CalTrout was recently granted funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) for our Sierra Nevada Meadow Restoration Program which aims to replenish the health and biodiversity of mountain meadow regions. The NFWF grant adds $62,000 to the $253,000 grant awarded by California Department of Fish and Wildlife and approximately $100,000 in-kind match from project partners for a total project budget of $397,000.
While California Trout has done extensive work on mountain meadows in the Sierra Nevada region, this project is the first time CalTrout is working in the Modoc Plateau in the Northeast corner of California. CalTrout’s Mount Shasta-Klamath office will be leading the Modoc Meadows Assessment and Restoration Design Project, bringing together a diverse group of partners to assess 30-50 meadows in the Upper Pit watershed, prioritize the meadows according to restoration need, and prepare for restoration activities on three priority meadows.
Mountain meadows are in a state of degradation in the Upper Pit River Watershed as a result of land management practices including channelization, grazing and surface and groundwater diversions for agriculture.
While significant meadow restoration work has been carried out on private lands, work on Federal lands (which comprise 60% of the watershed) has lagged due to lack of agency capacity. The project aims to improve hydrologic and habitat functions of meadows in the Upper Pit River watershed and further landscape-scale meadow restoration on the Modoc Plateau by working on both private and federally owned lands.
Partners for this project include:
California Department of Water Resources
Modoc National Forest
Bureau of Land Management
Todd Sloat Biological Consulting
National Fish and Wildlife Service Partners Program
California Waterfowl Association
Modoc Resource Conservation District
