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2009 Highlights The Five Star partners are extremely pleased to announce the newest member of this growing partnership. Beginning in 2008, Pacific Gas and Electric Company has committed $1.2 million over five years to fund additional restoration projects in 2009 Five Star Grants Announced The Five Star Restoration Program announces the 2009 grants totaling more than $765,4290 to 27 community-led wetland and streamside habitat restoration projects nationwide. These communities have committed an additional $2.2 million in local project support. Five Star is a partnership among the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, National Association of Counties, Wildlife Habitat Council, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Pacific Gas and Electric Company, and Southern Company. Five Star Restoration projects involve a high degree of cooperation, with local governmental agencies, elected officials, community groups, businesses, schools and environmental organizations working together to improve local water quality and restore important fish and wildlife habitats. "The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proudly supports the Five Star Restoration Grant Program as one of the best examples of cooperative conservation and environmental stewardship," said Benjamin H. Grumbles, EPA’s Assistant Administrator for Water. "These community-based projects build lasting relationships for protecting and sustaining wetlands, streams and coasts." "We’re pleased to continue our partnership with the Five Star Program," said Dwight Evans, executive vice president of external affairs for Southern Company. "As the Southern region lead corporate sponsor of Five Star Restoration, Southern Company has committed five years of matching funds for projects in our region. These projects are a great way to engage communities in revitalizing wetland, riparian and coastal environments, which are among the most productive ecosystems in the world." The Five Star Restoration Program, founded in 1999, receives major funding from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Southern Company and the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E) Nature Restoration Trust. This year, projects in The following are WHC members who received or are partnering on a 2009 Five Star grant. For a complete list of the grant recipients and project locations visit the U.S. EPA online. National Audubon Society, Inc. Project Name: Audubon Bobcat Ranch Oak The Audubon Bobcat Ranch Oak Woodland Corridor project will provide critical conservation benefits by re-establishing an ecological connection between the Dry Creek tributaries and the main channel of Putah Creek, creating a habitat corridor managed by local landowners. The project will offer educational benefits to local high school students who will participate in restoration activities through the Student Landowner Education and Watershed Stewardship (SLEWS) Program. Through hands-on restoration projects, the National Audubon Society, Inc. seeks to promote an understanding of the local ecosystem and foster a culture of conservation. Students will learn about the connection between a healthy ecosystem and responsible stewardship of a working landscape as they participate in this broad-based habitat restoration work.
Project Name: Lamoille Union (VT) Pond Remediation Project The Lamoille County Natural Resources Conservation District & Nature Center will reduce storm water impacts of sediment and non-point pollutants by installation of approximately 4,000 square feet of rain gardens, an enhanced riparian buffer, an improved stone-lined ditch and the removal of invasive barberry. Project outcomes include habitat for signature
Project Name: Snowden Wetlands Restoration and Citizen Science The Columbia Gorge Ecology Institute will restore 60 acres of emergent and forested wetlands in Major Creek Watershed. In addition, local middle school students, under the tutelage of biologists, will be conducting site inventories of reptiles, amphibians, and rare plants as part of the Oregon Zoo's Science in Action Project. The 120-acre Finn-Philpott property is a donated permanent conservation easement located nine miles north of White Salmon, Washington. The ecologically diverse property contains 60 acres of emergent wetlands, five-acre pond, and 10 acres of aspen forest. The seasonal marshlands have been highly degraded by past construction of drainage ditches and the channelization of West Major Creek. The project will fully restore the wetland's natural hydrology, which will benefit waterfowl species including the sandhill crane and spotted frog.
Project Name: The Sky Island Alliance will restore a degraded creek and wetland. This project will reconnect one of the largest desert ciénegas to its subsurface water source and protect a large population of Chiricahua leopard frogs. Cloverdale Ciénega is an historic wetland of approximately 150 acres of which 90 acres has dried. This project is a coordinated set of restoration treatments which will remove all levees and plug the spillway gully with material from the removal of the levees. Flood flow going over the spillway will now have a chance to spread out over the entire width of the ciénega, flowing through it for almost a mile. The water table is expected to rise, and the ciénega surface should become fully saturated, eventually killing the upland species that have invaded the site, as a natural transition back to a wetland plant community occurs over the next decade.
Project Name: Soquel Creek Restoration and Watershed Education Project The Resource Conservation District of Santa Cruz County will restore 1.25 acres of degraded riparian habitat to reduce invasives by 80% along lower Soquel Creek where steelhead population is declining. Partners include the Water District, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Soquel Neighborhood Alliance, Natural Resources Conservation Service, County Weed Management and local schools. Hands-on community restoration days, creek talks, and in-classroom learning will result. The project site is adjacent to an elementary school where 4th-5th grade students will do native plant propagation; and elementary and high schools, Cabrillo College, and community volunteers will be carrying out on-going monitoring. Back to top |
