Browne Forest Project

Planting a forest one bottle at a time.

Goal: 1 million trees planted

Progress: 206,068 trees planted

Goal: 1 million trees planted Progress: 206,068 trees planted

Winemaking regions – the Pacific Northwest included – have felt the impact of flooding and forest fires in recent years.

We’re honored to partner with One Tree Planted to support reforestation efforts in the Pacific Northwest and beyond. One Tree Planted makes it simple to give back by partnering with local reforestation organizations to directly impact habitats, people, and wildlife.

One Tree Planted projects restore forests in the wake of major wildfires like those in Paradise, California, repair damage caused by industry and resource extraction, and even support the endangered Southern Resident Orca of the Pacific Northwest.

Together we can restore forests, create habitats for biodiversity, and make a positive social impact on the environments where we live, work, and play.

Not just a pretty package.

We designed the Forest Project with our environmental impact in mind.

Our bottles are 31% lighter than standard wine bottles, reducing the energy required for transit and production.

Our shipping cartons are sourced from responsibly managed forests (per the Forest Stewardship Council).

Our label-free design saved just under 1.5 million paper labels in the first year of production, and ensures our bottles are recyclable.

Our current reforestation projects

California Rim Wildfire Reforestation

Reforestation efforts are underway in Stanislaus National Forest located in Tuolumne County California, about 160 miles from Paso Robles where our Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are grown. This project is designed to restore landscape mosaics of both old forest structure and open canopy structure within the footprint of the 2013 Rim Fire. This project is based in the Tuolumne Watershed, a key watershed within California that is a critical supplier of water to the Central Valley and the Bay Area. Restored forests will provide both water supply and water quality benefits. Restoring mixed conifer forests will reduce erosion, increase structure and thermal cover for wildlife species, and lower water temperature in riparian areas, while simultaneously increasing carbon sequestration.

Oregon Fire Reforestation

Our targeted planting locations in Oregon are lands that were burned during a devastating fire event that occurred in September 2020. Multiple large fires burned hundred of thousands of acres in western Oregon, including Archie Creek, Holiday Farm, Beachie Creek and Riverside. This is a multi-year effort to rehabilitate those lands. Lands are managed to primarily benefit resources such as Wildlife, Fisheries, Water, Wilderness, Botany, Recreation and Late Successional Ecosystems.

The new plantings will represent that which was historically present, and will be maintained to prevent invasive species establishment.

The Orca Initiative

Pacific Northwest Watersheds

Endangered Southern Resident Orcas have called the stretch of the Pacific Ocean from Northern California to British Columbia home for millennia. Every year, as the orcas migrate north to south and back again, they rely on the West Coast Chinook salmon for food (nearly 80% of their diet). However, salmon stocks are diminishing due to the loss of habitat and increasing pollution, ultimately impacting the orcas downstream. Planting trees along rivers and streams of the Pacific Northwest restores habitat for the endangered orcas. Trees help with water quality and therefore improve the orcas’ health and the quantity of salmon to eat.

Colorado: Spring Creek Fire Restoration

Our planting partners are working on a large-scale reforestation effort to address restoration of three of the largest forest fires in the history of Colorado – the Spring Creek Fire, the Troublesome Fire, and the Cameron Peak Fire. Our project is already the largest post-fire reforestation effort in Colorado and this portion of the project will help to increase these efforts by a significant degree. Our post-fire reforestation process includes planting rooted conifer seedlings in mixed conifer forests with low potential for natural regeneration as a result of three of the largest stand-replacing crown fires in Colorado history.

At each reforestation site, a planting plan is developed that includes partitioning the total planting area into 10 to 30 hectare blocks in order to improve logistical efficiency during planting and to establish monitoring plots where growth rate and survival are measured. Crews of 10 to 20 planters will typically plant 7,000 to 10,000 trees per day.

Montana: Elmo Fire Restoration

791 acres of the privately owned Flathead Ridge Ranch in Montana was burned in the 2022 Elmo Fire. 500 burned acres will be restored during this project and will undergo immediate site preparation with the plantings commencing in 2024. This family-owned ranch holds multiple residences and portions of the property are available for public use. The restoration of this site will be beneficial for the community, Ronan Cr. watershed, forest health, and wildlife. In appropriate planting sites, 300 seedlings per acre will be planted with 12' spacing and the species will be mixed to suit each microsite.