The California State Coastal Conservancy awarded more than $7.3 million in grants Thursday to help restore, protect and improve access to coastal areas in the greater Bay Area and on the North Coast.
Most of the projects support forest and vegetation management and wildfire abatement, funded by Proposition 4, a climate bond passed in 2024 to support wildfire, water and climate projects.
The Esselen Tribe of Monterey County will receive $1.2 million to restore ancestral land by revitalizing the use of Indigenous fire knowledge through live cultural burns in upper Carmel Valley. The tribe will also offer workforce development training to tribal members to conduct cultural burns across Monterey County.
In Santa Cruz County, the Sempervirens Fund was awarded $3 million to reduce wildfire fuels and restore 215 acres of old-growth coast redwood forest in Big Basin Redwoods State Park.
Farther north, the Mendocino County Fire Safe Council will receive $803,000 to continue its free community chipping program and to facilitate community volunteer workdays at sites across the county for three more years. The board also funded an additional $1.2 million in other projects.
Friends of the Eel River will receive $181,400 to create the Eel River Native Plant Project, a regional native plant network that will support habitat restoration in the upper Eel River basin in Mendocino, Lake and Humboldt counties in response to the anticipated removal of the Scott and Cape Horn dams — known collectively as the Potter Valley Project — in 2028.
Also in Mendocino County, the Mendocino Land Trust was awarded $565,000 for the Arena Cove Coastal Trail Construction Project. The land trust will build a 0.3-mile segment of the California Coastal Trail at Arena Cove, including stairways, benches, a viewing platform, fencing, signage and other amenities.
Sea Otter Savvy will receive $71,400 for its public education program centered on the possible reintroduction of sea otters in San Francisco Bay and the North Coast.
The Nature Conservancy was awarded $445,000 for its San Francisco Bay Olympia Oyster Public Education Initiative, which seeks to educate the public on the importance of the native Olympia oyster and its role in the Bay’s ecology.
Finally, in Santa Cruz County, the board awarded $980,000 in U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service funds to the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County to purchase the Watsonville Slough Mini Ranch, a 62-acre wetland property.
The post Coastal Conservancy awards over $7.3M in wildfire, habitat and trail projects across NorCal appeared first on Local News Matters.