Coastal Conservancy awards $2.4 million for Coastal Access, Restoration, and Protection

On January 21, 2021, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy awarded nearly $2.4 million in grants to protects and restore the California coast and coastal watersheds, and increase public access to these resources.

Klamath River, Photo: Kristi Kirschner

The grants included $130,000 to fill data gaps in the Conservation Lands Network through citizen science data collection events in severely disadvantaged communities, $30,000 to the Inland Empire Resource Conservation District to provide low-income youth and their family members with environmental education and recreational access to sites in the Santa Ana River watershed, and $273,337 to the Resighini Rancheria to create a conceptual restoration plan for the Resighini Rancheria property and preliminary designs for several sites within the property to restore fisheries and wetlands on the lower Klamath River in Del Norte County.

A full list of grants awarded is below.

NORTH COAST

1. A grant of up to $400,000 to California Trout, Inc. to conduct planning activities for anadromous fish habitat enhancement and flood reduction in the lower Elk River Watershed, Humboldt County.
2. A grant of up to $279,491 to the Scott River Watershed Council to prepare environmental studies, designs and draft permit applications for restoration of a 2.27 mile reach of the Scott Rivernear Callahan, Siskiyou County.
3. A grant of up to $341,607 to the Mid Klamath Watershed Council to conduct studies, prepare designs and permit applications, and conduct environmental review to reconnect floodplain to the Klamath River at Horse Trough Springsto benefit salmonids in Siskiyou County.
4. A grant of up to $273,337 to the Resighini Rancheria to create a conceptual restoration plan for the Resighini Rancheria property and preliminary designs for several sites within the property to restore fisheries and wetlands on the lower Klamath River in Del Norte County.
5. A grant of up to $170,575 to the Mattole Salmon Group to develop design documents for approximately 165 instream habitat enhancement projects in 9 tributaries to the mid Mattole River in Humboldt County and to prepare environmental compliance documents for selected high-priority reaches.
6. A grant of up to $245,000 to the Salmonid Restoration Federation to prepare design and environmental compliance documents for an off-stream water storage pond and associated infrastructure on Marshall Ranchto enhance summer flows to benefit salmonids in the Redwood Creek watershed, a tributary to the South Fork Eel River in Humboldt County.
7. A grant of up to $199,525 to the Northwest California Resource Conservation and Development Council to construct the McKinney Creek Fish Passage Improvement Projecton McKinney Creek, Siskiyou County, CA.

SAN FRANCISCO BAY AREA

8. A grant of up to $130,000 to Bay Area Open Space Council to fill data gaps in the Conservation Lands Networkthrough citizen science data collection events in severely disadvantaged communities.
9. A grant of up to $140,000 to the City of San José for habitat restoration and re-construction of the Coyote Creek Trail Singleton Road Crossingin Santa Clara County.

CENTRAL COAST

10. A grant of up to $55,000 to the Peninsula Open Space Trust to repair and restore two bridges along the Cowell-Purisima Coastal Trail, south of Half Moon Bay, in coastal San Mateo County.

SOUTH COAST

11. A grant of up to $131,000 to the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority to operate and maintain open public accessways and assist with planning for the removal of encroachments on access easements to Escondido Beachin Malibu, Los Angeles County.
12. A grant of up to $30,000 to Inland Empire Resource Conservation District to provide low-income youth and their family members with environmental education and recreational access to sites in the Santa Ana River watershed in the vicinity of Redlands, CA.