February 3, 2017
CapitalPress.com
3
Beavers be dammed, district cares for Napa watershed
By JULIA HOLLISTER
For the Capital Press
California’s Napa Valley is
home to about 400 premium
wineries but Richard Thom-
asser, operations manager of
the Napa County Flood Con-
trol and Water Conservation
District, is more concerned
with beavers.
“Wildlife management —
monitoring beaver activity
and protecting against excess
tree harvesting by beavers
for dams — is an important
part of our work,” Thomasser
said.
Beavers are just one of
the things the district deals
with. He wouldn’t say they
are a “big” problem because
many actually create benefi-
cial habitat in riparian areas.
Thomasser said he doesn’t
want them to chew down all
the riparian trees, so the dis-
trict protects some of them to
prevent that from happening.
The district started in
1951 and now covers 426
square miles of watershed in
the valley.
“We are principally a
flood control agency,” said
Thomasser.
The district doesn’t own
any water supplies. It pro-
vides flood and storm water
services within Napa County,
including five cities: Napa,
American Canyon, Yount-
ville, St. Helena and Calis-
toga.
Most of the district’s work
involves the Napa River and
its tributaries, which is a
426-square-mile-watershed,
he said.
The services the district
provides to the vineyards re-
late principally to flood man-
agement and riparian area
maintenance and restoration.
The work is done on an
“as-needed” basis.
“We encourage protec-
tion of the river, streams and
riparian areas and conduct
projects such as invasive spe-
cies removals, native vegeta-
tion planting, erosion control
and debris removal,” Thom-
asser said.
The district also coordi-
nates the cities and the coun-
ty in complying with the
state’s storm water manage-
ment regulations, he said.
“We have varying issues
and problems depending on
areas along the river,” he
said.
Besides beavers, these in-
clude homeless encampments
in the city of Napa reach, in-
vasive species and erosion in
several areas.
Funding is one of the big-
gest challenges for the dis-
trict. He said there are always
more projects and activities
to do than funds to do them.
The county recently
launched a “Do It Yourself”
groundwater
monitoring
program. The program al-
lows Napa County residents
to borrow a well water-lev-
el monitoring tool for free
to measure their wells.
“The recent rains in North-
ern California have put a big
dent in the drought, at least
in that part of the state,” he
said. “Napa County is actual-
ly in pretty good shape with
its local water supplies. We
get our domestic use water
from the State Water Project,
which is generally in good
shape this year.”
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