On a recent sunny day in the Napa Valley, Robin Grossinger cupped his hands around his eyes and surveyed the landscape. He said the scene gave him “a feeling of grandeur.”
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| Tidal marshlands. Courtesy CA Historical Society |
He was not talking about the vistas of hillsides draped in vineyards,
with their gnarled vines tinged green with new growth that by fall will
be laden with the valley’s renowned cabernet sauvignon and other grapes.
Mr. Grossinger, a scientist with the San Francisco Estuary Institute
and author of the new Napa Valley Historical Ecology Atlas, had turned
his gaze onto another charismatic species: a small line of valley oak
trees.
While today’s visitors — around five million annually — come to drink
wine and soak up the beauty of Napa’s viticultural landscape, past
visitors came to marvel at the majestic oaks.
The area where Mr. Grossinger was standing, near Oak Knoll in the
southern end of the valley, is where travelers entering from the south
first took in the beauty of the oak savannas that defined the valley
floor, bursting with wildflowers in the spring. The trees at Oak Knoll
supported abundant wildlife and created shade in the heat, among other
benefits, prompting the California State Senate in 1858 to declare them
“at once an ornament and a blessing.” (more)
