Throughout California wine country, vintners and farmers are making great strides in their efforts to protect and preserve the environment.
From cleaning up the land to installing solar panels, the examples are countless. And sometimes, a simple piece of paper can make a big difference.
As an example, the Lieff Conservation Agreement preserves more than 17 acres of native oak forest in the hills above the Napa Valley town of Rutherford in its relatively natural state.
Running in a north-south direction, the property also boasts several small vineyards from which the Lieffs produce their Lieff Auberge Road Cabernet Sauvignon.
Conservation agreements are legal agreements between a landowner and a land trust or government agency that permanently limit the use of the land to protect its conservation values. They allows landowners to continue to own, live on and work on their land while also being able to sell it or pass it on to heirs.
Because development rights are given up in the conservation agreement, these documents provide flexibility according to the needs of the landowners.
In the Napa area, more than 21,000 acres of land has been protected by conservation agreements with The Land Trust of Napa County.
That’s a significant number, and it only figures to grow as the years go on.
