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 over $40 million for coastal access, restoration, and climate resilienceOakland, CA (4/18/2024) – Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy approved grants totaling over $40 million for coastal access, restoration, and climate resilience. Among the grants awarded today are: A grant of up to $6,000,000 to Humboldt County Resource Conservation District to undertake the North Coast Wildfire Resilience Planning and Implementation Grant Program, which […] (Read more on Press Release: Coastal...)
- Sea Otter Recovery Grants RFP Now Open!The California State Coastal Conservancy announces the availability of grants to public agencies, tribes and nonprofit organizations for projects that facilitate the recovery of the southern sea otter along California’s coasts. The California Sea Otter Fund is one of the state’s tax check-off funds that allows taxpayers to voluntarily contribute to the recovery of California’s […] (Read more on Sea Otter Recovery...)
- Coastal Conservancy Public Meeting in Oakland – April 18Meeting Notice Douglas Bosco (Public Member), Chair Marce Gutiérrez-Graudiņš (Public Member), Vice Chair Joy Sterling (Public Member) Jeremiah Hallisey (Public Member) Wade Crowfoot, Secretary for Natural Resources; Bryan Cash and Jenn Eckerle (Designated) Caryl Hart, Coastal Commission Chair; Madeline Cavalieri (Designated) Joe Stephenshaw, Director, Department of Finance; Michele Perrault (Designated) Senate Representatives Benjamin Allen (District […] (Read more on Coastal Conservancy Public...)