From the summit to the sea

In California, EDF is quantifying the economic value of threatened ecosystems and finding investors, like utilities, who will benefit from their restoration. Our goal is to develop a national model for saving irreplaceable natural resources.

The High Sierra

Many of California’s rivers are born in remote meadows, high in the Sierra Nevada. They hold snowmelt like a sponge, slowly releasing pure water to downstream farms and cities during the dry summer. Wildlife, too—from the great gray owl to the willow flycatcher—depends on this lush habitat in the summer heat.

Today, many of the remaining 400-square-miles of Sierra meadowland are damaged from overgrazing and development. This has impaired their ability to store and release water, and put nearly one in five vertebrate species in the Sierra at risk.

In 2010, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation asked EDF and its partners to create a program to restore Sierra meadows. Ranchers own 40% of them, so our approach ensures the landowners continued prosperity.

Rick Roberti, like many ranchers in Plumas County, CA, initially opposed restoration, with its emphasis on replanting native vegetation and improving grazing practices. After he signed on, he says, “My friends saw me putting up fences to keep the cattle out of the stream, and said: ‘What the heck are you doing?’”

EDF's Ashley Rood speaks with rancher Ned Coe about restoring Sierra Nevada mountain meadows.

Photo by: Mathew Grimm.

Today, Roberti is proud of the meadow he recreated on his land. “It’s a beautiful, healthy meadow. I see sandhill cranes and other rare wildlife. And there’s better forage for my cattle.”

To date, thousands of acres of meadows have been restored. “If every rancher makes an effort, we can change things around here,” Roberti says.

A big vintage

Further down the watershed lie the great farms of the Central Valley. The Mokelumne River winds through them and supplies 90% of the water for 1.3 million people around Oakland and Berkeley.

Extensive riverside forests—long lost to agriculture and development—once flourished here . Forest loss made the water too warm for salmon in places and caused erosion that sent sediment into the river, harming downstream habitat.

Today, EDF is working with winegrowers to restore the river’s ecosystem.

Our goal is to restore riverside habitat in ways that are compatible with thriving agriculture.

Ann Hayden Senior Program Manager

Chris Storm is sustainability manager at Vino Farms, near Lodi, CA, which raises 4,300 acres of grapes. He is preserving wildlife habitat while increasing profits. “Growing wine is about telling a story,” he says. “This is ours.”

Winegrowers, who have a reputation for being environmentally progressive, are working with EDF to rebuild habitat.

Photo by: Mathew Grimm.

Today, cottonwoods, ash and box elders flourish along Vino’s riverbank, attracting some 60 bird species such as Swainson’s hawks. Hedgerows planted between grape varieties teem with beneficial insects like parasitic wasps, which reduce the need for pesticides.

“This is better for the ecosystem and it’s better for the bottom line,” says Storm. In fact, winemakers are paying Vino a premium for sustainable production.

“EDF is helping us see the benefit of replanting the riverbanks,” says Storm. “The alternative—a flat monoculture—benefits no one except the chemical companies.”

There’s carbon in them thar lowlands

Journey’s end for the Mokelumne is the Sacramento–San Joaquin Delta. The 1,150-square-mile Delta, once a vast wetland, has been drained for agriculture. This has caused the land to subside so severely that entire cities, including Sacramento, are now in danger of flooding.

A bird's eye view of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Bay Delta, the hub of California's water supply system.

Photo by: Mathew Grimm.

The Delta could be rescued by its ability to store carbon, an ecosystem service that will become highly valued when California launches a cap-and-trade market for carbon dioxide in 2013. This market could enable state industries to offset part of their global warming pollution by paying Delta farmers to literally “grow” wetlands.

The state has committed $2 million to launch Delta partners first pilot carbon storage projects. We're also working to improve flood control and habitat for 300 animal species in the Delta.

The next step: Valuing ecosystems

The key to reviving California’s high meadows, riverside forests and wetlands is to create a market to finance their restoration. EDF and our partners are developing tools to measure the economic value of these ecosystems and attracting investors, like utilities and municipalities, to finance their restoration.