Adapting Restoration for a Changing Climate Symposium

Delta Stewardship Council (Delta Council) | November 5th, 2021

Advancing Ecosystem Restoration with Smarter Permitting

Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) | August 16th, 2021

California’s ecosystems form the bedrock of the state’s well being and prosperity. Yet many of these ecosystems—which are vitally important to the state’s water s

California’s ecosystems form the bedrock of the state’s well being and prosperity. Yet many of these ecosystems—which are vitally important to the state’s water supply, agriculture, wildlife, and economy—are in dire health. Climate change and accelerating biodiversity loss threaten to further disrupt these natural systems and the benefits they provide. While the state urgently needs to speed the pace of ecosystem restoration, such projects often find themselves mired in regulations that were originally intended to prevent environmental destruction.

After the Flood: As the world’s largest dam removal takes shape, restoration ecologists are poised to transform a landscape

American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) | October 19th, 2023

Standing on an outcrop of volcanic rock, Joshua Chenoweth looks across the languid waters of California’s Iron Gate Reservoir and imagines the transformation in store f

Standing on an outcrop of volcanic rock, Joshua Chenoweth looks across the languid waters of California’s Iron Gate Reservoir and imagines the transformation in store for the landscape. In early 2024, operators will open the floodgates on the 49-meter-high dam that blocks the Klamath River, allowing the more than 50 million tons of water it impounds to begin to drain. Once it’s gone, heavy equipment will dismantle the structure. All that will remain of the 11-kilometer-long reservoir that filled the valley for 60 years will be steep-sided slopes coated in gray mud, split once again by a free-flowing river.

An Introduction to EcoAtlas: Applied Aquatic Science

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | September 14th, 2016

The term “EcoAtlas” has been in use for over 20 years in association with the study, assessment, and reporting of aquatic resources in California. What began as “W

The term “EcoAtlas” has been in use for over 20 years in association with the study, assessment, and reporting of aquatic resources in California. What began as “Wetland Tracker” in 2000, with its goal of recording essential information about wetland restoration projects in the greater Bay Area, later blossomed into a broad technological ecosystem of interrelated tools, each focused on delivering specialized, program-focused features, as defined by key stakeholder groups. Having evolved over time, EcoAtlas comprises a diverse toolset, but the collection shares common libraries, common approaches, and common development methodologies. Though each emerged from different funding opportunities and requirement drivers, the toolset collectively addresses a synthesized “whole watershed approach.” Whether estimating the ideal riparian buffer width for a given stream or assessing the health of a wetland at the edge of the estuary, the EcoAtlas tools allow practitioners to deploy the right tool for the job across the entire watershed, thereby producing a complete picture through composite outputs.

Annotated Bibliography for Sycamore Alluvial Woodland Habitat Mapping and Regeneration Studies Project

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | February 27th, 2017

The California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) is a riparian tree native to California and northern Baja California. California sycamore is the dominant species in sycamore

The California sycamore (Platanus racemosa) is a riparian tree native to California and northern Baja California. California sycamore is the dominant species in sycamore alluvial woodland (SAW), a habitat type defined as open to moderately closed, winter-deciduous broad-leafed riparian woodland dominated by well-spaced Platanus racemosa (Holland 1986), and California sycamore also occurs in the “Platanus racemosa woodland alliance” with various associated species (Sawyer, Keeler-Wolf, and Evens 2009). The central California sycamore alluvial woodland (SAW) habitat type is cited in the Santa Clara Valley Habitat Plan (VHP) as a “very rare and threatened land cover type,” and the VHP contains various goals to conserve and restore SAW habitat. The San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) and H. T. Harvey & Associates (HTH), in conjunction with the Santa Clara Habitat Agency, have undertaken the Sycamore Alluvial Woodland Habitat Mapping and Regeneration Studies Project to assess biotic and abiotic factors that influence California sycamore stand health and regeneration. The study is intended to gather and generate data that will be used by the Santa Clara Habitat Agency to guide acquisition and management of California sycamore habitat to meet its conservation goals. 

Basis of Design Report - Species Conservation Habitat

California Department of Water Resources (DWR) | April 14th, 2014

The Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) project provides shallow water habitat to support fish and wildlife dependent upon the Salton Sea that is being lost due to

The Species Conservation Habitat (SCH) project provides shallow water habitat to support fish and wildlife dependent upon the Salton Sea that is being lost due to salinity increases and the declining water surface elevation. The Project is located at the southern end of the Salton Sea (Sea) in Imperial County, California. Through the environmental review process, a Preferred Alternative was selected that encompasses 3,770 acres on both sides of the New River. The Project would include water supplies, berms to contain the water, and various other support facilities. The early start construction of the project is to develop habitat consistent with the EIS/EIR preferred alternative that is scaled down to fit the level of implementation funding currently available. The design described in this report is for early start project (Project) of the SCH and is limited to the 640 acres located within the bay on the east side of the New River. This report provides a summary of the primary design features and considerations associated with the habitat development. A more detailed discussion of the background, purpose, goals, design elements, Preferred Alternative, and Project impacts can be found in the 2011 draft EIS/EIR.  

