The Conservancy at 40 Years: The Eel River
Wild and untamed, the Eel River is California’s third largest river system. Once the fourth largest producer of salmon on the Pacific Coast, its salmon runs once exceeded one million fish per year. From headwaters to the sea, the Coastal Conservancy and its partners have worked hard to restore fisheries, protect working lands and enhance the beauty and agricultural viability of this region.
Since awarding the Humboldt Resource Conservation District its first grant in 1990 to work on the Salt River in Ferndale, the Coastal Conservancy has played a pivotal role in advancing landscape scale, ecosystem and agricultural enhancement projects to the fertile Eel River Delta. Now entering its fifth construction season, the Salt River Ecosystem Restoration Project has restored 326 acres of salt marsh, 94 acres of riparian habitat, 10 miles of river and slough habitat, 16 acres of freshwater wetlands and 750 acres of productive pasture in Ferndale that now drains effectively through a restored tidal slough system.
Now the Conservancy is leading a similar project comprising 2,000-acres within the nearby historic Centerville Slough. The Eel River Estuary and Centerville Slough Project seeks to achieve similar benefits for agriculture, while also restoring more than 100 acres of salt marsh and several miles of tidal slough that has filled with sediment. In addition, this project would restore fish passage into the newly restored slough system following more than 100 years of closure to aquatic life.
On the north side of the Eel Delta, the Coastal Conservancy is working closely with our partners at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and Ducks Unlimited to develop a similar enhancement project at Department of Fish and Wildlife’s Ocean Ranch property.
This is a great time for the Eel River!
Latest News
- Request for Partnership Proposals/Letters of Interest for the US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant Program FY 2025NOTE: This is a call-for preproposals for projects who would like to partner with the California State Coastal Conservancy to apply for US Fish and Wildlife Service’s National Coastal Wetlands Conservation Grant (NCWCG) Program funding. This is NOT the official NCWCG call for applications. Projects hoping to receive NCWCG funding are NOT required to apply […] (Read more on Request for Partnership...)
- Job Posting: Contracts & Procurement Analyst (Staff Services Analyst)THIS IS A REPOST. IF YOU HAVE ALREADY APPLIED FOR THIS JOB VACANCY, YOUR APPLICATION IS STILL BEING CONSIDERED. YOU DO NOT NEED TO RESUBMIT AN APPLICATION. “Love the California Coast, the environment, and working with contracts and grant agreements? This might be the job for you!” The State Coastal Conservancy (SCC) Contracts & Procurement Unit is […] (Read more on Job Posting: Contracts...)
- Coastal Conservancy Awards Grants for Coastal Access, Restoration, and Climate Resilience2/15/2024 – Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy authorized a number of grants to restore, protect, and expand access to the California coast. Grants approved included: A grant of an amount not to exceed $35,000,000 to The Nature Conservancy to complete permitting and implement the first phase of the Ormond Beach Restoration Public Access […] (Read more on Coastal Conservancy Awards...)