With support from the foundation, The Freshwater Trust will use GIS-driven Basin Scout methodologies to team up with Google and assess and prioritize conservation opportunities in the Russian River watershed.
The Freshwater Trust received $124,875 from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation to assess where and how certain restoration projects can benefit California’s Russian River basin.
The river restoration nonprofit will use its Geographic Information System (GIS)-based methodology known as StreamBank® BasinScout™ to obtain and analyze a full picture of the river basin and identify a prioritized list of restoration opportunities.
“The BasinScout methodology was designed to give communities, conservation funders and restoration partners a road map to restoring freshwater health at the basin-scale,” said Joe Whitworth, president of The Freshwater Trust. “This analysis will make it possible to direct funds to the sites and projects that will have the biggest impact on the watershed as a whole.”
Snaking southward and draining Sonoma and Mendocino counties, the Russian River provides valuable drinking water for several hundred thousand Californians and serves as critical wildlife habitat for fish migration and spawning. Yet loss of streamside vegetation and excess sediment and phosphorus from runoff have impacted the region’s waters.
Restoration actions, such as planting trees along a river bank, and agricultural practices, such as conservation tillage and cover cropping, can reduce “non-point” sources of pollution like runoff. Yet historically it’s been difficult to assign value to restoration actions or prioritize them in a meaningful way.
“Current restoration efforts on private land are largely opportunistic; with funding directed to projects where conservation-minded landowners show interest – as opposed to being guided by prioritized lists of projects that can generate significant benefits for water quality,” said Whitworth. “We’re hoping to change that. Cooperative environmental solutions have the potential to dramatically expand the pace and scale of restoration across the landscape.”
See the full announcement here.
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