Better late than never: a synthesis of strategic land retirement and restoration in California

Ecological Society of America (Wiley) | August 10th, 2018

Strategic retirement and restoration of agricultural lands is a critical conservation opportunity globally. The objective of this synthesis was to examine whether ecolog

Strategic retirement and restoration of agricultural lands is a critical conservation opportunity globally. The objective of this synthesis was to examine whether ecological habitat assessments, endangered species historical occurrence data, and restoration research can be used to develop evidence-based strategy for retiring and restoring agricultural lands. The San Joaquin Desert (SJD) of California is a prominent example because it experienced an extensive conversion to agriculture. Now, new groundwater regulations will lead to retirement on large areas of agricultural lands over the next 20 years. This presents an opportunity to not only restore some of these lands but also explore the challenges associated with balancing direct human needs with other ecosystem-level functions. California is thus an ideal case study for globally rethinking context-specific, single-case study solutions. We used a systematic review and synthesis to address the following three main questions for habitat recovery of endangered species in the SJD. (1) What are the habitat requirements for key endangered animal species in the region? (2) Is there historical evidence to support an assessment of suitable habitats for these species? (3) What restoration techniques apply to these species? Using the Web of Science and other resources, we reviewed over 1000 independent studies on this topic, refined the evidence, and selected a total of 266 relevant publications. Habitat requirements for each species were described, but there was a critical need to examine quantitative thresholds for these factors to better evaluate habitat suitability of retired lands. There was sufficient evidence of historical vegetation to model suitable habitats and design the physical restoration of retired lands. Direct interventions associated with restoration strategies have been infrequently tested. Sparse and diverse evidence associated with direct experimental manipulations is not uncommon in applied ecology, and synthesis is an excellent tool for highlighting these gaps for future research to examine. This review suggests that retired agricultural land is a viable asset for threatened and endangered species, but to effectively advance restoration research and management, direct tests of restoration techniques and an assessment of relative costs for interventions are needed for a given region.

Bringing Back Native Grasses

CALFED | June 1st, 2005

Building Capacity of the California Wetland Program Plan to Protect and Restore Vernal Pools

San Francisco Estuary Institute (SFEI) | June 30th, 2022

The California Wetland Program Plan (WPP1) seeks to strengthen protection for wetlands in many ways, including building capacity to track the net benefits of wetland poli

The California Wetland Program Plan (WPP1) seeks to strengthen protection for wetlands in many ways, including building capacity to track the net benefits of wetland policies and programs by employing aspects of the State’s Wetlands and Riparian Area Monitoring Plan (WRAMP). The WRAMP framework was initially developed by the California Wetland Monitoring Workgroup (CWMW) of the California Water Quality Monitoring Council (WQMC). The framework recommends the application of systematic and standardized methods to support aquatic resource mapping, wetland condition assessment, public data access to support mitigation planning, and project performance tracking. This U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wetland Program Development Grant focused on developing foundational environmental datasets that support a regional approach to protect and restore vernal pool habitats in California’s Central Valley by applying the California Rapid Assessment Method for streams and wetlands (CRAM). The outputs provide a landscape context for wetland project evaluations and ecological condition tracking tools that can support project planning and performance tracking as outlined in the 401 Certification Program’s State Wetland Definition and Procedures for Discharges of Dredged or Fill Material to Waters of the State (or Procedures, SWRCB Rev. April 2021).

Case Studies of Natural Shoreline Infrastructure in Coastal California: A Component of Identification of Natural Infrastructure Options for Adapting to Sea Level Rise

Nature Conservancy | November 27th, 2017

Sea level rise and erosion are major threats to California’s coast, requiring solutions to preserve the many benefits a healthy coastline provides: flood protec

Sea level rise and erosion are major threats to California’s coast, requiring solutions to preserve the many benefits a healthy coastline provides: flood protection, recreation, habitat for wildlife, water quality and more. Seawalls and other engineered structures, are commonly installed in order to hold the shoreline in place and hold back the ocean; however, they ultimately make the situation worse in most cases by increasing erosion and thus causing already vulnerable shorelines to shrink more. Natural shoreline infrastructure is an alternative that is more likely to preserve the benefits of coastal ecosystems while also maintaining coastal access. The California coastline is very diverse, and no single solution will address all the chal- lenges anticipated in the future. While there is a continuum of approaches to address sea level rise and coastal erosion— ranging from fully natural approaches that preserve or restore natural systems, hybrid solutions that integrate engineered aspects into restored or created natural features, and fully engineered structures like seawalls and revetments—prop- erty owners and managers don’t typically consider the entire range of options when making coastal management decisions. To address the gap in familiarity with natural infrastructure and the lack of technical guidance to aid decision-makers and engineers in the appropriate application of different strategies for different situations, this report summarizes natural infrastructure projects for a range of settings in coastal California. Each case study covers the background, permitting, planning, implementation, performance, and key lessons learned from each project in order to provide the critical information needed to implement successful adaptation strategies to address coastal issues, and inspire other communities by highlighting the lessons learned.