Header photo by: Lowell Downey
ChristIna Aranguren - President
Hailing from a family of water devotees (her late father was a water and fisheries consultant, a brother, a water attorney responsible for Fish and Game Code case law, and another, a well-known fly fishing guide), Christina grew up in Paradise, where the topic of dinner conversations often revolved around the subject of water and any free time was spent on local streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. She is continuing her family's 50-year-plus legacy in advocating for public trust resources, working on a variety of issues in northern California involving state fisheries, stream flows, dams, water quality, wastewater, groundwater, and land use.
Christina originally joined ICARE in 2012 after her work on Napa River watershed issues caught our attention. Recently retired from business in Chico, she and her husband relocated to upper Napa County, where she stepped into the pair of very large shoes left by her father, Bob Baiocchi, and his project, California Fisheries and Water Unlimited, to protect and promote anadromous fisheries in northern California. During her time in Napa County, she was active in the formation of Napa Vision 2050 and served on the Napa County Measure A Financial Oversight Committee. She and her husband have since relocated to coastal Mendocino County, where Christina was elected to the Mendocino City Community Services District Board of Directors in 2020 prior to her post as President of ICARE.
Hailing from a family of water devotees (her late father was a water and fisheries consultant, a brother, a water attorney responsible for Fish and Game Code case law, and another, a well-known fly fishing guide), Christina grew up in Paradise, where the topic of dinner conversations often revolved around the subject of water and any free time was spent on local streams, rivers, lakes, and reservoirs. She is continuing her family's 50-year-plus legacy in advocating for public trust resources, working on a variety of issues in northern California involving state fisheries, stream flows, dams, water quality, wastewater, groundwater, and land use.
Christina originally joined ICARE in 2012 after her work on Napa River watershed issues caught our attention. Recently retired from business in Chico, she and her husband relocated to upper Napa County, where she stepped into the pair of very large shoes left by her father, Bob Baiocchi, and his project, California Fisheries and Water Unlimited, to protect and promote anadromous fisheries in northern California. During her time in Napa County, she was active in the formation of Napa Vision 2050 and served on the Napa County Measure A Financial Oversight Committee. She and her husband have since relocated to coastal Mendocino County, where Christina was elected to the Mendocino City Community Services District Board of Directors in 2020 prior to her post as President of ICARE.
Jack L. Malan - Secretary
Jack has worked in the non-profit sector for 20 years as director, executive director and board officer. In this capacity, he had been responsible for concept, design, development, implementation and operation of all business aspects. Additionally, he has been involved in funding and grant writing for non-profits providing much of the programmatic expertise.
Jack has worked in the non-profit sector for 20 years as director, executive director and board officer. In this capacity, he had been responsible for concept, design, development, implementation and operation of all business aspects. Additionally, he has been involved in funding and grant writing for non-profits providing much of the programmatic expertise.
Kent Ruppert - Treasurer
Kent was an elementary school teacher for thirty years in the Napa Valley School District. Mr. Ruppert held an administrative credential for grades K-8, but chose to stay in the classroom instead of using the credential. Upon his retirement he began to volunteer for the Natural Science Docent Program sponsored by the Napa Chapter of the California Native Plant society. During the last ten years, he has acted as both docent and chairman of this program. During this time, Mr. Ruppert also created a very popular in-class watershed program for Friends of the Napa River. Presently, Mr. Ruppert is both teacher and coordinator for the natural Science Docent program and the Napa Watershed Education Program.
Kent was an elementary school teacher for thirty years in the Napa Valley School District. Mr. Ruppert held an administrative credential for grades K-8, but chose to stay in the classroom instead of using the credential. Upon his retirement he began to volunteer for the Natural Science Docent Program sponsored by the Napa Chapter of the California Native Plant society. During the last ten years, he has acted as both docent and chairman of this program. During this time, Mr. Ruppert also created a very popular in-class watershed program for Friends of the Napa River. Presently, Mr. Ruppert is both teacher and coordinator for the natural Science Docent program and the Napa Watershed Education Program.
