Vineyard Conversions

            In 1999, Mr. Lippe designed a legal strategy for the Sierra Club to challenge permits issued by Napa County and/or the California Department of Forestry for the conversion of natural vegetation communities (e.g., timberlands, grasslands, chaparral, and oak woodlands) to vineyards.  This program has been extremely successful, significantly reducing the number of vineyard conversion projects from over one hundred per year in the 1990s to a handful per year since 2000.  In 2002, the Sierra Club stopped prosecuting this program, and it has been continued by Earth Defense for the Environment Now (“EDEN”) to the present time.