This week, RCRC advocated alongside its California Forest Watershed Alliance (CAFWA) partners in Washington D.C. to promote the French Meadows Forest Restoration Project, and encourage federal partners to foster more collaboration on forest restoration projects. CAFWA representatives met with the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Office of Governor Gavin Newsom, and the California delegation in Congress.
Staff were briefed on the partnership model created through the French Meadows Project, a 28,000 forest restoration project co-founded by Placer County, USFS, The Nature Conservancy, Placer County Water Agency, American River Conservancy, Sierra Nevada Conservancy, and the Sierra Nevada Research Institute. The partners pooled their resources and capacity to win approval for the restoration project under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) in record time.
CAFWA members educated federal stakeholders on the innovative model behind the French Meadows project and urged policymakers to create federal incentives to replicate the French Meadows model. The NEPA and CEQA approval processes were accelerated through the collaborative approach, and federal incentives will allow more communities to adopt this approach.
CAFWA is a nonpartisan, urban-rural coalition representing water interests, local governments, the conservation community, agriculture, and the forestry sector, created to promote the restoration and improvement of California’s forested watersheds. CAFWA’s founding members include RCRC, the Association of California Water Agencies (ACWA), the California Forestry Association, The Nature Conservancy, and the California Farm Bureau. As a CAFWA founding member, RCRC pushes for more policies at the state and federal level that promote collaboration and provide counties with a seat at the table surrounded by effective partners.