Conservancy Board Awards over $15 million for Coastal Restoration, Public Access, and Wildfire Resilience

Nov 20, 2025 – OAKLAND, CA, Today, the Board of the State Coastal Conservancy awarded a total of over $15 million to projects that will help to restore the California coast, improve public access to it, and increase its resilience to climate change.

The majority of funding is going to ten projects that aim to reduce the risk and impact of catastrophic wildfires along the coast.  Five of these are funded by the 2024 Climate Bond (Safe Drinking Water, Wildfire Prevention, Drought Preparedness, and Clean Air Bond Act of 2024 or Prop 4), which was overwhelmingly approved by voters in November of 2024.  In April of 2025, Governor Newsom signed Assembly Bill 100 which allocated over $170 million in accelerated funding to conservancies for urgent forest and vegetation management across California.

The projects receiving a total of $9.4 million in 2024 Climate Bond funding from the Coastal Conservancy today are:

  1. Esselen Tribe of Monterey County: $1,250,000 to plan and implement a series of cultural fire trainings that include live fire cultural burning operations on 50 to 500 acres of land.
  2. La Jolla Band of Luiseño Indians: $2,900,000 to implement critical fuel reduction treatments and cultural burning on 516 acres along the Highway 76 corridor and to provide community fire preparedness training.
  3. Mendocino County Fire Safe Council: $803,000 to continue their free community chipping program, implement volunteer workdays, and develop a sustainability plan, over three years.
  4. University of California San Diego: $1,400,000 to remove Eucalyptus trees and restore the native chaparral ecosystem on a 30-acre site to improve wildfire resiliency and to serve as a biochar demonstration project.
  5. Sempervirens Fund: $3,050,000 to undertake the Big Basin Redwood Wildfire Resilience Project, consisting of vegetation fuels reduction and habitat enhancement on 215 acres in the old-growth coast redwood area of Big Basin Redwood State Park.

Five other wildfire resilience projects are being funded by the California Department of Conservation’s Regional Forest and Fire Capacity Program, totaling $1,665,000.

The other projects approved for funding are:

  • A grant of up to $236,400 to The Hill Street Country Club to undertake the Hill Street Arts Hotel Feasibility Study, consisting of conducting community engagement and completing a feasibility study to establish a new lower-cost hotel in Oceanside, San Diego County.
  • A grant of up to $450,000 to California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt to prepare the Murray Field Airport Sea Level Rise Planning and Economic Studyand to conduct community engagement to assess the impacts of and identify adaptation strategies for sea level rise at the Murray Field Airport in Eureka, Humboldt County.
  • A grant of up to $181,400 to Friends of the Eel River to undertake theEel River Native Plant Network Project in anticipation of dam removal in the upper Eel River basin, consisting of: (1) launching a regional native plant network to assess, coordinate, and increase the regional capacity to produce native plants for Eel River watershed restoration projects beginning with Humboldt, Lake, and Mendocino Counties; (2) developing a feasibility report and a strategic plan; (3) hosting meetings and seed harvesting trainings; and (4) developing and launching a website.
  • A grant of up to $445,000 to The Nature Conservancy to undertake the San Francisco Bay Olympia Oyster Public Education Initiative, consisting of targeted public education and outreach on the history and benefits of the native Olympia oyster to build public support for increasing the pace and scale of implementing nature-based approaches to shoreline protection while recovering Olympia oysters in San Francisco Bay.
  • A grant of up to $71,400 to Sea Otter Savvy to educate the public on the historic role of sea otters and the potential future role of sea otter reintroduction within their historical habitat range in northern California and San Francisco Bay.
  • A grant of up to $431,500 to Friends of the Dunes to acquire 6.52 acres of property adjacent to the Humboldt Coastal Nature Center at 150 Stamps Lane for public access, including potential low-cost overnight accommodations, and for habitat protection, restoration and enhancement; and to develop a habitat restoration and public access plan for the property in Manila, Humboldt County.
  • A grant of up to $980,000 of grant funds from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County to acquire the 62 acre Watsonville Slough Mini Ranch property located within the Middle Watsonville Slough wetlands complex in Santa Cruz County to protect and restore natural resources and wildlife habitat, including wetlands; protect and enhance water quality; conserve sensitive species and wildlife corridors; and provide compatible agricultural use and California Native American .
  • A grant of up to $565,000 to the Mendocino Land Trust to undertake the Arena Cove Coastal Trail Construction Project, consisting of construction of a 0.3-mile segment of the California Coastal Trail and related trail amenities at Arena Cove in Point Arena, Mendocino County.
  • A grant of up to $800,750 to Sanctuary Forest, Inc.to: (1) acquire the 255-acre Ta’che—Nóó-nih Yaash Property to protect, restore, and enhance native species, habitats and waterways; protect cultural landscapes, features and attributes; and provide opportunities for compatible California Native American tribal access and potential limited public access in Whitethorn, Humboldt County; (2) remove cannabis infrastructure; (3) transfer the property to the InterTribal Sinkyone Wilderness Council; and (4) conduct initial stewardship planning for the property.