You slog through day to day getting a little argument here a little victory there. Someone saves a beaver. Someone tried to save a beaver. Someone talks about beaver benefits in the news. But nothing prepares you for something like this. A day when everything you were hoping for finally frickin happens without any warning at all.
CDFW Awards $4.2 Million for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant Projects
The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) [recently] announced the selection of three projects to restore wetlands that sequester greenhouse gases (GHGs) and provide other ecological co-benefits.
The awards, totaling $4.2 million, were made under CDFW’s 2017 Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program Proposal Solicitation Notice.
The Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program focuses on projects with measurable objectives that will lead to GHG reductions in wetlands and watersheds while providing co-benefits such as enhancing fish and wildlife habitat, protecting and improving water quality and quantity, and helping California adapt to climate change. Wetlands have high carbon sequestration rates that can store carbon for decades
So CDFW saves up all the money they get from fishing licenses hunting violations and they award some grants to worthy projects this year to fight global warming because they happen to live in the real world. The grant went to three stellar projects statewide but guess what the third one was? Go ahead, GUESS!
Ecosystem and Community Resiliency in the Sierra Nevada: Restoration of the Clover Valley Ranch ($680,974 to The Sierra Fund). The overarching goal of this project is to improve climate resilience at the ecosystem and community level in Red Clover Valley. Ecosystem resiliency is defined as the reestablishment of hydrologic function and mesic vegetation, while community resiliency is defined as long-term engagement and capacity building of residents of the region, including the Mountain Maidu Tribe. This project leverages Natural Resources Conservation Service implementation including construction of grade control structures, beaver dam analogues and revegetation, and proposes to evaluate the effectiveness of restoration for improving climate resilience. The on-the-ground activities will result in GHG sequestration benefits and environmental and economic co-benefits for people and species of the region, while monitoring will ensure that benefits are quantified, contributing to climate-based understanding of Sierra Nevada meadows.
Do you know what this means? Not ONLY is CDFW officially admitting the beaver dams trap green house gasses and restore wetlands, but they are ALSO admitting that beavers are NATIVE in the SIERRAS. Which means our papers worked and that battle is officially won.
It’s actually IN the valley where the carbon testing that launched the study was originally done!!!
The 2,655-acre Clover Valley Ranch is located in Red Clover Valley, at the headwaters of the Feather River watershed in Plumas County. The site has a distinctive history as a rural ranching community that pre-dates World War I. Prior to the 19th century Gold Rush, the area was inhabited by the Mountain Maidu. Since the displacement of the Mountain Maidu from the valley, overgrazing and poor land management has led to severe degradation.
I always knew it would happen. Someday. Somehow. I just thought there’d be a parade of some kind. I’m so glad I got to be part of the team that made that paper a reality.
On a happy happy day like today I can add just one thing. Hey CDFW, do you know what else makes Beaver Dam Analogues and takes care of them day and night with zero grant monies whatsoever?
BEAVERS.
