Last November, California voters passed the Water Bond (Proposition 1) to fund objectives of the California Water Action Plan including restoration of important species and habitat, sustainably managed water resources and drought and climate change resilience. Salmonid Restoration Federation (SRF) submitted a Proposition 1 implementation proposal for nearly one million gallons of water storage in the Redwood Creek watershed that flows into the South Fork of the Eel River.
Several grant solicitations are open for watershed restoration of shovel-ready projects. SRF submitted a grant that includes three large ponds for private landowners and the Beginnings School to the California Department of Wildlife’s Watershed Restoration Grant Program. The proposal builds on three years of community outreach and low-flow monitoring efforts in the Redwood Creek Watershed. The proposed project is the first phase of a long-term water conservation strategy that will ideally protect fisheries habitat, improve instream flows, and provide water security for the community.
This pilot project is modeled after Sanctuary Forest’s Mattole Headwaters Water Storage and Forbearance Program where participating landowners received 50,000 gallons of storage in exchange for agreeing to forbear from diverting water during the dry summer months when flows are most critical for salmon. SRF’s Redwood Creek Flow Enhancement Project is informed by our low flow monitoring findings and a feasibility study of what types of water conservation efforts would best support water sustainability in this particular watershed.
SRF also has a Planning, Monitoring and Assessment grant through the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board’s 319h Program, which has enabled us to conduct more comprehensive low flow and temperature monitoring to better assess water conservation opportunities. This grant, in conjunction with a feasibility study funded through the California Department of Wildlife’s Drought Solicitation, has increased our ability to build capacity for on-the-ground implementation projects that could enhance instream flows for fish and rural communities.
“Support from the State Water Board and California Department of Fish and Wildlife has been indispensable to build support for community-based water conservation efforts in this region. You can’t manage what you can’t measure. Measuring flows and empowering landowners to calculate their water usage has helped us understand what level of forbearance would contribute to improved flows for this watershed that provides refugia habitat for threatened coho salmon,” said Dana Stolzman, Executive Director of Salmonid Restoration Federation.
If approved, the Proposition 1 funds would be available next summer for construction of three ponds totaling one million gallons of storage. “With or without funding, the project components are now in place to build a long-term water conservation strategy for Redwood Creek that could be emulated in other watersheds,” said Stolzman. SRF will continue to work with this rural community and our restoration partners to identify opportunities for water conservation and drought resilience.