Water and wildfire: the shared stakes
The Russian River, the Napa River, and the fire districts: the two resources that tie Marin, Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties together.
Two things tie the North Bay together more than anything else: water and wildfire. The region's biggest watershed crosses county lines, and so does every major fire. Both are shared stakes, which means the decisions about them are made by agencies most residents have never heard of. This guide is a map to both.
The Russian River system
The Russian River is the North Bay's defining watershed, flowing through Sonoma County to the Pacific. Sonoma Water, the region's big water agency, delivers Russian River water to hundreds of thousands of residents in Sonoma and Marin counties. The river's flow depends in part on the Potter Valley Project, two dams on the Eel River in Lake and Mendocino counties that divert water south into the Russian River. PG&E has moved to surrender the dams, which puts the future of that water in a federal decommissioning process.
The Napa River and the bay edge
The Napa River runs the length of the Napa Valley to San Pablo Bay, ending in the marshes that Napa and Solano counties share. The river is a working river and a wildlife corridor at once: vineyards and towns on its banks, tidal marsh at its mouth. Groundwater beneath the valley is its own managed resource, and the county's groundwater sustainability program is where the next round of water arguments will be fought.
Wildfire protection, district by district
The 2017 and 2019 fire sieges changed everything about how the North Bay pays for fire protection. Sonoma County's fire districts have been consolidating, with smaller districts merging into larger ones that can sustain wildland response. Marin County funds its wildfire prevention authority with a dedicated parcel tax paired with grants, a model the other counties watch closely. Napa County has been working through its own wildfire funding question for years. The question behind every vote is the same: who pays for the engines, the fuel breaks, and the alerts?
CAL FIRE and the alert systems
Above the local districts sits CAL FIRE, the state's fire agency, which handles wildland fire in the state responsibility areas that cover much of the North Bay's hills. And every county runs its own opt-in emergency alert system: AlertMarin in Marin, SoCoAlert in Sonoma, with Napa and Solano running their own county systems. The alerts cover wildfire, flooding and evacuations, and SoCoAlert advises registering every address you care about, not just your home.
Water and fire are the two things no county can handle alone. Watch the water agencies and the fire districts, and you will understand the North Bay better than any headline can teach you.
