Page 6 - Sierra Meadows Strategy
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“All-lands, all-hands”
In this document, the Partnership sets forth an “all-lands and all-hands” approach with an overarching goal of restoring and/or protecting 30,000 acres on all lands in the Sierra Nevada.
It proposes to re ne this acreage through adaptive management. This ambitious goal was based on increasing the pace, scale, and ef cacy of meadow restoration over current effort levels.
The Partnership chose an acreage higher than stated in the State Water Action Plan and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Sierra Meadows Restoration Business Plan in acknowledgement of the urgent need for increased meadow function. Attainment
of this goal—which was felt to be challenging but feasible— would result in the restoration or conservation of one third of
the currently degraded 90,000 acres of meadows in the Sierra Nevada, the Modoc Plateau, the Southern Cascades and Warner Mountains, which together comprise the “Strategy Area”.
The Partnership also chose a longer,  fteen year timeframe for this work because it believes that the target of restoring 10,000 acres in  ve years—as set forth in the State Water Action Plan— would only partly meet the overall need for restoration. The Partnership is con dent that the restoration or conservation of 30,000 acres can be achieved within 15 years (circa 2030) and, moreover, that this critical work to improve the resilience of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascades in the face of a changing climate must be accomplished within the  fteen year timeframe.
Guidance for Practitioners
The intent of this Strategy is to help direct the Partnership
and others involved in meadow protection, restoration and conservation to increase the pace, scale, ef cacy, and bene ts of meadow restoration and protection.
In order to achieve this ambitious plan of action, we have developed three guiding approaches that highlight desired conditions for restored meadows, and eight speci c goals associated with those conditions. These form the basic tenets for practitioners to follow and which will also guide monitoring of the work.
Approach 1
Restore and/or protect meadows to achieve desired conditions.
GOALS
1. Desired conditions supporting the hydrologic and ecologic functionality of 30,000 acres of meadows are restored and protected.
2. Meadow soil resources that are most vulnerable to rapid and unrecoverable loss (e.g. peat soils found in fens and wet meadows) are protected.
3. Habitat conditions and ecosystem function for 30,000 acres are restored and/or protected to support populations of meadow dependent species representing multiple phylogenetic classes and that are currently rare, threatened or endangered.
4. Stressors affecting the health and integrity of meadows are mitigated.
Approach 2
Enhance regulatory and institutional funding capacity and coordination.
GOALS
5. Effective, ef cient and coordinated regulatory requirements are established for restoring and protecting meadows.
6. Suf cient and broad-based funding sources are secured necessary for meadow restoration, protection and on-going monitoring and adaptive management.
Approach 3
Increase and diversify institutional and partnership capacity for meadow restoration and/or protection in the greater Sierra. GOALS
7. Active participation of all-lands in meadow projects and increased capacity of landowners to fully participate in the designs, and implementation is increased.
8. State and regional water planning efforts re ect the key role meadow restoration can play in improving State
water security.
Calistoga Meadows Workshop I participants, February, 2014. Photo: R. Kattelmann
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