CDFW Awards $4.2 Million for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Grant Projects
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The California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) today announced the selection of three projects to restore wetlands that sequester greenhouse gases (GHGs) and provide other ecological co-benefits.
The awards, totaling $4.2 million, were made under CDFW’s 2017 Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program Proposal Solicitation Notice.
The Wetlands Restoration for Greenhouse Gas Reduction Program focuses on projects with measurable objectives that will lead to GHG reductions in wetlands and watersheds while providing co-benefits such as enhancing fish and wildlife habitat, protecting and improving water quality and quantity, and helping California adapt to climate change. Wetlands have high carbon sequestration rates that can store carbon for decades.
“We are fortunate to have the opportunity to fund wetland restoration projects while directly addressing climate resiliency and furthering the science of carbon sequestration,” CDFW Director Charlton H. Bonham said. “Wetlands play a vital role in our state’s water storage and as natural carbon sinks, provide significant other benefits.”
One of the projects approved for funding is Elkhorn Slough.
Elkhorn Slough Tidal Marsh Restoration: Hester Phase II ($1,596,779 to Elkhorn Slough Foundation). Elkhorn Slough, one of the largest estuaries in California, contains the state’s largest salt marshes south of San Francisco Bay.
The slough provides important habitat for a broad range of resident and migratory birds, invertebrates, fish, marine mammals and other wildlife, and plays a crucial role in the local estuarine and near shore food web. The project includes restoration of an entire cross section of coastal ecosystem from carbon sequestering native oyster beds, 30 acres of historically diked and drained coastal wetlands, and five acres adjacent vegetated buffer. Building upon the success of Hester Phase I, the project will enhance sophisticated GHG science and monitoring as well as investigating the novel GHG mitigation strategy of converting plant waste to biochar as a soil amendment.