Alyx Howell- Board member
Alyx is a descendant and member of the local Mishewal Wappo Tribe whom has called Napa valley home for thousands of years. Alyx grew up playing in the creeks and mountains surrounding the valley and recently has become spiritually pushed to help protect the mountains, streams, rivers, wetlands and wild lands herein. Alyx wants to protect these sacred areas from further damage by developers who seek profits over these precious landscapes. He is currently learning and studying traditional land management, fire prevention and cultural practices from the lands such as reeds for basket making, roasting bay nuts and making elderberry juice. Learning more about water resources and their overall health and well being is his next step in his journey of learning how to take care of mother earth as it does us.
Alyx is a descendant and member of the local Mishewal Wappo Tribe whom has called Napa valley home for thousands of years. Alyx grew up playing in the creeks and mountains surrounding the valley and recently has become spiritually pushed to help protect the mountains, streams, rivers, wetlands and wild lands herein. Alyx wants to protect these sacred areas from further damage by developers who seek profits over these precious landscapes. He is currently learning and studying traditional land management, fire prevention and cultural practices from the lands such as reeds for basket making, roasting bay nuts and making elderberry juice. Learning more about water resources and their overall health and well being is his next step in his journey of learning how to take care of mother earth as it does us.
Chris Malan - Executive Director
Chris grew up around the Eel River where she would spend all summer camping, hiking, fishing and swimming. Other Northern California rivers were common recreational sites during her formative years. She became deeply saddened by the gradual and devastating loss of recreational values of the Napa River while raising her two sons in Napa. The Napa River suffers chronic algae blooms and de-watering that deprives generations to come of recreational enjoyment. The salmon were telling this sad story in the 1960's when the Coho salmon left the Napa River and wild Chinook and Steelhead returned to spawn in only very low numbers. Human environmental impacts to this watershed include farming too close to the stream’s aquatic habitats, pesticides and other chemical uses, deforestation for vineyards, putting streams underground and water diversions. For twenty one years Chris has focused on recovery of the Napa River because being a good watershed steward is essential to community health, especially with the onslaught of climate change. Clean and available water is essential for all living things.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) listed the Napa River as an impaired water body due to sediment (1990), pathogens and nutrients (1988). This means that the Napa River exceeds pollution limits allowed to a water body and therefore, regulations are necessary to protect public health and the public trust to fish, swim and recreate in the waters of the State. Chris has been trying to get the Napa River listed with the USEPA for flow and temperature impairments since 2010.
In 1999, as Executive Member of the Sierra Club, Chris organized a lawsuit to force Napa County to do environmental review on wild land conversions (including deforestation) to vineyards. In other words, the issue of permanent conversion of land over 5% slope and other vegetation types to permanent mono-culture vines needed the highest level of environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This lawsuit succeeded and the good news is that now de-vegetation/clear-cutting on slopes over 5% for vineyards must go through a rigorous environmental impact study and reporting procedure to the public.
While the Department of Fish and Wildlife said there were only 4 streams that had Steelhead living in them in 1998, Chris saw differently, when she saw spotted fingerlings in streams where she did volunteer monitoring for the Resource Conservation District (RCD). When Chris tried to sound the alarm that salmon were in the Napa River her sightings were minimized and ignored. Chris knew more had to be done to improve the health of the Napa River.
In 1999-2004, as a founding Board Member for Friends of the Napa River, and then later Chris championed her own non-profit the Institute for Conservation Advocacy, Research and Education (ICARE). Chris wrote grants to establish the first ever total basin snorkel survey for Steelhead. This put Steelhead back on the map showing that these magnificent fish were still using the Napa watershed basin to migrate, spawn and rear in at least 23 of over 50 tributaries of the Napa River watershed.
