Plumas Audubon awarded $100,000 grant
The Sierra Nevada Conservancy (SNC) Governing Board approved $11.8 million in grants for projects that will reduce wildfire risk, protect water supplies and restore forest and watershed health in the Sierra Nevada region.
The projects support the goals and objectives of the Sierra Nevada Watershed Improvement Program, a large-scale restoration program designed to address ecosystem health in the Sierra Nevada.
This program is coordinated by the Sierra Nevada Conservancy in close partnership with other federal, state, and local agencies, as well as diverse stakeholders, and aims to increase the pace and scale of restoration across the Sierra by increasing funding, addressing policy barriers, and increasing infrastructure needed to support restoration.
Funding for these projects comes from Proposition 1, The Water Quality, Supply, and Infrastructure Improvement Act of 2014.
The Plumas Audubon Society has been awarded $100,000 for the Quincy Watershed Improvement Project (QWIP). This project will complete the necessary planning and environmental compliance to implement a Watershed Improvement Plan in the upper Feather River watershed, near Quincy.
QWIP will create a 665-acre firebreak near the southern border of Quincy, north of the footprint of the Minerva fire on Forest Service lands and on American Valley Community Services District property.
Initial planning will require wildlife, archaeology, soils, hydrology, botany, and forestry surveys in addition to preparation of NEPA and CEQA documents. Plumas Audubon Society is currently seeking consultants for archaeology, soils, hydrology, botany and forestry surveys.
Partners for this project include Feather River Resource Conservation District, American Valley Community Services District, Plumas National Forest, Plumas County Fire Safe Council, Plumas County and private landowners.
With support of $99,996.76 from the Sierra Nevada Conservancy to complete this planning project, the QWIP will be ready for implementation in fall 2020.
Sierra Nevada Conservancy Created in 2004, the Sierra Nevada Conservancy is a state agency whose mission is to improve the environmental, economic and social well-being of the Sierra Nevada region.
The SNC has awarded over $68 million in grants for projects to protect and enhance the health of California’s primary watersheds by improving forest health; remediating mercury contamination from abandoned mines; protecting critical natural resources; and reducing the risk of large, damaging wildfires.
Funding for these projects came from Prop. 84 passed by voters in 2006 and Prop. 1 passed by voters in 2014. The Sierra Nevada region spans 25 million acres and encompasses all or part of 22 counties.
Plumas Audubon Society
Plumas Audubon Society was founded in 1991 and promotes understanding, appreciation and protection of the biodiversity of the Feather River region through education, research and the restoration and conservation of natural ecosystems.
