Napa Valley Vintners plans for $2.1 million wildfire resiliency grant

Napa Valley Vintners will invest the $2.1 million, raised during last fall's Collective Napa Valley fundraising campaign, in Napa County wildfire mitigation efforts.

Napa Communities Firewise Foundation and the Napa County Resource Conservation District are the recipients of the grant and will collaborate with local and state agencies, including Napa County Fire Department and Cal Fire, as well as local nonprofits such as Napa County Land Trust and Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District.

The grant is an attempt to fill a funding gap left when Measure L — a quarter-cent sales tax proposed by the Napa County Board of Supervisors that would have raised an estimated $10 million annually over 10 years for wildfire prevention initiatives in the county — failed at the ballot box last June.

Napa County Supervisor Anne Cottrell said of the grant, "Addressing the issue of wildfires in Napa County is a top priority, and I am pleased that, as a community, we have taken positive steps towards making Napa County more fire resilient over the last couple of years. This grant by the NVV will help us take another big step forward."

The funds will be used to create up to 100 miles of strategic fire breaks and fire roads, to restore forestlands and establish hundreds of acres of native habitat to mitigate fire risk and provide ecological benefits, and to educate Napa County residents and landowners in wildfire mitigation and forest health.

According to the trade group’s senior director of communications, Teresa Wall, of the $2.1 million raised last fall, $1.6 million will be distributed immediately to Napa Firewise and RCD, which will work in collaboration with Napa County fire departments, and the remaining $500,000 will be released at a future date.