At its meeting on Thursday, Dec. 8, the Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) earmarked $22.3 million to help restore and protect fish and wildlife habitat throughout California.

The 19 funded projects will provide benefits to fish and wildlife species, including some endangered species, and increase public access to these lands.

Several projects also demonstrate the importance of protecting working landscapes that integrate economic, social and environmental stewardship practices beneficial to the environment and the landowner.

The funds for all of these projects come from recent bond initiatives approved by the voters to help preserve and protect California’s natural resources.

 

Some of the funded projects include:

• A $426,000 grant to Lassen Land and Trails Trust, Inc. to acquire a conservation easement over more than 535 acres adjacent to the Department of Fish and Game’s (DFG) Bass Hill Wildlife Area for protection of important wildlife habitat values, watershed protection and habitat linkage for deer populations in Lassen County.

• A $304,000 grant to Ducks Unlimited Inc. for a cooperative project with DFG to complete final design plans for a tidal wetland restoration project on Ponds E12 and E13, located on the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve in Alameda County.

• A $249,000 grant to the City of Pacifica to improve public access for sport fishing at the Pacifica Fishing Pier located in the city of Pacifica in San Mateo County.

• A $415,000 grant to Save The Bay for a cooperative project with DFG, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration to restore approximately 251 acres of transitional zone habitat adjacent to former salt ponds on the Eden Landing Ecological Reserve and the Don Edwards San Francisco Bay National Wildlife Refuge in Alameda and San Mateo counties.

• A $7.8 million grant to the Pacific Forest Trust for a conservation easement over 8,230 acres of working forest lands to allow continued forest management, passive public use and enhance the protection of forest, meadow, riparian, fisheries and water resources. The property is located north and south of Highway 89 in a rural area of the southern Cascade Mountain Range in Shasta and Siskiyou counties near the communities of McCloud, Pondosa and Bartle.

• A $1.1 million grant to the Northern California Regional Land Trust for a cooperative project with Western Rivers Conservancy and DFG to acquire fee title to approximately 599 acres of land for the expansion of the Lassen Foothills Conservation Area, northeast of Chico along State Highway 32 in Tehama County. The project will protect approximately 1.4 miles of riparian corridor along Deer Creek and surrounding forest and oak woodlands, including habitat for deer and mountain lion, Chinook salmon, the western pond turtle and the mountain yellow-legged frog. It will also allow the expansion of appropriate wildlife-oriented public use.

• A $5 million grant to the Truckee Donner Land Trust to acquire approximately 2,995 acres of land for the protection of significant alpine and wet-meadow habitat, protection of the upper watershed and source of the Little Truckee River and allow for continued conservation-based management and wildlife-oriented public use of the property, located north of the town of Truckee, in Nevada and Sierra counties.

• A $1.2 million grant to the Sierra Foothill Conservancy to acquire conservation easements over 2,011 acres of land for the protection of grazing lands, grasslands and blue oak woodlands that benefit sensitive and protected species, and to advance the development of a corridor among existing protected areas for migrating wildlife, located between Prather and Tollhouse in Fresno County.

For more information about the WCB, visit www.wcb.ca.gov.