A 436-acre stretch of wildland east of Napa Valley will never see a house built on it, after the Land Trust of Napa County closed on the former Coppin property on October 15 using a $1 million grant from the state Wildlife Conservation Board. The purchase wipes out two potential homesites and folds the land into one of the most important wildlife corridors in the North Bay.
The property sits within the Putah Creek watershed, which flows into Lake Berryessa, and borders the California Department of Fish and Wildlife's 20,000-acre Knoxville Wildlife Area to the east, with federal Bureau of Land Management land on its other three sides, according to the Napa Valley Register. The land had been owned by several private owners over the years, including Tim Coppin, whose family used it for recreational hunting and camping, Land Trust of Napa County conservation director Lena Pollastro told The Press Democrat. The owners had originally listed the land with a real estate agent on the open market, intending to find a buyer quickly, but the Land Trust instead worked out a longer purchase agreement that gave it time to line up public funding before closing.
A Corridor Linking Lake Berryessa to Oregon
The two parcels that make up the property are mostly undeveloped, open wildland, per Pollastro's account to the Press Democrat, and they lie inside the Berryessa Snow Mountain National Monument footprint. The Land Trust described the acquisition as protecting a key wildlife corridor and watershed lands, according to Local News Matters, which reported the deal connects protected habitats across a 7-million-acre landscape stretching from Lake Berryessa to the Oregon border. Animals use that corridor to migrate between the lake and the Oregon border, a route the Napa Valley Register put at nearly 250 miles, citing the Bay Area Critical Linkages Project's designation of the area as the highest-priority wildlife corridor in the North Bay.
Melanie Parker described the property as a missing piece within the national monument footprint, per the Press Democrat's reporting. Pollastro called the effort a key partnership project, reflecting how state grant money, a motivated seller and a conservation nonprofit lined up to protect the land before it could be sold for development.
Turtles, Frogs and a Fire-Scarred Landscape
More than a mile of Zim Zim Creek runs through the property, along with a four-acre stock pond whose riparian habitat and wetlands provide a valuable water resource for wildlife. Pollastro reported seeing a northwestern pond turtle and foothill yellow-legged frogs on site, both of which are state species of concern. The Napa Valley Register separately noted the property hosts the drymaria-like western flax plant alongside those same turtle and frog species.
The broader area is known to host black bears, mountain lions and deer, and badgers and a roadrunner have been spotted nearby, according to the Press Democrat. Much of the property's manzanita-chamise chaparral and McNab cypress forest is still regenerating after the 2020 LNU Lightning Complex fire swept through, Pollastro said.
What Happens to the Land Next
The Land Trust structured what the Napa Valley Register described as a bridge transaction supported by state partners to avoid losing the time-sensitive opportunity before the October 15 closing. The nonprofit will manage the property in the near term before transferring it to the state at no cost, a move that would allow its permanent integration into the Knoxville Wildlife Area. The California Department of Fish and Wildlife may then include the property within its 20,000-acre wildlife area, extending protection the Land Trust says preserves agricultural watershed lands while permanently blocking development on land once eyed for two homes.
