Funding Opportunity for Watershed Groups – 1/5/17

Posted on by

Funding opportunity for watershed groups

Watershed groups that are grassroots, non-regulatory entities are eligible for the Bureau of Reclamation WaterSMART Phase II Grants. These grants provide up to $100,000 for 2-year programs ($50,000/year) to address critical water supply needs, water quality, and ecological resilience. The purpose of this program is to support established watershed groups in implementing on-the-ground watershed management projects. Funding will support the following types of primary projects:

  • Improving stream channel structure and complexity: activities that improve channel structure and complexity to improve or maintain habitat and restore conditions supporting a healthy river channel, protect and stabilize stream or river banks, decrease sediment, and improve water quality and temperature
  • Restoring or enhancing floodplains: activities that reconnect floodplains to the current channel to provide floodplain habitat, reduce flood risk downstream, and improve water quality and temperature
  • Restoring or enhancing vegetation: activities that restore vegetation to improve the health of water sources and riparian ecosystems, reduce erosion, reduce flood risk, increase drought resilience, improve water quality and temperature, and restore habitat
  • Controlling invasive species: activities to prevent or mitigate the impacts of invasive species likely to negatively impact the river, stream, or riparian ecosystem
  • Improving ecological resilience through water conservation activities: activities that conserve water through small-scale water delivery system improvements to improve ecological resilience
  • Improving ecological resilience through water management activities: water management activities that benefit aquatic and riparian ecosystems within the watershed
  • Addressing water quality through mitigation: activities that prevent or remediate downstream contamination from agriculture, forestry operations, wildfires, and mining

Applicants must provide 50% of the project costs via non-federal cash or in-kind contributions. The deadline for the application is February 15.

California Water Plan eNews – 1/4/17

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • California groundwater report provides interim update to Bulletin 118
  • DWR publishes best management practices for groundwater management
  • Webinar will explain improvements to water rights allocation tool
  • Water board delivers report on using recycled water for drinking water
  • Compilation of direct potable reuse research will be discussed during webinar
  • A facts sheet to help local governments implement SGMA
  • Watershed research looks for the combination to produce the best drinking water

California Water Plan eNews – 12/21/16

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • DWR Magazine details effort to return reliable water to East Porterville
  • Workshop and webinar for water conservation plan set for after the New Year
  • $29.8 million in funding awarded to 38 water use efficiency projects
  • Annual conference will feature new irrigation technologies and innovative projects
  • San Diego conference aims unite water utilities with new technology
  • Draft strategy posted as part of the Central Valley Flood Protection Plan Update

SNC awards funding for two projects in Plumas County – 12/8/16

Posted on by

Sierra Nevada Conservancy awards $3.1 million for projects that reduce tree mortality and protect watershed health

(AUBURN, Calif.) – Today the Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) Governing Board approved $3.1 million in grants for ten projects that will decrease wildfire risk, lessen tree mortality, and restore forest and watershed health in the Sierra Nevada region. Funding for these projects comes from Proposition 1, The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014. This is the fifth set of awards made under the SNC’s Proposition 1 grant program.

In addition to meeting the requirements of Proposition 1, the projects awarded support the goals and objectives of the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program, a large‑scale restoration program designed to address ecosystem health in the Sierra Nevada. This program is being coordinated by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy and the U.S. Forest Service, and is working to increase the pace and scale of restoration across the Sierra by increasing funding, addressing policy barriers, and increasing infrastructure needed to support restoration.

Sierra Nevada forests are facing a variety of challenges, and the need to increase the pace and scale of restoration across the Sierra Nevada region is more urgent than ever. According to the U.S. Forest Service, 102 million trees have died statewide since 2010. Ninety-five percent of those dead trees are in the Sierra Nevada region.

“Sierra forests are the source of more than sixty percent of California’s developed water supply, but these forests have experienced rapid and significant change,” says Jim Branham, Executive Officer for the Sierra Nevada Conservancy. “The grants that were awarded by our board today are great examples of the kind of work we need to be encouraging across the entire Sierra to protect the source of California’s water.”

“It is important that we invest in projects like these through the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program because they help make our forests more resilient to insects, drought, large, damaging wildfires, and disease,” says Randy Moore, U.S. Forest Service Pacific Southwest Regional Forester.

Upper Feather River watershed projects approved for funding include:

 

 

Plumas County – Genesee Valley Watershed Improvement Project, $74,576

This grant to the Plumas Audubon Society will complete wildlife and botanical surveys, a cultural resource inventory, and soils and hydrological analyses that will support the completion of environmental documentation on 618 acres on the Plumas National Forest and 221 acres on the privately owned Heart K Ranch. The work completed under this grant will support the next phase of forest thinning and underburning, which will incorporate Traditional Ecological Knowledge recommendations from the local Maidu people. Both properties are identified as priority project areas in the recently completed Genesee Valley Wildfire Restoration Plan. The project location is within Genesee Valley on Indian Creek, a significant tributary to the north fork of the Feather River.

Plumas County – Tásmam Kojóm Restoration Management Plan, $73,312

This grant to the Maidu Summit Consortium and Conservancy will help complete an Environmental Impact Report (EIR) to support future implementation of the Tásmam Kojóm Land Management Plan on Tásmam Kojóm, a 2,326-acre parcel that includes a meadow, streams, springs, and overstocked mixed conifer forest, and is a culturally important place to the Mountain Maidu.

 

 

To date, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy has funded 32 Proposition 1 projects totaling $9,881,830 that support the restoration goals of the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program.

California Water Plan eNews – 12/14/16

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Summaries and materials from two Update 2018 meetings posted online
  • EPA releases updated report on the country’s climate change indicators
  • CAL FIRE taking comments on guidelines for grants to improve forest health
  • Conference will focus on implementation and legal implications of SGMA
  • Water in the West provides a framework for developing groundwater models
  • S. soil management addressed in report from national science council

 

California Water Plan eNews – 11/30/16

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Draft report on water conservation objectives posted online, webinar scheduled
  • Drought status and weather forecast to be part of webinar this week
  • New drought hub provides resources for ranchers and land managers
  • Groundwater findings from Sierra meadow project to be presented during webinar
  • Workshop on Delta Conservation Framework set for tomorrow
  • Sustainable communities program to be reviewed during growth council workshops

California Water Plan eNews – 11/23/16

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • DWR receives $14.5 million grant to fund habitat project for the Salton Sea
  • Alternatives to groundwater sustainability plans will be covered by DWR webinar
  • Updated information posted on California’s greenhouse gas reduction efforts
  • CAL FIRE webinar to provide information on grant requirements and eligibility
  • Next Sustainable Water Resources Roundtable meeting set for Washington, DC
  • Latest edition of the National Water Monitoring News posted online
  • Summit promotes the use of public-private partnerships to complete water projects

California Water Plan eNews – 11/16/16

Posted on by

This week’s California Water Plan eNews includes:

  • Water reliability goal to be discussed at next month’s California Economic Summit
  • Symposium will cover the ways California is addressing climate change
  • Forest service releases scientific information related to resource management
  • Annual law symposium will take a look at the situation in the Delta
  • Scientific papers and earthquake hazards on agenda for DSC
  • Stockton to host California rangeland summit early next year