CalTrout News
For more than forty years, California Trout has been working to protect and recover the state’s native trout, steelhead and salmon. With a new project, just funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), CalTrout is taking its first step into the larger arena of addressing climate change, the most complex ecological problem of our time.
As the lead organization in the Sierra Meadow Restoration Research Partnership (SMRRP), comprised of eight NGO’s, four academic institutions, a number of forests and resource agencies, consulting scientists and volunteers, CalTrout and the SMRRP will work to develop enhanced meadow restoration practices resulting in increases in net carbon within meadows throughout the Sierra Nevada.
CDFW selected the SMRRP’s project as one of 12 that will receive grant funding to conduct cutting-edge research, restore wetlands that sequester greenhouse gases (GHGs), and provide other ecological benefits as part of the Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant Program.
As a result of this project, CalTrout and the SMRRP expect:
- A standardized quantification protocol for carbon, methane and nitrous oxide data collection and an advanced understanding of GHG dynamics in Sierra Nevada meadows;
- A predictive tool to measure and credit carbon gains from restoration and, subsequently, a self – sustaining revenue stream for meadow restoration;
- Strong regional partnerships and established local capacity to undertake this work;
- A demonstrated restoration strategy that increases ecological resilience, sequesters GHG, and recovers species and habitat associated with alpine meadow systems; and,
- On the ground restoration of multiple meadow systems across the Sierra – including Osa Meadow, a 90 acre meadow system supporting Kern River rainbow trout, Mountain Yellow Legged Frog and local communities downstream.
Click here for the CDFW press release announcing the awards. For CalTrout’s press release, click here. Also be sure to look for more on this story in our next issue of The Current, issued this June.
