The one point of agreement is that she's tenacious. From here, she can see 50 or so of his 220 acres in Napa. When Pahlmeyer began clearing the chaparral for his latest plot last summer, Malan began videotaping. I gave them three days and then called the sheriff. Pahlmeyer claims to have had verbal permission from the county to finish work on the new vineyard, but the county shut him down after Malan's call because the rainy season had officially begun.
Heavy rains can cause serious erosion, especially of unfinished vineyards on a grade.
Malan, who grew up in Santa Rosa and moved to Napa in 1978, works as a crisis counselor for the county. She's been active in Napa's environmental politics for over a decade, and may well attend more public hearings in Napa than anyone not paid to do so. In 1993, she was a founder of the Friends of the Napa River, and, in 1995, Get a Grip on Growth. She leads the Concerned Citizens for Napa Hillsides and sits on the board of the Napa Group of the Sierra Club. She also served as a member of the mercurial Napa River Watershed Task Force.