Napa RCD Monthly - June 2020

Helping you care for our land, water, soil, and wildlife

This Month's News

Program Spotlight

Irrigation Services for Growers: Helping to Make the Most of Every Drop

News & Announcements

Thank you for Celebrating Bay-Friendly Garden Month with us!
May Rainfall Summary
Winners of the 2020 Water Conservation Video Contest Announced
Resources for Wildfire Preparedness
June Conservation Champion: Joe Joe Clark

In Case You Missed It

Spring 2020 Soil Health Newsletter

Upcoming Programs

Program Spotlight

Irrigation Services for Growers:

Helping to Make the Most of Every Drop

Napa RCD helps grape-growers take good care of the precious water resources in our County.

Since 2014, we have performed over 60 irrigation evaluations with growers. During the evaluations, our experts focus on measuring uniformity of irrigation water applied throughout the vineyard. We also take a close look at the pumping and filtration systems, and can help address water quality concerns. Results from the irrigation evaluation help growers easily identify opportunities to improve water use efficiency and performance of their irrigation systems and vines. Over the years, we've found that most new irrigation systems water pretty evenly, but after ~5 years, growers might start to see some issues with emitters, filters, leaks, and pumps. After 10 years, evaluations are invaluable for figuring out the best way forward to ensure growers are applying water wisely.

We are currently scheduling irrigation evaluations for summer 2020! We are currently offering the $2000 service for FREE thanks to underwriting by the CA Department of Water Resources .

In addition to evaluations, we are piloting a new Irrigation Toolkit service to help growers be smart about when to irrigate. We are currently working with four growers to select an approach for measuring real-time water-stress in the vines. We assist with acquiring technology, locating sensor placement, and even installation! But perhaps, most importantly, we are looking at the resulting data with the growers and consulting weekly about when to irrigate. So far growers feel empowered by the custom, one-on-one tutoring, and feel confident that they will be saving water with the skills and technology they have gained. We are excited to offer this service to more growers in the future, and are actively fundraising so that we can offset the cost to participating growers. Stay tuned! And for now:

Contact Miguel Garcia to schedule an irrigation evaluation:

Miguel@NapaRCD.org or 707-690-3122

News & Announcements

Thank You for Celebrating

Bay-Friendly Garden Month with Us!

Many thanks to all of you that joined us for our Bay-Friendly Garden Month live online programming, and extra thanks to our featured gardeners and speakers:

Penny Proteau & Chip Bouril - Evelyn & Bob Zlomke - Henni Cohen - Shelly Euser - Suzanne Bontempo - Marcy Nielsen Berruezo -

If you missed any of the videos or are looking for more ways to create a Bay-Friendly Garden in your yard, visit NapaRCD.org/2020GardenMonth for the full suite of activities and links to helpful resource pages.

Bay-Friendly Garden Month was sponsored by City of Napa.

May 2020 Rainfall Summary

Paul Blank, Napa RCD Senior Hydrologist

May brought two storms and six days of measurable rain to the Napa County ALERT monitoring stations ( napa.onerain.com ). Monthly average rainfall was achieved at many stations for the first time since December. The rain gauges recorded between 0.83 and 2.32 inches during the month, approximately 4.1% of mean annual rainfall (long-term May average is 4.2%). So far in Water Year (WY) 2019-20, we’ve received approximately 48% of our annual precipitation, well below the long-term average of 98% for this time of year. Seasonal rainfall totals at the rain gauges range between 12.5 inches (City of Napa) and 23.7 inches (Mt. Veeder). Barring unprecedented summer rain, WY 2019-20 will replace WY 2006-07 as the driest in the 18-year ALERT System record.

2020 Water Conservation Video Contest Winners Announced

Napa RCD and City of Napa Water Division are pleased to announce the winners of the 2020 Napa County Water Conservation Video Contest! This year we opened the contest up to all-ages groups; normally, the contest is exclusively for local high school students.

Our first place video, "We All Live Down River," was created by mother-daughter team Marie Dolcini and Giulia Guerrera. The second place video, put together by a group of students from Vintage High School, is titled "Conserve for the Future."

Both videos are available to view on Napa RCD's YouTube Page .

Resources for Wildfire Prevention

2020 has been a dry year, as evidenced by this month's rainfall summary. Now is a great time to start thinking through what you can do to help yourself and your neighbors prepare for the potential of wildfires. Here is a list of resources to help you get started:

Defensible Space, a video from CalFire
Defensible Space Guidelines in Napa County, provided by Napa FireWise
Home Landscaping for Fire, a helpful resource from UC ANR
Your Family Forest- Protecting Your Land Against Wildfire, from UCCE

June Conservation Champion: Joe Joe Clark

This June, we are celebrating our friend Joe Joe Clark from the Napa County Regional Park and Open Space District! If you are involved in the outdoor naturalist/recreation world of Napa County, you are sure to have met Joe Joe either on a program or while he is out and about enjoying our wild spaces.

Joe Joe is a Bay Area native, growing up in Vallejo, and he has been working as a naturalist for Napa Open Space for 5 years. His association with Napa RCD started with being a participant on Bay-Friendly Garden Tours and while working together on youth programs as a field trip leader and naturalist.

Explorations with Joe Joe are a delight, and his excitement shows through no matter the topic he has on his mind. His favorite part of Napa County? The diversity of native flora! "From the cool coastal redwood forest into a hot chaparral ridge; there is so much to witness within a small county compared to our neighbors Sonoma and Solano." He also enjoys the southern, limited, and inland distribution of certain plants here in Napa County, such as Redwoods, Pacific Ponderosa pine, Sugar Pine, Incense Cedar, and more. And, if you've ever gotten the chance to chat with Joe Joe one on one, he will no doubt bring up his love of and passion for lilies!

Watching Joe Joe interact with anyone, no matter their age, you can tell he is a natural educator and storyteller. His favorite part about his job, though, is introducing children to the outdoors, helping them discover the meaning of watershed or the relationship between mycorrhizal fungi and trees.

Many children, students, tourists, families, and Napa residents have benefitted from Joe Joe's passion for the wild spaces in Napa County. Thank you, Joe Joe, for sharing your knowledge and passion with all of us!

No one has Joe Joe's voice, so we'll close with his own words:

"One thing that I want people to take away from my life is let's be good to the land that we live on. They're not making it anymore. I hope that my love and passion is spread like a wildfire for our natural landscapes that I encounter during my field of work."