Newsroom
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Your Burning Questions: Winter Defensible Space
Winter is a great time to work on your Defensible Space. Selectively cutting and piling excess vegetation to reduce the amount of flammable material is an essential step in safeguarding your home from wildfire.
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Have you ‘herd’ about the Silverado grazing project?
A herd/flock of 600 goats and sheep have been hard at work, eating down the dry grasses and shrubs to maintain the fuel break around the Silverado Community
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Napa County names Shew as its First Fire Administrator
Napa County has made another investment in wildfire resiliency by hiring the first Napa County Fire Administrator: David Shew.
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Napa Firewise CEO – Joe Nordlinger
With the benefit of mild summer weather and a wet ’22/’23 winter, Napa County avoided large wildfires this season. Summers like these are needed for the community to press our advantage and continue to stay ahead of the inevitable wildfire risks to our neighborhoods. Napa Firewise stayed busy throughout 2023: advancing the work of wildfire resilience in…
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Star Editorial: Maintaining a culture of fire readiness
Star Editorial Board Nov 15, 2023 Q: Given this week’s rain, and this summer’s lack of serious threat, when can St. Helenans put fire readiness on the back burner? A: Never. It’s easy to think of wildfire preparedness as a seasonal matter, just like fire season. But that mentality is so 2015. The last few…
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Veterans Home Fire Break
The western perimeter of the Veterans Home campus is exposed to rugged steep hillsides of unmanaged and densely overgrown vegetation. This fuel break project will help defend the Vets Home against future wildfire damage. The 2017 Napa fires threatened this resident population and evacuation warnings affected the 800+ Military Vets living on-site and associated staff…
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Berryessa Highlands Sheep Grazing Project
Targeted, concentrated grazing is an effective way to remove unwanted vegetation quickly and naturally, particularly on steep terrain that’s difficult for machines to access. Sheep are excellent at “mowing” down tall grass, and goats can tackle an array of prickly and painful plants, like star thistle and poison oak can help remove ladder fuels that…
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Napa County wins $37.5 million wildfire prevention grant
September 1, 2023Napa Valley Register – Barry Eberling Napa County has hit a fire protection jackpot of sorts — it will receive a $37.5 million federal grant for fuel reduction and other wildfire prevention efforts. “This grant will empower us to take significant strides in safeguarding our community for future generations, especially in the face…
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The Growing Megafire Crisis — and How to Contain It
Megafires, or fires that burn more than 100,000 acres, are becoming more frequent worldwide, wreaking havoc on landscapes and communities — and fire experts say the problem is only going to get worse. George T. Whitesides is focused on fighting these devastating natural disasters through innovative technologies and intentional changes to how we build communities.