Additionally, Chris is the founder and manager of the Benthic Macro Invertebrate (BMI) Sampling Project. Fourteen years of collecting BMI samples to monitor aquatic insect biodiversity and distribution in the Napa River provides a robust biological index of water quality and health of the Napa River. BMIs have been sampled in every stream with water in the Napa River watershed where Chris’ scientific team has discovered 3 new species of aquatic insects never before documented, a spring snail, a Stonefly & a Caddis fly with one Stonefly specie of rare collection. This biological data is constantly sought after by others studying water quality in the San Francisco estuary. Long term biological monitoring of the Napa River is the only vigorous scientific method of understanding the health of our local water that serves our communities and is an indicator of community health.
As of 5.1.2017, Chris and her scientific team are permanently entering all of this BMI rigorous and critical biological data into the California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN) so that the long term health of the Napa River will be permanently protected and stored for future generations. We will now be able to accurately track the actual biological health of the Napa River over a long term trajectory. This is vital because 1/3rd or our municipal water supply is supplied locally. As climate changes our local water supply will be essential to sustain our County during water shortages coming from the Sierra snow pack.
From 1996-1998 Chris was one of the founders and chief organizers of the now famous Napa River Flood Management Project called Measure A. The voters approved with a 2/3’s special vote to restore historic floodplains and wetlands by dismantling levees, reconstruction of bridges to open up flood conveyance and removing buildings in the floodway. Additionally, numerous toxic sites were cleaned up.
In 2009 Chris helped organized the North Coast Stream Flow Coalition with 21 stream advocacy groups who focus on returning adequate flows to our great North Coast Rivers so that plants, fish and wildlife can once again thrive in fresh water habitats. This Coalition organizes citizens and groups to monitor and improve stream flows and properly manage groundwater for a sustainable future.
Chris invites all to join in the protection of our water resources as there is no other choice in the face of global climate change where these precious aquatic landscapes of survival are worth strong advocacy and sacrifice.
Onward!
Chris grew up around the Eel River where she would spend all summer camping, hiking, fishing and swimming. Other Northern California rivers were common recreational sites during her formative years. She became deeply saddened by the gradual and devastating loss of recreational values of the Napa River while raising her two sons in Napa. The Napa River suffers chronic algae blooms and de-watering that deprives generations to come of recreational enjoyment. The salmon were telling this sad story in the 1960's when the Coho salmon left the Napa River and wild Chinook and Steelhead returned to spawn in only very low numbers. Human environmental impacts to this watershed include farming too close to the stream’s aquatic habitats, pesticides and other chemical uses, deforestation for vineyards, putting streams underground and water diversions. For twenty one years Chris has focused on recovery of the Napa River because being a good watershed steward is essential to community health, especially with the onslaught of climate change. Clean and available water is essential for all living things.
The United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA) listed the Napa River as an impaired water body due to sediment (1990), pathogens and nutrients (1988). This means that the Napa River exceeds pollution limits allowed to a water body and therefore, regulations are necessary to protect public health and the public trust to fish, swim and recreate in the waters of the State. Chris has been trying to get the Napa River listed with the USEPA for flow and temperature impairments since 2010.
In 1999, as Executive Member of the Sierra Club, Chris organized a lawsuit to force Napa County to do environmental review on wild land conversions (including deforestation) to vineyards. In other words, the issue of permanent conversion of land over 5% slope and other vegetation types to permanent mono-culture vines needed the highest level of environmental review required by the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). This lawsuit succeeded and the good news is that now de-vegetation/clear-cutting on slopes over 5% for vineyards must go through a rigorous environmental impact study and reporting procedure to the public.
While the Department of Fish and Wildlife said there were only 4 streams that had Steelhead living in them in 1998, Chris saw differently, when she saw spotted fingerlings in streams where she did volunteer monitoring for the Resource Conservation District (RCD). When Chris tried to sound the alarm that salmon were in the Napa River her sightings were minimized and ignored. Chris knew more had to be done to improve the health of the Napa River.
