To everyone who’s had to take the detour to our back entrance these past weeks — thank you for making the trek! The main entrance is now open, and it’s truly impressive. Visitors are greeted by a newly restored road and a living fish habitat restoration site, coming beautifully to life as you arrive at the estate.
Grading is complete on four major areas — three on either side of the bridge as you drive in. Down in the creek bed, massive redwood logs have been bolted into place after an extraordinary ballet of excavators and cranes. These seven-ton timbers now sit exactly where they belong, creating structures that mimic natural log jams.
These redwood log structures are vital for healthy streams: they provide shelter for fish, stabilize creek banks, and restore the natural complexity of habitats where Coho salmon once thrived. Once secured and anchored, they shape areas of calm water and deeper pools, guide streamflow into new off-channel features, and create essential cover for juvenile fish.
This is what scientists call “instream complexity” — a key ingredient in salmon recovery and one of the most important outcomes of our work along Green Valley Creek.
Following the log placements and contouring, the team has begun seeding native grasses and plants across the project site — one of the most hopeful and beautiful stages of restoration, when new life begins to take root.
All areas that were graded to reconnect the stream with its floodplain, or used for access and staging, are now being seeded to jumpstart natural regrowth. These native plants will stabilize the soil, support pollinators, attract insects that feed young salmon, and help control erosion during winter rains.
Two distinct native seed mixes are being used — one for the lower, wetter areas, and another for the drier upland zones. Today, the crew hand-broadcast the wetland seed mix beneath 100% biodegradable erosion-control blankets, which will stabilize slopes while allowing the seedlings to grow through the mesh. Seeding will continue through the coming days, completing this final, restorative phase of construction.
This project would not be possible without extraordinary collaboration and shared vision. Our deepest thanks go to the Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District, PCI Ecological, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, NOAA, engineers, contractors, and environmental partners who have brought their expertise and dedication to this effort.
Together, we are restoring Green Valley Creek, improving conditions for Coho salmon today while demonstrating how agriculture and conservation can thrive side by side — a model for climate resilience and sustainable land stewardship.
We invite you to come see this inspiring project for yourself — a living example of how working with nature restores balance, beauty, and biodiversity.
Join us in a special toast to this milestone moment and to a future where vineyards and wildlife thrive together.
