Project abstract summarythe primary purposes of the project are: 1.to restore mountain meadow and stream habitats by utilizing a combination of restoration techniques that address the degraded…

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) awarded a $235,000 Cooperative Agreement grant to The Sierra Fund, a non-profit organization, through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife program (CFDA 15.631). The grant funding is supporting a 5-year project to restore mountain meadow and stream habitats in Nevada City, CA. Key activities include: excluding cattle from areas with active beaver populations, constructing low-tech restoration structures to mimic beaver dams, reintroducing beavers to suitable habitats, and training local contractors to build restoration capacity. The project also aims to build the capacity of federally-recognized tribes and tribal organizations to participate in and guide restoration efforts on their ancestral lands, including through wildlife monitoring, beaver reintroduction support, and development of a Maidu tribal ecological knowledge reference book.

Project abstract summarythe primary purposes of the project are: 1.to restore mountain meadow and stream habitats by utilizing a combination of restoration techniques that address the degraded conditions most commonly found in them including: a.excluding cattle from stream and meadow areas that have active beaver populations in them, encouraging beaver to restore the streams and meadows themselves b.building low-tech, process-based restoration structures that mimic beaver structures in meadows that currently cant support beaver, restoring the hydrologic and sedimentary processes back into the system so willows and other beaver forage and habitat values will be restored encouraging beaver to return to the system and maintain and or improve on the restoration accomplishments c.reintroducing beaver into habitats that currently can support beaver, but where beaver are not known to be near enough to RE-occupy the sites by natural immigrationd.training new restoration contractors to increase capacity of the available contractor pool matching the demand for increasing pace and scale of restoring mountain meadow HABITATS2.to help build the capacity of local federally-recognized tribes as well as local tribal organizations to increase their ability to engage, help guide, and lead, where possible, restoration of mountain stream and meadow habitats in their ancestral lands by:a.providing staff support to oversee and guide wildlife camera monitoring on their properties improving their awareness of wildlife benefits to restore habitats for and protect b.providing staff support to participate fully and help guide california department of fish wildlife, where appropriate, the reintroduction of beaver back into their ancestral lands.c.providing staff support to publish a maidu tribal ecological knowledge plants identification reference book