On Friday, November 18, the new Zinfandel Bridge Fish Passage Project was celebrated with an official ribbon cutting.  The project is an important milestone for the health of the Napa River. FONR has supported this project throughout.

Quoted from the Rutherford Dust Society:

Welcome Home Salmon and Steelhead!
Napa County celebrated the completion of the Zinfandel Lane Fish Passage Project at the upstream end of the Rutherford Reach on November 18, 2011 to great fanfare. In the last few decades erosion downstream of the historic stone arch bridge had made a severe partial barrier to fish migration. Once again adult Salmon and steelhead trout returning to the Napa River to spawn will have unimpeded access to 65 miles of historic fish habitat in the upper watershed, and juvenile fish will be able to swim downstream through to the ocean. Thanks to funding from the Coastal Conservancy and the Napa Valley community through the Measure A watershed improvement funds, and the work of Napa County; the Napa Resource Conservation District; Winzler & Kelly; Michael Love & Associates; Blackburn Geotechnical, and W.R. Forde for their work in restoring this important gateway to the Upper Napa River watershed.

For more on this project visit:  The Rutherford Dust Society

To see more photos of the celebration, visit FONR on Facebook

Contribute or donate online through PayPal!

Serving the people: Jill Techel, Mike Thompson, Diane Dillon, Bruce Ketron, Leon Garcia, Peter Mott, Gary Lieberstein, Mark van Gorder, (in back:) Brad Wagenknecht, (right:) Mike Grgich, Barry Christian

Friends of the Napa River participated in Mike Thompson’s Annual Pasta Dinner at The Ranch Winery, 105 Zinfandel Lane, in St. Helena on Saturday, August 13th. Mike shared his take on the redistricting that left him, fortunately for him and all of us, “in charge of Napa County.” As participants, we had a chance to talk to Mike about our priorities, e.g. completion of the flood control project, the river restoration, and the watershed in-school education. We received the following message:

“Thank you all so very much for participating in Mike Thompson’s Napa Event.  The work you and your organizations do to promote sustainable living is admirable.

Best wishes,
Bonnie
Assistant Events Coordinator
Mike Thompson for U.S. Congress
Ph: 707-944-0799
Fax: 707-944-9626

You will have noticed, due to lack of  promotions, invitations to volunteer or to donate, that there will be no River Festival in 2011. From a report in the Napa Valley Register (April 23, 2011):

“Friends of the Napa River is canceling this year’s Napa River Festival on Labor Day weekend, citing a shortage of donations.

“It’s a sad decision that we had to come to and it’s mostly related to the financial situation,” said Bernhard Krevet, president of Friends of the Napa River.

The festival comes with a price tag of about $80,000 for lighting, sound and fees to the Napa Valley Symphony, the featured performers, Krevet said.

In the past, donations from corporate and individual sponsors yielded enough to cover the event’s costs, Krevet said. Today’s difficult economic times have made it harder to get financial support, he added.

Because some pledged funds from cash-strapped sponsors never materialized, Friends of the Napa River would be about $10,000 in the red if it forged ahead with this year’s festival, he said.

The free Labor Day festival has an approximately 20-year history, organized by Friends of the Napa River. Last year’s event drew an estimated crowd of more than 6,000 to downtown, according to organizers.

This will be the fourth time that the festival has skipped a year. Third Street bridge construction put the brakes on the 2001 festival. Flood control work in and around Veterans Memorial Park foiled the 2006 and 2007 events.

If money can be found, Krevet said the festival will return in 2012.

Moira Johnston Block, a founding member of Friends of the Napa River who serves on the group’s advisory board, said she is “terribly sad” about this year’s cancellation. But she remains enthusiastic about the organization’s overall mission.

She calls the festival “the crown jewel of the revitalizing riverfront.”

“We’re a modest volunteer nonprofit group that works very hard, and never with enough funding, but I think that’s so true of many (organizations) like ours,” she said. “During this recession, it’s harder and harder for our non-professional staff and our volunteers who devote themselves to fundraising.”

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A collaborative effort to learn the history of the local landscape

What did the Valley look like in the year 1800? Where were the first vineyards? Which creeks had salmon? Where were the best fishing holes? How has the landscape changed, and what can it teach us?

Friends of the Napa River is working with the San Francisco Estuary Insitute to develop a Historical Ecology Project on the Napa River Watershed. A Historical Ecology Project is an intensive, broadly-based effort to recover, organize, and interpret diverse information about the early local landscape and how it has changed. Through such a project, local knowledge about the land is recovered and preserved for future generations.

Since conditions have changed so rapidly during the past two centuries, historical research is necessary to explain current conditions of local streams, forests, wetlands, and other habitats, and their ability to support people and wildlife. Despite the dramatic changes, it is generally possible to learn the original details of the native landscape, such as which creeks had salmon, how wide the river corridor was, which types of vegetation dominated where, and other important information about the natural functions of the landscape. The Project can help the community define and understand the existing environmental challenges and suggest how they might be successfully resolved in the future.

The San Francisco Estuary Institute, an independent, non-profit science organization, developed the award-winning Historical Ecology Program to support regional and local environmental planning efforts. SFEI’s regional program started in 1993 and has produced the historical maps of baylands, featured in the Bay Area EcoAtlas.

Anticipated Products: The Project is currently working on a richly illustrated Napa Historical Ecology Atlas. This publication will make the findings of the multi-year Project widely accessible. The Atlas will celebrate the natural heritage of Napa Valley, inspiring both increased stewardship and more accurate conservation planning. Additional products include detailed, large-format maps of the Napa River Watershed, from Mt. St. Helena to the marshlands of San Pablo Bay, showing the landscape prior to European settlement (circa 1800) and an intermediate point circa 1900. Accompanying databases and archives will make all data collected available as public resources.

Classroom environmental program sponsored by Friends of the Napa River

Contacts: Kent Ruppert, Shari Gardner.

Download brochure here

The Napa Watershed Education Program is dedicated to teaching Napa Valley students, grades 2-6, concepts focusing on the ecological dynamics of our watershed.

Each grade level receives a series of three, hour-long, science based lessons. Each series is adapted to the specific grade level being taught and is supported by hands on materials, visual aids, and a teacher edition to provide additional activities. This program and all materials are provided at no cost to the students, teachers, or schools.

The program has been in existence for eight years, and has grown from three lessons a year to 145 lessons, totaling 3,600 student contacts, in 50 public and private classrooms. Although the program has had great success (see teacher comments), there have been years when the program could not be offered due to lack of funding.

We are seeking funding from private contributors within our watershed rather than from state and national resources that have proven unreliable in the past. The program budget is set at $10,000 a year as it has been for the past seven years. This is a very cost effective program providing high quality environmental education to our Napa Valley youth.