Climate Ready Projects

Climate Ready Grants Round 7, Awarded June 2020

1. Environmental Health Coalition: Two hundred fifty-four thousand, five hundred and thirty dollars ($254,530) for the Barrio Logan Climate Resiliency Community Project to develop a proposed Barrio Logan Community Plan Update and prepare a preliminary plan for the Boston Ave Linear Park in San Diego, CA.

Climate Ready Grants Round 6, Awarded December 2019

This grant round prioritized projects that include managed retreat, natural shoreline infrastructure, living shorelines and/or habitat enhancement to increase shoreline resilience to sea level rise. The Conservancy solicited projects in spring of 2019 and received 11 applications requesting more than $6.1 million in funding. This sixth round of Climate Ready grants will be funded by state cap-and-trade proceeds, which are deposited in the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund (GGRF) and administered by the California Air Resources Board (CARB). These GGRF funds were appropriated to the Conservancy in 2018 for its Climate Ready Program.

1. County of Marin: Five hundred thousand dollars ($500,000) to acquire private land at Bucks Landing in Marin County (Marin County’s Assessor’s Parcel Nos. 186-010-20 and 180-171-11) to create a public shoreline park.

2. The Bay Foundation: Two hundred ninety-eight thousand, one hundred and twelve dollars ($298,112) to restore coastal dune habitat at Manhattan Beach to enhance habitat and increase sea level rise resiliency in Los Angeles County.

3. The City of Carlsbad: Four hundred ninety-eight thousand and seventy-five dollars ($498,075) to plan a managed retreat project for South Carlsbad Boulevard in San Diego County.

4. Los Peñasquitos Lagoon Foundation: Two hundred ninety-nine thousand two hundred and eighty-three dollars ($299,283) to plan relocation of parking and public access facilities at Torrey Pines State Natural Reserve in San Diego County.

Climate Ready Grants Round 5, Awarded December 2018

Climate Ready Round 5 is part of California Climate Investments, a statewide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing GHG emissions, strengthening the economy, and improving public health and the environment– particularly in disadvantaged communities. For more information, visit the California Climate Investments website at: www.caclimateinvestments.ca.gov

1. Alameda County Community Development Agency: One hundred forty thousand dollars ($140,000) to design and implement a heat resiliency program that includes planting trees and conducting community outreach in the communities of Ashland and Cherryland to increase the communities’ ability to respond to the anticipated increase in extreme heat days as a result of climate change.

2. Alameda County Resource Conservation District: Three hundred forty-three thousand nine hundred sixty-one dollars ($343,961) to develop plans and implement management practices to sequester carbon and reduce GHG emissions on seven farms, vineyards and rangelands in Alameda County.

3. American Rivers: Two hundred seventy-four thousand five hundred fifteen dollars ($274,515) to conduct riparian restoration planning, community engagement and agency coordination in the Rheem Creek watershed in western Contra Costa County to address climate impacts.

4. Big Sur Land Trust: Four hundred eighty-eight thousand seven hundred sixty dollars ($488,760) to prepare design plans, permit applications and environmental documents and conduct community engagement to transform a portion of Carr Lake into an urban park in the City of Salinas.

5. Community Conservation Solutions: Four hundred thousand dollars ($439,680) to develop technical designs for the Natural Park at the Ramona Gardens Housing Development in the City of Los Angeles.

6. Long Beach Water Department: Two hundred thirty-six thousand three hundred eighty-eight dollars ($236,388) to replace 25 lawns with drought-tolerant gardens and plant trees in a disadvantaged community in the City of Long Beach that will sequester carbon, improve air quality, and provide urban cooling.

7. Marin County Community Development Agency: Two hundred twenty thousand dollars ($220,000) to conduct feasibility studies and develop designs for living shorelines projects at two to five sites in Tomales Bay to increase climate change resiliency.

8. Ojai Valley Land Conservancy: Two hundred ninety-eight thousand three hundred fifty-seven dollars ($298,357) to restore 23 acres of oak woodland habitat in the Ventura River Preserve in the City of Ojai.

9. Pauma Band of Luiseño Indians: One hundred ninety-seven thousand six hundred eighty-one dollars ($197,681) to implement a suite of demonstration carbon sink farming practices, monitor outcomes, develop a trail and conduct education and outreach at Pauma Tribal Farms in northwestern San Diego County.

10. Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County: One hundred seventy-two thousand three hundred thirty-six dollars ($172,336) for the Resource Conservation Districts of Santa Cruz County and San Mateo County to develop at least eight carbon farm plans.

11. Santa Monica Bay Foundation: Four hundred eighty-four thousand seven hundred ninety-three dollars ($484,793) to implement a living shorelines project to restore coastal bluffs, beaches and install eelgrass at Dockweiler Beach in Los Angeles County.

12. The Trust for Public Land: Five hundred three thousand five hundred twenty-nine dollars ($503,529) to complete implementation of a living schoolyard demonstration project at Markham Elementary School in East Oakland.

Climate Ready Grants Round 4, Awarded July 2017

The fourth Climate Ready grant round offered technical assistance to help vulnerable communities develop Climate Ready Projects to increase the resilience of communities along the coast of California or in the San Francisco Bay Area.

1. City of San Diego: Technical assistance to develop a series of climate impact workshops for City staff from several departments, including the Departments of Planning, Parks and Recreation, Transportation and Stormwater, Public Works, and Fire-Rescue.

2. Alameda County Office of Sustainability: Technical assistance to develop climate adaptation planning workshops for the Alameda County Planning and Public Health Departments.

3. Sonoma Land Trust: Technical assistance to lead the State Route 37 – Baylands Group. The Group promotes the development of a State Route 37 design that improves climate resilience by advancing the ecological restoration and conservation goals for the San Pablo Baylands while achieving transportation objectives.

Climate Ready Grants Round 3, Awarded June 2015

1. Friends of the Dunes: Two hundred forty-nine thousand, two hundred forty-six dollars ($249,246) to conduct a coastal dune vulnerability and adaptation assessment along 32 miles of coastline in Humboldt County, to establish demonstration sites to test adaptation strategies, and to develop an empirical model of dune response to sea level rise.

2. Marin County Open Space District: One hundred sixty-five thousand dollars ($165,000) to develop a conceptual design for restoration of 25-35 acres of wetlands at the north end of Bolinas Lagoon to address impacts of future sea level rise and large storm events.

3. Marin Resource Conservation District: Three hundred twenty-five thousand dollars ($325,000) for planning to expand farm management practices that reduce greenhouse gas emissions and promote long-term carbon sequestration through existing regional conservation programs in Napa, Sonoma, Marin, and Mendocino counties.

4. Marin County Community Development Agency: Two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) to develop a county-wide, multi-jurisdictional sea level rise vulnerability assessment. This project will conduct exposure and sensitivity assessments for all of Marin County’s Bay shoreline, mapping areas that are expected to experience temporary flooding as well as permanent inundation in the future. This project will engage elected officials, management staff, and the public in the process of developing action plans.

5. Napa County Resource Conservation District: Ninety thousand dollars ($90,000) to plant 5,000 oak trees seeds from five dominant species in the Napa River watershed over three years and to engage approximately 1,500 6th grade students in Napa County by conducting classroom education, facilitating planting events, and developing a map-based, internet-accessible tool for tracking oak tree survival and growth.

6. Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy: One hundred thirty-five thousand dollars ($135,000) to conduct a climate change and sea level rise vulnerability analysis at Crissy Field. This project will inventory adaptation strategies and engage the community in extensive planning activities to assess what adaptation measures are appropriate to protect and enhance the site’s culture, natural, and recreational resources.

7. San Francisco Bay Bird Observatory: One hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to restore twelve acres of marsh-upland transitional areas within the South Bay Salt Pond Restoration Project with a diverse mixture of native plants.

8. Coastal Conservation and Research, Inc.: Fifteen thousand dollars ($15,000) to develop restoration design and CEQA review of a project to remove invasive species and plant native species on 15-20 acres of dunes at Salinas River State Park.

9. The Nature Conservancy: Two hundred seventy-six thousand dollars ($276,000) to plan, design, and facilitate permitting of management strategies that reduce flood risk, recharge groundwater, improve riparian habitat, and increase the resilience of agricultural operations along the Salinas River.

10. The Bay Foundation: Sixty eight thousand, eight hundred thirty-three dollars ($68,833) to conduct a hydrodynamics study in a restored kelp forest that will quantify the effects of the forests on wave energy and current flow before and after restoration of 60 acres of kelp forest on rocky reef habitat.

11. Orange County Coastkeeper: Two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) to plan and implement an innovative Living Shoreline project that will restore and monitor oysters and eelgrass.

