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
- Press Release: Coastal Conservancy Awards $15.9 Million for Coastal Restoration, Protection, Public Access, and Climate Resilience2/2/2023 – Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy approved 12 grants totaling over $15.9 million for restoration, protection, public access, and climate resilience along the California coast and San Francisco Bay. Among the projects was a grant of up to $7,000,000 to East Bay Regional Park District to acquire the 768-acre Finley Road […] (Read more on Press Release: Coastal...)
- Coastal Stories 2023 Request for Proposals (RFP) Now Open!The Coastal Conservancy announces its 2023 Coastal Stories grant program Request for Proposals. Through this program, we intend to make the outdoors more inclusive and welcoming for all Californians by fostering representation of Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC), people with disabilities, immigrant communities, low-income communities, and other historically excluded groups in outdoor spaces – […] (Read more on Coastal Stories 2023...)
- Job Posting: Associate Governmental Program AnalystThe Coastal Conservancy is recruiting for an Associate Governmental Program Analyst (AGPA) for our Budget unit to join our team. The State Coastal Conservancy values diversity at all levels of the organization and is committed to fostering an environment in which employees from a variety of backgrounds, cultures, and personal experiences are welcomed and can […] (Read more on Job Posting: Associate...)


