Proposition 1 Cycle 3 Awarded Grants
1701 – Bay Point Habitat Restoration Project
Grantee: East Bay Regional Park District
Amount: $2,100,000
Coordinates: -121.9670029, 38.04159927
This project is located at the waterfront of the Bay Point community in unincorporated Contra Costa County, along the southern Suisun Bay shoreline at the approximate mid-point of San Francisco Bay the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta. The shoreline park provides important shoreline access to tidal marshlands and waterfront open space, in an area where access is severely limited. The project reconnected the site with adjacent marsh land and provide higher ground to offset the loss of habitat due to sea level rise and created over a mile of new tidal channels, providing habitat for native fish and invertebrates and foraging opportunities for shorebirds. About 44 acres of wetland and grassland, 5,595 linear feet of low order saline emergent marsh channel, and 8,170 linear feet of terrestrial transition zone were restored within a 56.6-acre project area where past land uses filled historic tidal emergent marsh.
1702 – Restoration Planning at River Garden Farms
Grantee: American Rivers
Amount: $665,367.44
Coordinates: -121.7519989, 38.86640167
This project provides a unique opportunity to restore ecosystem function in floodplain, wetland, and riparian habitats along the Sacramento River on a large working farm, and provide habitat connectivity within an area of intensive agriculture. Projects developed as part of this planning grant will help recover Chinook salmon and steelhead, Swainson’s hawk, giant garter snake, and up to 26 of the focal bird species identified in the State Wildlife Action Plan. Other benefits provided by restoration projects at River Garden Farms include agricultural sustainability, improved water quality, and climate change resiliency. The project team is made up of non-governmental organizations that have initiated a partnership with River Garden Farms to help develop and advance projects and practices that enhance the conservation value of the farm. The project will conduct coordinated restoration planning on 550 acres for 7 different sites at River Garden Farms, provide recommendations for habitat-friendly farming practices compatible with working landscapes, and work with River Garden Farms to identify appropriate opportunities to fund implementation. This effort will result in restoration projects that are ready for final design, final permitting, and implementation. The project team’s long-term goal is to improve the function and connectivity of aquatic habitat on working landscapes in the Central Valley by integrating ag-compatible restoration and conservation into farm practices and management, thereby providing a model for ecological and economic resiliency.
1709 – Knightsen Wetland Restoration and Flood Protection Project
Grantee: East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy
Amount: $1,435,000
Coordinates: -121.6299973, 37.96030045
This is a planning project for a 645-acre property in an unincorporated area near the community of Knightsen in east Contra Costa County. The main goals of this multi-benefit project are to restore habitat, reduce flooding problems for the community and adjacent agricultural fields, and improve water quality by collecting and filtering agricultural and stormwater runoff. Project activities include the development of construction plans and compliance with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA). The Delta Conservancy grant covers the third phase of this project to complete project design and environmental permitting, and will bring this project to “shovel ready” status. The project is led by the East Contra Costa County Habitat Conservancy, in collaboration with the Contra Costa County Public Works Department and East Bay Regional Park District. The project is expected to restore wetlands, dunes, and oak savanna that can support special status species.
1710 – Grizzly Slough Floodplain Restoration Project at the Cosumnes River Preserve
Grantee: Department of Water Resources
Amount: $8,700,800
Coordinates: -121.4029999, 38.24580002
More than 90% of historic wetlands and riparian forest have been lost in the Central Valley due to habitat conversion and levees that cut off hydrologic processes. This project will restore wetland and riparian habitat by reintroducing tidal and seasonal flooding and establishing native vegetation. The 489-acre site is on the lower Cosumnes River, in Sacramento County. This is a rare place where elevation, unregulated flows, intact sediment supply, and ownership willingness provide opportunities to restore floodplain processes. The project will restore natural flooding to the site by breaching the levee on Grizzly Slough, excavating a channel network from the breach, and constructing a new setback levee along the south property boundary to provide equivalent flood protection pre- and post-project. Native vegetation will be established by natural recruitment (emergents in channel, cottonwood on floodplain) and planting. An agricultural zone of157 acres will be established on the higher-elevation south area, and enhanced with new water supply infrastructure to allow cultivation of irrigated crops (corn) to provide wildlife benefits and revenue. The project will benefit species such as floodplain-rearing juvenile Chinook salmon, riparian-nesting Swainson’s hawk, and foraging sandhill cranes.
