TO: Board of Supervisors
FROM: Brian D. Bordona, Director of Planning, Building, and Environmental Services
REPORT BY: Jesse Gutierrez, Principal Planner - Sustainability
SUBJECT: Receive a presentation on the Draft Napa Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan.
RECOMMENDATION
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Receive a presentation on the Draft Napa Regional Climate Action and Adaptation Plan. (No Fiscal Impact)
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BACKGROUND
Climate change has presented significant challenges locally and is increasingly supercharging weather patterns leading to greater impacts on communities. Climate change is experienced in many different forms, which locally may include effects such as prolonged heat waves, extended drought periods, altered frequency and severity of rain events, and increased wildfire risk caused by conditions that are more favorable for ignition and rapid spread of fires.
In recent years, a series of devastating wildfires swept through Napa County and surrounding regions, including the Atlas, Tubbs, and Nuns fires in 2017; and the Glass Fire and the LNU Lightning Complex fires in August and September 2020. These wildfires, collectively, burned hundreds of thousands of acres (CAL FIRE 2017, 2022, 2023), and destroyed thousands of structures, and resulted in an array of cascading public health, economic, and even viticultural impacts throughout the county. In the 2020 fires alone, eight percent of the season's wine grapes were left tainted by wildfire smoke, and thus, were unusable (Chroback and Zimmer 2022). Additionally, in September 2022, an unprecedented and uninterrupted 10-day heat wave, with temperatures exceeding triple digits across much of the state, led to hundreds of excess deaths, including some residents of Napa County (CDPH 2023). In general, climate-related hazard events like these can have an array of adverse impacts on populations, the built environment, and community functions and over time, these events will likely increase in frequency, intensity, and/or dur...
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