Cal-Fire & City of Vallejo Night Vision Goggles and Water Drop Training at Lake Curry

Cal Fire and the City of Vallejo propose to utilize Lake Curry as a training location for practicing use of Night Vision Goggles for water drops to simulate fighting fires at night. The training would occur Monday and Friday evening every other week and is anticipated to run through 2026-2031. Training would commence a half hour after sunset and would last for 1-2 hours. Trainees would grab water from the lake with their aircraft and conduct water drops on the properties surrounding the lake (parcels which are owned by the City of Vallejo and within the jurisdiction of Napa County). The training will also involve conducting landings in open areas adjacent to the lake to practice landings in unfamiliar areas at night. The proposed training will not remove any trees and does not propose to alter the existing land or topography in any way. Additionally, water taken from the lake will be dropped within the same watershed allowing the water to return and not result in a reduction in water resources. During the preparation of this Notice of Exemption, the California Natural Diversity Database was checked for both State and Federally listed species. Although listed species may be present within Project area, impacts to these plants and animals will be limited as vegetation treatments will not be conducted, no impacts to raptors or other avian species are anticipated. Vegetation on the parcels surround lake consists primarily of grassland and oak woodlands. No actual groundwork or disturbance is proposed that would impact the vegetation, other than temporary impacts that might occur when the night landings are practiced; however, these will occur in the open grassland areas and no trees will be impacted. No impacts to water resources are anticipated, as any water pulled from the lake will be dropped on the surrounding parcels which will allow the water to naturally return to the lake through the local watershed.