NAPA: The Land Trust of Napa County announced on Thursday, Oct. 15, that it is acquiring the 436-acre Coppin property, an undeveloped private holding inside the Knoxville Wildlife Area east of Napa Valley. The $1 million acquisition is fully funded by a grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board, and the trust says it permanently protects a high-priority wildlife corridor, eliminates two potential homesites and safeguards watershed lands.
The trust describes the property as a missing piece in the conservation grid: bordered to the east by the state fish and wildlife department's Knoxville Wildlife Area and surrounded on the north, west and south by federal Bureau of Land Management lands. The state wildlife department describes Knoxville as a rugged wildlife area north of Lake Berryessa, in Napa and Yolo counties.
Why the trust moved first
The deal was structured as a bridge. Because the state's internal review could not be completed in time for the Wildlife Conservation Board's August meeting, and a closing deadline of Oct. 15 loomed, the Land Trust is acquiring the property directly using the state grant. It will manage the land during an interim holding period, then transfer it to the state at no cost so it can be integrated into the Knoxville Wildlife Area.
A bridge deal, a ticking clock, and a corridor kept whole.
Chief executive Melanie Parker said that when the ticking clock on the purchase agreement threatened the deal, "we knew the Land Trust had to step in as a bridge." Wildlife Conservation Board executive director Jennifer Norris said protecting the property helps keep North Bay habitats connected and conserved for future generations, according to the announcement.
Creek, pond and corridor
The property carries more than a mile of Zim Zim Creek and a 4-acre stock pond within the Putah Creek watershed, which flows into Lake Berryessa, and the trust lists documented occurrences on site of the northwestern pond turtle and the foothill yellow-legged frog, among other special-status species. It sits, the trust says, in the highest-priority wildlife corridor in the North Bay, a link in a contiguous expanse of protected lands stretching from Lake Berryessa toward the Oregon border.
