineries of the Napa Valley have been conscientious stewards of the land dating back to 1968 when the nation’s first Agriculture Preserve was enacted.  In 2004, the Napa Valley Vintners worked with other industry groups and the environmental community to create the Napa Green Land and in 2008 Napa Green Winery programs. These voluntary programs focus on environmentally sound, sustainable practices that meet and exceed 19 local, state and federal land or production best practices and are certified by an independent third party.

At this time of severe drought, the salmon industry needs all the help it can get for the survival of young salmon.  Fish friendly farming has become more important than ever.  At http://www.fishfriendlyfarming.org/ there’s an interesting film about saving the rivers in Napa, Sonoma and Mendocino wine country.