1711 – Three Creeks Parkway Restoration Project #2
Grantee: American Rivers
Amount: $990,542.86
Coordinates: -121.7070007, 37.93939972
American Rivers and its partners (the Friends of Marsh Creek Watershed, the Contra Costa County Flood Control and Water Conservation District, and the City of Brentwood) have been working together for more than three years to design and permit a multi-benefit ecosystem restoration project at the confluence of Marsh, Sand, and Deer Creeks (Three Creeks) to convert a bare flood control channel into a healthy riparian corridor. This project will restore native vegetation on one acre along 500 linear feet of Marsh Creek, and is an indispensable one-acre portion of the overall Three Creeks Parkway Restoration Project. The overall multi-benefit project will restore 13.5 acres of native vegetation along nearly a mile of the Marsh Creek channel, which will enhance flood protection and provide benefits to the ecosystem, water quality, and numerous listed species. The project team’s overall goal is to reestablish the thriving habitat and functional floodplains that are at the heart of healthy creek and wetland ecosystems. The proposed project will greatly enhance the habitat and resilience of the Marsh Creek watershed ecosystem, including increasing resilience to climate change. It will also improve the quality of life for Delta residents in one of the most densely-developed areas of the Delta by reducing flood risk, improving recreational opportunities, and providing a place to make meaningful connections with the natural world of the Delta region.
1712 – Bees Lakes Habitat Restoration Plan
Grantee: City of West Sacramento
Amount: $592,500
Coordinates: -121.526001, 38.53469849
The goal of this planning effort is to identify a detailed Habitat Restoration Plan for the Bees Lakes area that will restore historic physical and ecological processes to optimize habitat function, enhance the existing habitat to better meet listed species needs, improve pond water quality, remove potential environmental contaminants, control non-native species, and improve public access management. If off-channel habitat can be restored, this project would represent a unique opportunity to provide new habitat within the tidal limits of the Delta for listed fish species including salmon and steelhead and to connect two riverine habitat restoration projects being constructed on the Sacramento River. Also, better management of public access within the Bees Lakes area is necessary to ensure that habitats are not further degraded, restored habitat is maintained over the long term, public health and safety are protected, and human activities are limited to well-defined passive recreation. The Bees Lakes were originally created due to a breach in the levee adjacent to the Sacramento River. The primary objectives of this planning effort are to develop a range of habitat restoration alternatives, to select a stakeholder-supported habitat restoration plan that enhances physical and ecological processes, to complete the necessary CEQA documentation, and to prepare 65 percent design plans for the selected alternative.
1713 – Stone Lakes Restoration Project
Grantee: Ducks Unlimited
Amount: $673,846
Coordinates: -121.4919968, 38.3404007
Ducks Unlimited will implement the planning phase for an ecosystem restoration and enhancement project on behalf of and in coordination with the Serra Family Trust and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. The project team will develop engineering design documents, environmental documents (CEQA and NEPA), permit applications and supporting reports, and documentation necessary to develop a shovel-ready project. Nearly 95 percent of historic wetlands have been lost in California’s central valley, thereby putting greater pressure on the remaining wetlands to provide much-needed resources for wetland dependent species. The restoration and creation of new wetland habitat is vital to the long-term success of several listed and endangered species as well as non-listed wetland dependent species. The project goal is to maximize animal diversity (predominantly birds). To do this, the project will create plans for the construction of a wide range of wetland types and plant associations that will support food web development. The outcome of the project will be the restoration of approximately 257 acres of seasonal wetland, restoration of 39 acres of riparian seasonal wetland, and enhancement of 20 acres of existing low-quality wetland. These restored and enhanced wetlands will provide hydrologic and water quality functions, and will be managed to provide optimum conditions for wetland dependent species such as waterfowl, neo-tropical migratory birds, shorebirds and other water birds such as Greater Sandhill cranes, and giant garter snake.
1718 – Nutria Eradication Project, Phase 1
Grantee: California Department of Fish and Wildlife
Amount: $1,125,577
Nutria are large, semi-aquatic rodents, native to South America and highly invasive in the United States. In March 2017, a pregnant nutria was captured in a wetland southeast of Gustine, in Merced County. Following the detection, an Interagency Nutria Response Team convened. Nutria are capable of rapidly expanding populations and disperse as far as 50 miles. They are notorious for their ecological and economic impacts, causing extensive damage to wetlands, riparian habitat, restoration efforts, levees and other infrastructure, agriculture crops, and water supplies, as well as for exacerbating invasive plant infestations such as Arundo donax. The ecosystems, infrastructure, and resources upon which the Central Valley and Delta regions rely are immediately threatened by nutria. The purpose of this project is to track, contain, and eradicate nutria in California before the population and its distribution become exceedingly large and the devastating impacts realized in other states become reality in California. Modeled after the successful Chesapeake Bay Nutria Eradication Project, the project team will implement a five-phase adaptive management strategy. An active management zone in which trapping, high-frequency monitoring, and long-term surveillance, will be maintained within a five-mile buffer around all detections (captures and potential sightings/sign). Less frequent (monthly to quarterly) surveying will be conducted within the 5 to 20-mile buffer around detections. This project will result in the protection of numerous miles of levee and infrastructure, restoration sites, wetland and riparian habitats, and conservation lands, and prevent increased soil erosion and sedimentation likely to impact anadromous fishes in Delta tributaries.