The Napa Watershed Historical Ecology Project

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.

 Download Napa Historical Ecology Atlas: An Introduction for a preliminary sample of the Eco Atlas.

 Pieces of the Puzzle:

The picture of Napa's historical landscape is pieced together from many diverse sources, including old photos, surveys, aerial photos, maps, journals, interviews, and much, much more. Here are just a few samples:

Photo of Napa Valley above St. Helena circa 1900, taken by W. W. Lyman, courtesy of Bill Lyman.

Survey of land north of Trancas, 1885. George Bernhard sold 2.4 acres of his land to the Napa City Water Co, which then built a dam on the Napa River. The resulting shallow reservoir on the Napa River was used to supply the City of Napa with drinking water for years.

Robert Adams shows off his catch of steelhead from York Creek. Photo courtesy of Todd Adams. 

Project update archives

Napa River Watershed Historical Ecology Project
by Shari Gardner and Chris Malan (June 2000)

The Friends of the Napa River, in collaboration with the San Francisco Estuary Institute, have launched the Napa River Watershed Historical Ecology Project. The goal of the project is to research the ecology of the Napa River watershed before European contact, circa 1800. In the first year, we have developed a physical infrastructure for the project, trained personnel, and raised local awareness. Shari Gardner, our historical researcher and coordinator has been working with the scientific community of the San Francisco Estuary Institute to gather information related to historical, ecological, cultural and geographical aspects of the watershed.

Historic maps, land surveys, accounts, photos and local stories relevant to watershed information have been gathered from local libraries and museums, the Napa County Historical Society, the Bancroft Library at Berkeley, the Northwest Information Center, Sonoma State University, National and State Archives, the California State Library History Room, Bureau of Land Managemnt, local agencies, and oral accounts from local long-time residents. This information will be incorporated into a searchable database. Over the next months, the landscape data gleaned from these pieces of information will be interpolated into a hand drawn map illustrating the Napa watershed landscape as it was around 1800.

Public presentations have been given to increase community awareness of this project. Shari Gardner presented the Napa River Watershed Historical Ecology Project to the public at a two day watershed conference put on by the Napa County Resource Conservation District. The presentation, local interviews, and a feature article in the local newspaper has generated increased public interest.

Pending second phase funding, the project will be expanded and refined. The database will be augmented with additional sources. The draft base map will be refined into a camera-ready final version. The base map and database will be used to generate a GIS map of the Napa River Watershed landscape circa 1800. Chuck Striplen, a Ph.D. student in Oregon State University’s Pacific Traditional Ecological Knowledge Program, will join the team. He will use his expertise to research the resource management practices of tribes in the Napa River Watershed and how they shaped the landscape.

The second phase of the project will include:

• a public education program with a brochure and slide show – featuring local historian’s maps, pictures, and diary notes,
• a publicly accessible database to enable teachers, researchers, and agencies to understand the Napa Valley landscape,
• a final historical ecology base-map, providing a camera ready, hand drawn map for the community, and
• a Napa Valley Museum exhibit, bringing the Ecology Project to visitors and residents of the Napa Valley.

At the end of the second phase, a database, richly illustrated maps, extensive public outreach and (with budget augmentation) a scientifically rigorous GIS will be completed. These will be ready for use and available for subsequent adaptation for educational programs, a web-site and other interpretative uses.

For more information about the project, contact Shari Gardner at 707-799-5241 or at gardner.shari@gmail.com

Napa River Oral History Project (11/99)

Friends of the Napa River and the Napa Valley Museum will be working together to gather an oral history of the Napa River. This history, gathered from "old-timers" in the Napa Valley, will record their memories of the Napa River and its tributaries. This record will be helpful both for the Friends Historical Ecology Map project and the Museum’s upcoming river focus. If you are an old-timer or know of someone we should interview please let us know by calling our office at 254-8520.