When poet Jane Mead died in 2019 at 61, her estate donated her family ranch to a trust. The 1,318-acre Mead Ranch sits near Atlas Peak, above Yountville, in California’s Napa Valley, according to the Land Trust of Napa County . The group announced the gift on May 7, 2024, and says the land is now permanently protected.
Some people leave behind money. Others leave behind a ridge. The ranch is rich in rare plant species, and behind the gift is a poet who spent years taking care of this land.
The ranch is also home to Napa bluecurls, a newly described species based on the Mead Ranch population. Two other plants, the holly-leaved ceanothus and narrow-anthered brodiaea, are both on the California Native Plant Society’s endangered plant list. Vernal pools, shallow pools that fill with water part of the year, are also features of the property. A University of Colorado Boulder summary of the research noted that many key areas for wildlife survival remain unconnected. This study looked at the entire world, not just Napa. And yet it shows the importance of connecting protected land.
A 2022 study in Science mapped the areas where mammals might move between protected areas. The researchers also found that around 70 percent of the critical areas for animal movement overlap with places already considered valuable for biodiversity.
Botanist Jake Ruygt, who discovered Mead’s owl’s clover, says they are the most species-diverse of any pool systems remaining in the county.
