Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument

The Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area is a conservation area forming a contiguous corridor of in northern California. It is a mix of public and private lands overseen by the Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership. The Partnership was founded in 1997 as a forum for land managers to discuss land use activities, primarily

Homestake Mining Company Homestake Mining Company was one of the largest gold mining businesses in the United States and the owner of the Homestake Mine in Lead, South Dakota. Founded in 1877, it was acquired by Barrick Gold in December 2001. Homestake was the longest- ...

surplus acreage at McLaughlin mine. The meetings evolved into a regional conservation focus and effort. The Partnership has more than 100 participants, among them are: Yolo Land & Cattle Co.,

, Guenoc Ranch and Winery, Bureau of Land Management, Gamble Ranch, and the

University of California Natural Reserve System The University of California Natural Reserve System (UCNRS) is a system of protected areas throughout California California is a state in the Western United States, located along the Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents acros ...

. The purpose of the Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area is preservation of recreational lands, wild areas, agricultural lands and rural ranches. Also, protection against

urban sprawl Urban sprawl (also known as suburban sprawl or urban encroachment) is defined as "the spreading of urban developments (such as houses and shopping centers) on undeveloped land near a city." Urban sprawl has been described as the unrestricted growt ...

through

conservation easement In the United States, a conservation easement (also called conservation covenant, conservation restriction or conservation servitude) is a power invested in a qualified private land conservation organization (often called a "land trust") or gover ...

s, public ownership and voluntary participation by private landowners and businesses. The natural area is named for two prominent geographic features it encompasses - the Blue Ridge Mountains and

Lake Berryessa Lake Berryessa is the largest lake in Napa County, California. This reservoir in the Vaca Mountains was formed following the construction of the Monticello Dam on Putah Creek in the 1950s. Since the early 1960s, this reservoir has provided wate ...

. It includes the watersheds of Cache Creek and

Putah Creek Putah Creek (Patwin: ''Liwaito'') is a major stream in Northern California, a tributary of the Yolo Bypass, and ultimately, the Sacramento River. The creek has its headwaters in the Mayacamas Mountains, a part of the Coast Range, and flow ...

, tributaries to the

Sacramento River The Sacramento River ( es, Río Sacramento) is the principal river of Northern California in the United States and is the largest river in California. Rising in the Klamath Mountains, the river flows south for before reaching the Sacramento� ...

. The geographical boundaries are informal and conceptual. It begins just north of Interstate 80 near

Fairfield, California Fairfield is a city in and the county seat of Solano County, California, in the North Bay (San Francisco Bay Area), North Bay sub-region of the San Francisco Bay Area. It is generally considered the midpoint between the cities of San Francisco ...

, then northeast to Lake County. Within the boundaries are: Lake Berryessa and the adjacent wildlife area, Knoxville Wildlife Area and the Knoxville off road recreation area, McLaughlin Natural Reserve, Stebbins Cold Canyon Reserve, Cache Creek Wilderness, the new Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument, Yolo County regional parks,

Indian Valley Reservoir Indian Valley Reservoir is a human-made lake in Lake County, California, west of Williams, United States, near State Route 20. The capacity reservoir was created by the construction of the Indian Valley Dam across the north fork of Cache Cr ...

and the southern section of

Mendocino National Forest The Mendocino National Forest is located in the Coastal Mountain Range in northwestern California and comprises 913,306 acres (3,696 km2). It is the only national forest in the state of California without a major paved road entering it ...

. In 2002, the Partnership received the California Governor's Environmental and Economic Leadership Award, California's highest environmental honor, in the category Watershed Management.

References

{{reflist, refs= Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area—BRBNA Strategic Plan 2003.
{{webarchive , url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725101251/http://www.brbna.org/strategicplan.pdf , date=July 25, 2011
/ref>

External links

Website of Blue Ridge Berryessa Natural Area Conservation Partnership.
Nature reserves in California Mendocino National Forest Protected areas of Lake County, California Protected areas of Colusa County, California Protected areas of Napa County, California Protected areas of Solano County, California Protected areas of Yolo County, California 1997 establishments in California Protected areas established in 1997