NORTHERN CALIFORNIA – The Blue Ridge-Berryessa Partnership, a group of regional stakeholders working together to conserve and steward the Blue Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area, will host a fire ecology and restoration panel discussion in Yountville on Friday, April 12.

The panel discussion, which is free and open to the public, will take place from 9:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. on the second floor Lee Lounge at the Yountville Veterans Home, 180 California Drive.

A one-hour partnership meeting, also open to the public, will immediately follow the panel discussion.

Panelists will discuss fire ecology and the use of fire in land management; regional fire trends and impacts of climate; and services offered by Cal Fire, including how controlled burns are implemented.

Panelists include US Forest Service Regional Ecologist Hugh Safford and Cal Fire Division Chief Jim Wright. Following the meeting there will be an opportunity for the public to learn more about the partnership.

Founded in 1997, the partnership provides a forum for the public and private land managers to meet and discuss stewardship activities, interests, and challenges.

The group has since grown to more than 100 members, including federal and state agencies, counties and other public entities, local businesses, nonprofit organizations and conservation-minded landowners – all with the common goal of supporting collaborative stewardship of the natural and working landscape of the Blue Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area.

The Blue Ridge-Berryessa Natural Area is approximately 785,000 acres of the upper Putah and Cache Creek watersheds, both tributaries to the Sacramento River basin.

The area is bounded on the east at the base of the Blue Ridge by the Capay and Sacramento valleys, on the west by the Clear Lake basin and the Napa watershed, on the north by the Mendocino National Forest, and extends south to Interstate 80 in Solano County.

It encompasses portions of Lake, Colusa, Yolo, Napa and Solano counties and is part of the Coast Range ecological zone that extends north into Oregon.

For more information visit www.brbna.org or call Program Director Mary Adelzadeh at 530-402-5404.