The Nature Conservancy

The Nature Conservancy Logo

 The Nature Conservancy is the leading conservation organization working to protect the most ecologically important lands and waters around the world for nature and people. The mission of The Nature Conservancy is to preserve the plants, animals and natural communities that represent the diversity of life on Earth by protecting the lands and waters they need to survive.

Shasta River

Interdisciplinary teams of Center scientists are investigating the causes for the decline of salmon and steelhead in Shasta River, historically one of the most productive tributaries in the lower Klamath Basin. A large spring complex (Big Springs Creek) provides the majority of its water, particularly during the summer.

Little Shasta River

The Little Shasta River project is the third phase of CWS’ research in the Shasta basin – moving past baseline assessment and demonstration projects to private landowner collaboration. The Center for Watershed Sciences is partnering with private landowners, California Trout, and The Nature Conservancy to identify how heritage rangeland can be managed to ensure the long-term viability of both rangeland and recover coho salmon populations. Our research shows how science can inform and influence the management of rangeland and environmental resources.

Big Springs Creek

In 2008, Center researchers seized a rare opportunity to quantify the results of conservation action on a large scale. The Nature Conservancy bought ranchland along Big Springs Creek, a Shasta River tributary that had been degraded by cattle grazing. The conservancy continued ranching but fenced out cattle along the 2.2 mile stream.

Beavers, Meadows and Climate Change

Mountain meadows inhabited by beavers have an important role in mitigating climate change. As carbon sinks, they store remarkably large amounts of greenhouse gases for the long term. However, degradation from livestock grazing and conversion to dry grasslands has greatly diminished the carbon-storing capacity and biodiversity of meadows in the Cascade Range and Sierra Nevada of California. Restoration of these biodiversity hotspots is key for creating climate refugia for sensitive species and increasing carbon sequestration.

Water Funds for the Ensenada Region

The Center for Watershed Sciences in Collaboration with researchers from the Universidad Autonoma de Baja California in Ensenada conducted a Pre-feasibility Assessment for a Water Fund in the Region. A Water Fund in the Ensenada Region may result an attractive water management tool for government agencies, water utilities, urban and agricultural water users and non-governmental or conservation organizations.

Perennial Pepperweed Control Project

Perennial pepperweed, Lepidium latifolium, is a highly invasive perennial herb that can thrive in a wide range of habitats including riparian areas, wetlands, marshes, and floodplains (Bossard et at. 2000; Young et al. 1995).

Cosumnes Phase 3

The Center for Watershed Sciences is partnering with The Nature Conservancy in an experimental floodplain restoration on the Cosumnes River. The Center's role in this Department of Fish & Wildlife funded project, "Wildlife And Vegetation Response to Experimental Restoration of Flooded Riparian Forest Habitat for the Cosumnes River Preserve," is intended to conduct biophysical monitoring of an experimental restoration on approximately 800 acres of flooded riparian forest habitat in the Cosumnes River Preserve.

CosHawk (Cosumnes River Futures Modeling for Swainson's Hawk)

The main objective of this project is to quantitatively assess how changes to the landscape through time will impact Swainson’s Hawk (Buteo swainsoni) habtiat and other potentially beneficial ecosystem services. Accounting for this type of natural capital and how ecosystem services change through time is not well documented in the literature and developing this methodology was a secondary objective for our research group.

California Environmental Flows Framework

The California Environmental Flows Framework (CEFF) provides an approach for determining ecological flow criteria and guidance for developing environmental flow recommendations that can accommodate a variety of stream types and biological communities, while supporting regulatory and management agency programs aimed at protecting beneficial uses for aquatic life. CEFF applies a Functional Flows approach and provides ecological flow criteria based on the natural variability of ecologically-relevant functional flow metrics. It provides a process for considering physical and biological constraints within a stream system and provides guidance on developing environmental flow recommendations that balance ecological and water management objectives.