Restoration Projects Awarded $3 Million-Plus from Sierra Nevada Conservancy Governing Board

Five projects focused on improving watershed and forest health throughout the Sierra Nevada will share in the $3,122,551 recently awarded by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) Governing Board. Four of the projects are specifically forest health grants funded through Proposition 1 (The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014) and Proposition 68 (The California Drought, Water, Parks, Climate, Coastal Protection, and Outdoor Access for All Act of 2018). The fifth project aims to aid landscape resilience and improve growing conditions for trees in a 6,000-acre area east of Georgetown, CA.

The selected projects will further the SNC’s mission is improve the environmental, economic, and social well-being of the 25-million-acre Sierra Nevada Region. The five projects also further the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program (WIP), SNC’s large-scale restoration initiative designed to improve ecosystem and community resilience in the region.

“The projects authorized for funding by our board today will provide community protection and improve forest and watershed health more broadly,” said Sierra Nevada Conservancy Executive Officer Angela Avery. “These are great examples of the type and kind of work that the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program is focused on implementing with our partners across the region.”

The four forest health projects grantees include:

• The Yuba Watershed Institute was awarded $300,000 for its ‘Inimim Forest Restoration Project – Phase 1 to aid in forest restoration and watershed health in Nevada County.
• Sagehen Creek Field Station, a research and teaching facility of the University of California, Berkeley located in the Tahoe National Forest, was awarded $1 million for its Pushing the Larger Landscape Into Resiliency Through Fire project.
• The Sierra Foothill Conservancy in Mariposa County was awarded $721,487 for the Von Der Ahe Forest Enhancement Project.
• The Plumas Audubon Society will receive $506,714 for its efforts to improve the health of the forests in the Genesee Valley, a significant tributary to the north fork of the Feather River.

The fifth project award SNC funds was the Blacksmith Project, an undertaking by the El Dorado National Forest. Funding for this project to aid landscape resilience and improve growing conditions for trees came from CAL FIRE’s California Climate Investments (CCI) grant program, which puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work throughout the state to help improve public health, the environment, and the economy by reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions (GHGs).

The SNC is a state agency leading the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program (WIP). This large-scale restoration program is designed to restore the health of California’s primary watershed and create resilient Sierra Nevada communities.