Climate Ready Grants Round 2, Awarded January 2015

1. Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District: Two hundred eighteen thousand two hundred seventy dollars ($218,270) to construct a 1.4 million gallon pond with associated water collecting and pumping infrastructure to eliminate one of the largest summer water diversions from Salmon Creek, a critical coastal watershed for endangered Coho salmon, thereby increasing resiliency in the face of increasingly unreliable rainfall patterns for both the agricultural operation and Salmon Creek organisms;

2. Save the Bay: One hundred twenty five thousand nine hundred eighteen dollars ($125,918) to restore 1.75 acres of transition zone habitat and complete the acreage on an active transition zone restoration site within the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve for a total of 4.25 restored acres, to increase species resilience to climate change impacts like sea level rise.

3. Alameda County Resource Conservation District: Two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000) to implement climate-resilient management strategies, water-related Best Management Practices, and an economically and ecologically sustainable grazing operation on 6,260 acres of land in the Sunol Regional Wilderness in Alameda County to increase landowners’ resiliency in the face of current and future drought, as well as other climate change impacts.

4. The Watershed Project: Two hundred two thousand two hundred and six dollars ($202,206) to transform a 2,280 sq. ft. paved median in the center of a parking lot into a bioswale, and create a second bioswale on the 4,380 sq. ft. of existing pavement in the parking lot at Booker T Anderson Jr Park in a low-income community in Richmond, to sequester carbon and reduce the urban heat island effect, in addition to other benefits.

5. Trust for Conservation Innovation: Two hundred thirty five thousand six hundred forty seven ($235,647) to establish demonstration grassland restoration plots in Rush Ranch, Sears Point, and TomKat Ranch, working ranches that have a significant role in conserving coastal resources, and document the restoration technique, inventory and monitor effects, and disseminate and demonstrate results to increase rangeland resilience to climate change impacts.

6. National Audubon Society, Inc. : Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to enhance drainage conditions and construct 10 acres of an innovative climate-smart transition zone and enhance 260 acres of intertidal zone in the fringing tidal marsh along the western bank of Sonoma Creek in Sonoma County to increase regional resilience to climate change impacts like sea level rise.

7. Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to accelerate the adoption of on-farm conservation practices in the coastal Pajaro Valley to improve climate change resiliency in agriculture while piloting the development of tools that will assist growers in understanding the risks of climate change to their operations.

8. Coastal San Luis Resource Conservation District: Three hundred eight thousand three hundred nine dollars ($308,309) to develop and implement beneficial practices to enhance rangeland resiliency to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon at a ranch scale.

9. County of Los Angeles Department of Parks and Recreation: One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to create a model park landscape at Eugene A. Obregon park by planting native drought-tolerant trees, creating a demonstration garden, constructing bio-retention basins and vegetated swales, and replacing the approximately 30,000 square foot dark asphalt parking lot with permeable pavement and other improvements in East Los Angeles to sequester greenhouse gases and mitigate the urban heat island effect, in addition to other benefits.

10. Trust for Public Land: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to pilot a highly replicable demonstration of multi-benefit vegetated infrastructure in an existing alleyway in South Los Angeles to sequester carbon and mitigate the urban heat island effect, in addition to other benefits.

11. From Lot to Spot: Two hundred five thousand nine hundred thirty nine dollars ($205,939) to engage the community to restore 54,000 sq. ft. of the Dominguez Creek by planting a tree canopy and restoring riparian habitat with over 1,500 native plants, utilizing recycled water and restoring the bike path accessible to the disadvantaged communities of Hawthorne, Inglewood and Gardena, and to sequester carbon and mitigate the urban heat island effect, in addition to other benefits.

Climate Ready Grants Round 1, Awarded January 2014

1. City of Arcata: Eighty-six thousand dollars ($86,000) to investigate and design a fringe salt marsh, or “living shoreline”, to protect City facilities vulnerable to sea level rise, quantify carbon sequestration potential of the fringe salt marsh and existing restored wetlands, and investigate the utility of “rolling easements” on private lands located adjacent to City-owned resources lands that are available for wetland migration as sea level rise impacts Arcata Bay and lands within the City of Arcata.

2. Gold Ridge Resource Conservation District: One hundred sixty-six thousand, seven hundred eight dollars ($166,708) to complete engineering designs for large-scale rainwater catchment and storage systems for five agricultural operations in western Sonoma County that will enhance water security for agriculture by reducing extraction from streams or shallow wells and preserving over-summer aquatic habitats in critical coastal ecosystems.

