After years of planning, conversation, and collaboration, the City of Napa has taken an important step toward a more wildfire-resilient future. On August 4, 2026, the Napa City Council adopted the City of Napa Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP), a community roadmap for understanding wildfire risk, preparing for fire, and identifying actions that can help protect the people, places, and resources that make the City of Napa home.
For Napa RCD, this milestone is about more than the adoption of a plan. It is about the people who helped shape it. Neighbors shared concerns and ideas. Community members asked questions. Local organizations brought their expertise to the table. And residents took the time to imagine what a safer, more prepared City of Napa could look like. This plan was built with the community, for the community.
City of Napa Fire Life and Safety Day 2024
Bringing People Into the Process
A Community Wildfire Protection Plan is designed to help communities identify wildfire risks and prioritize actions to reduce those risks. But a plan is only as strong as the people who have a voice in shaping it. From the beginning, Napa RCD championed community engagement as a central part of the City of Napa CWPP process. Working alongside the City of Napa and local partners like Napa Valley Community Organizations Active in Disaster (COAD) and Napa Communities Firewise Foundation, we created opportunities for residents to learn about wildfire risk, share their experiences, identify concerns, and offer ideas for solutions.
That meant taking the planning process beyond conference rooms and technical reports and bringing it into the community. We hosted English and Spanish-language opportunities to learn about the CWPP and participate in its development. At local events like City of Napa Fire & Life Safety Day, families learned about the plan while also exploring fire preparedness, defensible space, emergency resources, and other ways to prepare for wildfire.
Napa RCD, COAD, and C.E.R.T. tabling about the CWPP process and wildfire preparedness at the 2025 Silverado Fire Safe Council Wine Event
A Plan Everyone Can Access
One of the most meaningful parts of this work was making sure the finished plan could reach more members of our community. Napa RCD led the Spanish translation effort in partnership with COAD, a substantial undertaking that took weeks of dedicated work. For us, that work was about much more than translation.
“It’s incredibly exciting to be able to offer this resource in both English and Spanish. While the translation process took weeks, we knew it was important to make this critical information accessible to the many members of our community who may find themselves affected by wildfire. A plan should reflect everyone, and it should be accessible to everyone. Throughout our engagement with Spanish-speaking community members, we heard firsthand that these communities were already thinking deeply about wildfire preparedness…the challenges they face and the solutions they want to see. Their voices were an important part of this process.”
Making the plan available in Spanish is one more way to ensure that the people who live, work, and raise families in Napa can see themselves in this effort.
From Years of Work to a Shared Roadmap
The adoption of the CWPP is a milestone of years in the making. The work began with an important precedent: wildfire resilience requires us to understand our risks and work together on solutions. Over the course of the planning process, that meant assessing hazards, identifying vulnerable areas and infrastructure, gathering community input, and developing priorities for reducing wildfire risk.
The resulting plan provides a framework for continued action, including wildfire preparedness and education, vegetation and fuels management, evacuation planning, protection of critical infrastructure, and identifying opportunities for future projects and investment.
Most importantly, it provides a shared direction. Wildfire does not stop at property lines or neighborhood boundaries. Preparing for it cannot happen in isolation either.
The Work Continues
Adoption is a major accomplishment, but it is not the end of the story. It is the beginning of the next phase: turning priorities into projects, continuing conversations with residents, strengthening preparedness, pursuing funding, and building the partnerships needed to make meaningful progress on the ground. Napa is no stranger to wildfire. The experiences of recent years have changed the way many of us think about fire, preparedness, and the landscapes around us. But those experiences have also shown us what is possible when people work together.
The adoption of the City of Napa CWPP is a testament to the power of collaboration, to what can happen when residents, local government, fire professionals, community organizations, land stewards, and resource conservation partners bring their knowledge and energy to the same table.
At Napa RCD, we have been working in Napa County for more than 75 years, helping our community care for land, water, soil, wildlife, and each other. We know that lasting conservation solutions are built locally, through relationships and shared responsibility. After years in the making, the City of Napa has a plan. But more importantly, the City of Napa has a community ready to put that plan to work.
To learn more about the City of Napa’s Community Wildfire Protection Plan, visit: https://www.cityofnapa.org/1328/Community-Wildfire-Protection-Plan-CWPP
Funding for this project was provided by the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE) Fire Prevention Program as part of the California Climate Investments Program.