In 1999-2004, as a founding Board Member for Friends of the Napa River, and then later Chris championed her own non-profit the Institute for Conservation Advocacy, Research and Education (ICARE). Chris wrote grants to establish the first ever total basin snorkel survey for Steelhead. This put Steelhead back on the map showing that these magnificent fish were still using the Napa watershed basin to migrate, spawn and rear in at least 23 of over 50 tributaries of the Napa River watershed.
Additionally, Chris is the founder and manager of the Benthic Macro Invertebrate (BMI) Sampling Project. Fourteen years of collecting BMI samples to monitor aquatic insect biodiversity and distribution in the Napa River provides a robust biological index of water quality and health of the Napa River. BMIs have been sampled in every stream with water in the Napa River watershed where Chris’ scientific team has discovered 3 new species of aquatic insects never before documented, a spring snail, a Stonefly & a Caddis fly with one Stonefly specie of rare collection. This biological data is constantly sought after by others studying water quality in the San Francisco estuary. Long term biological monitoring of the Napa River is the only vigorous scientific method of understanding the health of our local water that serves our communities and is an indicator of community health.
As of 5.1.2017, Chris and her scientific team are permanently entering all of this BMI rigorous and critical biological data into the California Environmental Data Exchange Network (CEDEN) so that the long term health of the Napa River will be permanently protected and stored for future generations. We will now be able to accurately track the actual biological health of the Napa River over a long term trajectory. This is vital because 1/3rd or our municipal water supply is supplied locally. As climate changes our local water supply will be essential to sustain our County during water shortages coming from the Sierra snow pack.
From 1996-1998 Chris was one of the founders and chief organizers of the now famous Napa River Flood Management Project called Measure A. The voters approved with a 2/3’s special vote to restore historic floodplains and wetlands by dismantling levees, reconstruction of bridges to open up flood conveyance and removing buildings in the floodway. Additionally, numerous toxic sites were cleaned up.
In 2009 Chris helped organized the North Coast Stream Flow Coalition with 21 stream advocacy groups who focus on returning adequate flows to our great North Coast Rivers so that plants, fish and wildlife can once again thrive in fresh water habitats. This Coalition organizes citizens and groups to monitor and improve stream flows and properly manage groundwater for a sustainable future.
Chris invites all to join in the protection of our water resources as there is no other choice in the face of global climate change where these precious aquatic landscapes of survival are worth strong advocacy and sacrifice.
Onward!
Lowell Downey - Honored Retired President of ICARE after 24 years of dedicated service
Lowell Downey is an international artist, co-owner of Art & Clarity (a multi-media company), and a social and environmental advocate. Growing up the 50s and 60s in Texas and then Florida, where his family moved following the death of his mother, Lowell was deeply impressed by the civil rights and Vietnam era. Both significantly opened his eyes and heart, challenging him to stand up for what he believed was right. He became a front line activist in high school joining with three other students to start a pacificist organization against the racial violence engulfing his school.
His activism continued through college and on to New York City, where he received his MFA from New York University. Moving to California in 1984, Downey’s plays evoked the social disorder of the times. He accompanied the Peace Navy on protests against the military war campaigns, joined the efforts of friends at the Mission Graphica in San Francisco to highlight social crisis in Central America and the plight of refugees in the area, and, as a features editor for Vox Magazine, he championed artistic awareness of the AIDS epidemic and other social issues. In 1990, As Director of the Institute of Living Arts in San Francisco, he took the first ecological arts exhibition, Art of Ecology: Recycling the Collective Spirit, to the Czech Republic following the Velvet Revolution in Prague.
On moving to Napa, his environmental and social concerns were evident. When the State threatened to spray neurotoxins on the public to kill the glassywing sharpshooter, should it be found in Napa, he formed People Opposed to Insecticide Spraying on Neighborhoods (POISON) in 2001 and joined the County’s Glassywing Task Force. Lowell was instrumental in working with the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner in writing alternatives to pesticides in the County work plan. In 2001, Downey also received a 1.5 year commission to photograph the 50 miles of the Napa River for the exhibition Voices of the River at the Napa Valley Museum.