3. Marin Resource Conservation District: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to develop and implement action plans and beneficial practices for carbon farms as well as select three demonstration carbon farms, which utilize aerobically composted agricultural waste to enhance rangeland and rancher resiliency to climate change while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and sequestering carbon.

4. Sonoma County Regional Climate Protection Authority: One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to conduct a user-directed vulnerability assessment of climate change parameters like temperature, hydrologic impacts (including evaporation, recharge, runoff and soil moisture conditions), and impacts of vegetation and fire stressors on specific geographic areas and resources of concern.

5. Bay Area Ridge Trail Council: Sixty-three thousand dollars ($63,000) to explore, test, and document best practices to leverage the potential of trails and transit to reduce greenhouse gases by evaluating trail and transit connections in the southern San Francisco Bay Area.

6. City of Benicia: One hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to conduct a local vulnerability assessment to determine how climate-related risks will affect shoreline and community assets including watersheds, shoreline parks and trails, the Port of Benicia, and the Benicia Industrial Park.

7. East Bay Dischargers Authority: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to identify feasible decentralized infrastructure and shoreline strategies and design options that could address projected sea level rise impacts, reduce greenhouse gases and increase carbon sequestration by enhancing Bayland ecosystems.

8. San Francisco International Airport: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to assess the vulnerability of San Francisco International Airport and its neighbors to flooding from sea level rise and storms along the Bay shoreline focusing on San Bruno Creek and Colma Creek and to prepare an adaptation/mitigation plan with alternative conceptual adaptation strategies including nature-based solutions, as feasible.

9. San Francisquito Creek Joint Powers Authority: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to evaluate, design, and provide environmental documentation to demonstrate shoreline resilience to sea level rise and to extend flood protection to a larger portion of State Highway 84 and facilitate opportunities for implementing the South Bay Salt Ponds Restoration Project.

10. County of Santa Barbara: Two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) to model future coastal hazards and their potential impacts and identify adaptation strategies to reduce these vulnerabilities.

11. Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County: One hundred sixty-three thousand dollars ($163,000) to develop tools to protect and improve water supply reliability in response to climate change impacts by increasing groundwater recharge through stormwater capture.

12. Sempervirens Fund: One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to assess the feasibility of creating a carbon bank in the Santa Cruz mountains region as an incentive to conserve redwoods through aggregation of multiple small, privately-owned forest parcels.

13. The Nature Conservancy: One hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to incorporate the Coastal Conservancy-funded Monterey Bay sea level rise study into a cost-benefit analysis of adaptation strategies, improving its applicability to individual planning decisions.

14. City of Hermosa Beach: One hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) to assess infrastructure vulnerability to sea level rise and associated salinity intrusion into the shallow groundwater table, and develop and prioritize potential adaptation strategies.

15. City of Imperial Beach: Three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000) to assess the vulnerability of natural and built environments along the outer coast of Imperial Beach to sea level rise, storm surge, and erosion, and develop and prioritize feasible strategies to improve resilience.

16. Heal the Bay: One hundred sixty-nine thousand dollars ($169,000) to quantify the benefits of the “Living Streets” program, document the potential and value of “the program as a climate change adaptation strategy, and design two living street demonstration projects.

17. North East Trees: One hundred sixty thousand six hundred dollars ($160,600) to demonstrate and implement landscaping techniques that specifically reduce vulnerability in the Highland Park area of northeast Los Angeles from climate change impacts.

18. San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research (Operated by the Zoological Society of San Diego): One hundred fifty thousand five hundred dollars ($150,500) to restore coastal sage scrub at Lake Hodges to resist climate-induced increases in fire frequency, increase resilience by preserving ecosystem functioning, and provide a wildlife corridor for species responding to climate change.

19. Council for Watershed Health: One hundred fifty thousand dollars ($150,000) to evaluate stormwater capture potential and identify feasible catchments for stormwater infiltration and recommend best management practices for groundwater recharge throughout the coastal watersheds in Los Angeles Co.

20. Los Angeles County Department of Beaches and Harbors: Sixty-nine thousand eight hundred fifteen dollars ($69,815) to assess the vulnerability of Los Angeles County public beach facilities between Nicholas Canyon in Western Malibu to White Point/Royal Palms Beach in San Pedro and incorporate results into an adaptive management plan that is environmentally sensitive to beach ecology and economically sustainable.