To elevate and coordinate meadow restoration, CalTrout and its partners have created the Sierra Meadows Partnership, a broad coalition of government agencies, scientists, non-profit conservation organizations and other stakeholders. The Partnership plans for an ambitious course of action. To achieve its overarching goal will require restoring 30,000 of the estimated 90,000 acres of degraded meadows in the strategy area over the next 15 years. This work will require a multi-pronged approach that includes improving the science and implementation of meadow restoration, helping to improve the efficiency of planning and permitting, and building funding, resources and partnership capacity.
Restoring meadows increase ecological resilience in the face of a changing climate including helping counteract changes in precipitation and increases in large scale forest fires. Restored meadows also improve water supply security by keeping more water in the system acting as a natural reservoir to carry water through into the dry season when it is needed most by fish and people.
In addition to increasing the ecological resilience, restored meadows also sequester more carbon. A core part of our meadows work is developing the science and protocols for quantifying carbon sequestration and greenhouse gas retention in restored meadows. Our goal is to enter into carbon trading or payment for ecosystem services, generating a steady and new stream of funding for meadow restoration. This would then increase the pace and scale of meadow restoration across California.