The work that stops a wildfire mostly happens before anyone smells smoke. The Land Trust of Napa County just put 200 acres of it on the ground — clearing brush and running prescribed burns on rural ridges above Angwin and Aetna Springs, some of it the same ground where last summer’s Pickett Fire ran out of room.
Key Takeaways
- The Land Trust of Napa County treated 200 acres across two preserves, pulling out brush, small trees and ladder fuels and running prescribed burns.
- Half the work — 100 acres on the Dunn-Wildlake Preserve — sits on ground where the 2025 Pickett Fire was held short of Angwin.
- Cal Fire, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Forest Restoration Program and the Napa County Resource Conservation District paid for the projects.
- It lands the same week Cal Fire suspended outdoor burning across seven North Bay counties as a hot, dry stretch sets in.
What the crews did
In a news release Friday, the nonprofit said it finished fuel reduction on 100 acres of its Dunn-Wildlake Preserve and another 100 acres of thinning and prescribed burning at its Aetna Springs Preserve, in the hills around the communities of Angwin and Aetna Springs. Crews pulled dense undergrowth, small trees and “ladder fuels” — the low vegetation that lets a fire climb off the ground into the treetops, where it moves fast and burns hot. They also worked over key ridgelines and the access roads firefighters need to get in.
The Dunn-Wildlake work was backed by Cal Fire and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Emergency Forest Restoration Program, the Land Trust said. The Aetna Springs project was a partnership with Cal Fire and the Napa County Resource Conservation District, and builds on earlier shaded fuel breaks the group cut along Aetna Springs Road.
What happened when the fire came
This isn’t a hypothetical. The Pickett Fire broke out Aug. 21, 2025, off Pickett Road north of Calistoga, and burned 6,819 acres before crews boxed it in — torching an estimated $65 million in farmland and threatening Pope Valley, Aetna Springs and Angwin along the way. On the Dunn-Wildlake Preserve, the Land Trust said, the fire was held from pushing into Angwin.
Firefighters reported that already-treated ground burned at lower intensity and gave them safer, faster access — maintained roads and fuel breaks they used to reach key spots, set backburns and contain the fire more efficiently, according to the release. The same fuel breaks along Aetna Springs Road, the Land Trust said, helped slow both the Pickett Fire and the Glass Fire of September 2020.
“Our focus is simple: do the work before the fire starts,” Mike Palladini, the Land Trust’s stewardship director, said in the statement. “Prescribed burns and targeted thinning reduce the fuels that drive extreme fire behavior, giving firefighters safer conditions and helping protect nearby communities.”
“This isn’t theoretical,” Palladini said. “Firefighters told us directly that our past work made a real difference on the ground — giving them better access, better visibility, and more options to protect the community.” The Napa Valley Register first reported the projects.
Why the timing cuts both ways
The release landed as the window for this kind of work closes for the season. Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit suspended outdoor burning across seven counties — Napa, Sonoma, Solano, Marin, Lake, Yolo and Colusa — starting Monday, June 15, citing higher temperatures, drying fuels and no rain in the forecast. The order bars residents from burning landscape debris on state-protected land.
It also shows why the careful version matters. The same dry stretch produced the Putah Fire, which started June 8 near Lake Berryessa after a Cal Fire prescribed burn escaped its lines and ran to roughly 860 acres. Prescribed fire is the tool managers reach for first, but it only works in the cool, damp window ahead of fire season — exactly the window now slamming shut.
Nobody notices the 200 acres until the next ignition finds them. Then a thinned ridge is the difference between a fire that runs and one that stalls at the edge of town — the bet the Land Trust is making heading into another Napa summer.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where did the Land Trust do this work?
On two of its preserves in eastern Napa County: 100 acres on the Dunn-Wildlake Preserve and 100 acres on the Aetna Springs Preserve, in the hills around Angwin and Aetna Springs. The projects also maintained ridgelines and the fire-access roads crews use to reach the backcountry.
Did the thinning actually stop the Pickett Fire?
The Land Trust says treated ground on its Dunn-Wildlake Preserve helped hold the 2025 fire short of Angwin, and that firefighters credited earlier fuel breaks with slowing both the Pickett and 2020 Glass fires. Crews reported the cleared areas burned at lower intensity and were safer to work in.
Can I still burn my own brush right now?
No. Cal Fire suspended residential outdoor burning of landscape debris on state-protected land in Napa and six neighboring counties starting June 15. Check with Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit before lighting anything.