Downey and his business partner and mother of their child, Janna Waldinger, were committed in 1998 to creating a socially and environmentally responsible business, using environmentally responsible practices, advocating on important community issues, and raising their son with the motto: Always be Kind. Joining ICARE 24 years ago, Downey believed that in protecting our watersheds we protect the foundation of our community and, at the same time, inspire new environmental leaders to uphold our responsibility to the future generations.
Lowell Downey is an international artist, co-owner of Art & Clarity (a multi-media company), and a social and environmental advocate. Growing up the 50s and 60s in Texas and then Florida, where his family moved following the death of his mother, Lowell was deeply impressed by the civil rights and Vietnam era. Both significantly opened his eyes and heart, challenging him to stand up for what he believed was right. He became a front line activist in high school joining with three other students to start a pacificist organization against the racial violence engulfing his school.
His activism continued through college and on to New York City, where he received his MFA from New York University. Moving to California in 1984, Downey’s plays evoked the social disorder of the times. He accompanied the Peace Navy on protests against the military war campaigns, joined the efforts of friends at the Mission Graphica in San Francisco to highlight social crisis in Central America and the plight of refugees in the area, and, as a features editor for Vox Magazine, he championed artistic awareness of the AIDS epidemic and other social issues. In 1990, As Director of the Institute of Living Arts in San Francisco, he took the first ecological arts exhibition, Art of Ecology: Recycling the Collective Spirit, to the Czech Republic following the Velvet Revolution in Prague.
On moving to Napa, his environmental and social concerns were evident. When the State threatened to spray neurotoxins on the public to kill the glassywing sharpshooter, should it be found in Napa, he formed People Opposed to Insecticide Spraying on Neighborhoods (POISON) in 2001 and joined the County’s Glassywing Task Force. Lowell was instrumental in working with the Napa County Agricultural Commissioner in writing alternatives to pesticides in the County work plan. In 2001, Downey also received a 1.5 year commission to photograph the 50 miles of the Napa River for the exhibition Voices of the River at the Napa Valley Museum.
Downey and his business partner and mother of their child, Janna Waldinger, were committed in 1998 to creating a socially and environmentally responsible business, using environmentally responsible practices, advocating on important community issues, and raising their son with the motto: Always be Kind. Joining ICARE 24 years ago, Downey believed that in protecting our watersheds we protect the foundation of our community and, at the same time, inspire new environmental leaders to uphold our responsibility to the future generations.
John Stephens In Fond Memory:
ICARE appreciates John’s contribution of $35,000 to develop and execute the Napa River Bio-assessment and Algal Monitoring Project in 2021. We collected 29 samples of benthic macro-invertebrates/BMI, water assays, stream habitat data and algal samples throughout the Napa River watershed. We even collected a new specie of algae! The final results of this project can be viewed herein at the Hot Topics tab. These samples along with 132 BMI samples collected between 2000-2006 have been analyzed by Dr. Charley Dewberry, a world wide renowned stream ecologist, to determine the health trajectory of the Napa River. Thanks to John and his contributions to this project these results are now deposited in the California Environmental Data Exchange Network/CEDEN. John is dearly missed for his never ending support and vigilance for the protection of nature at its smallest creatures.
ICARE appreciates John’s contribution of $35,000 to develop and execute the Napa River Bio-assessment and Algal Monitoring Project in 2021. We collected 29 samples of benthic macro-invertebrates/BMI, water assays, stream habitat data and algal samples throughout the Napa River watershed. We even collected a new specie of algae! The final results of this project can be viewed herein at the Hot Topics tab. These samples along with 132 BMI samples collected between 2000-2006 have been analyzed by Dr. Charley Dewberry, a world wide renowned stream ecologist, to determine the health trajectory of the Napa River. Thanks to John and his contributions to this project these results are now deposited in the California Environmental Data Exchange Network/CEDEN. John is dearly missed for his never ending support and vigilance for the protection of nature at its smallest creatures.