On Saturday, January 30 Sanctuary Forest and Salmonid Restoration Federation will host a water conservation and stewardship education workshop at the Beginnings Octagon in Briceland. The workshop will help prepare local landowners for future droughts, to educate and inform about water rights and to protect anadromous species and habitat.
The day’s activities will include short panel presentations followed by break-out tributary discussions where participants will be offered a vision for forming tributary stewardship groups and will have the opportunity to converse about their watershed, ask questions of presenters and other resource experts and brainstorm collective solutions to water shortages. Panel presenters will include local restorationist Kyle Keegan on permaculture practices for water conservation, Trout Unlimited California water attorney Matt Clifford on water rights, Bill Eastwood on fire and fuels reduction and Sanctuary Forest Education Coordinator Marisa Formosa on community engagement and tributary stewardship collectives. The workshop is open to all interested Eel River and Mattole watershed landowners and residents, and will focus on several South Fork Eel river and Mattole River tributaries—namely McKee Creek, Thompson Creek, and Ravashoni Creek in the Mattole and Redwood and Sproul Creek in the South Fork Eel River watershed.
The workshop and tributary breakout groups will provide an opportunity to build consensus and capacity about community-based water conservation efforts. “With the passage of Water Bond and the watershed restoration funding available in Proposition 1, there is a unique opportunity to coordinate water conservation efforts in watersheds that still hold hope for recovery,” said Dana Stolzman, Executive Director of Salmonid Restoration Federation. This collaborative meeting aims to bring community members together to come up with creative and effective ways of addressing local climate change impacts and sharing our common resources.
SRF will be sharing our findings and data from the 2015 Low Flow Monitoring season in Redwood Creek that was funded by the State Water Board’s 319h Program. This funding has enabled SRF to provide technical education, water rights consultation, and comprehensive monitoring in this critical watershed.