Issue link: http://winesandvines.uberflip.com/i/437909
40 Wines&Vines January 2015 grapegrowing I t's no secret. In California it's all about water, especially during one of the worst droughts in history. And especially for Nancy Smith, project director for The Nature Conservancy's Navarro River Watershed Project in the Anderson Valley of Mendocino County, Calif. "Working in water management in California is like being an archaeologist working in Egypt," Smith said. "Cali- fornia is where it all began in western water law. Finding solutions here is like finding the Rosetta stone for water management all over the west." In the Anderson Valley, a small but booming center of viticulture, it takes a lot of water to support a wine econ- omy. Likewise, it takes watershed- wide planning to balance the needs of this thriving sector with vital species of plants and animals; this includes freshwater science and cutting-edge technology—not to mention a lot of cooperation. The Nature Conservancy has teamed with wine grape growers and other landowners in this region to install stream gauges that will help water managers better balance the needs of both grapes and salmon. "We have 12 landowners partici- pating in our project so far," Smith said. "That means 100% of the people we approached agreed to putting a stream gauge on their property. In our work, that kind of cooperation is rare, and it shows how committed these folks are to preserving what makes the Anderson Valley special." The Conservancy has also been coordinat- ing with the Mendocino Resource Conservation District and Natural Resource Conservation Service to maximize impacts of the project. In other regions, water conflicts between environmental groups and vineyards recently have led to acri- mony and lawsuits, creating a stale- m a t e t h a t t h r e a t e n s b o t h f i s h populations and the vitality of an important economic sector. But the Anderson Valley is different. "We're different because we're all predisposed to dealing with limited water, so all of us were already doing something to conserve water," said Mi- chael Fay, Goldeneye winemaker for Duckhorn Wine Co. "We've always had to be so aware of how valuable water is, so once we knew The Nature Con- servancy had their heart in the right place, everyone in this valley wanted to get involved." Plenty of water, but timing is problematic "It's important to note," Smith said, "there is actually plenty of water in the Navarro River watershed. The prob- lem is just a matter of timing. All of the rain falls during the winter, but the vineyards need the water during the dry summer months—just when fish also need every drop possible." Fay agrees, but because of other factors like a lack of storage, compli- cated water rights regulations and scarce information about the flow of the river and its tributaries, "There's a lot of water in the valley, but it's not there when we need it agriculturally." So the goal of the Navarro River Watershed Project is to use improved technology, combined with regulatory flexibility, to ensure that the abun- dant annual flows are better managed in the Navarro River for the benefit of people and native species. "We all depend on the river for our wineries," Fay said. "It defines the whole valley. Really, it's our lifeblood." But that lifeblood for wineries and vineyards in the valley is also the life- blood for several species of fish, includ- ing coho salmon and steelhead trout, which have suffered drastic population declines throughout the area. "The Conservancy was drawn to the region to answer the question, 'Can we balance the water needs of KEY POINTs The Nature Conser- vancy placed 16 stream-flow gauges to gather data and enable real-time monitoring of water availability. Twelve landowners have cooperated and are seeing potential benefits in timing irri- gation and planning more water storage. The Conservancy reached out to state water agencies to encourage more coop- eration in saving fish and serving vineyards. Balanced Water Management for Vineyards and Salmon Nature Conservancy works with growers to measure stream flows in the Anderson Valley By Kate Getty The Nature Con- servancy calibrates stream-flow gauges.