The Latest

Native Grass Restoration Committee Forming

Our new Native Grass Sub-Committee is active. We’re planning lots of activities - see them in our meeting minutes:
8/11/25: Native_Grass_minutes
10/12/25: Native_Grass_Minutes

Read our Brochure & Join Us

Students Help Complete Habitat Restoration

Large-scale bioengineering project construction is complete on our SWRCB 319h grant. Laytonville High School students are continuing the restoration by creating a native tree gallery forest at the Cahto Creek sites. See slideshow.

Good Fire Progress

Thanks to Torchbearr and other partners, we were able to burn 334 acres of piles in October and early November and lots more to do this burn season. Read a summary of accomplishments for CalFire Tenmile Creek forest health grant and recent burning news.

Tenmile Creek Erosion Control and Bank Restoration - Completed in September!

The Eel River Recovery Project was awarded a State Water Resources Control Board 319h grant in April 2021 to help control non-point source water pollution – the Tenmile Creek Erosion Prevention and Riparian Restoration Project. Projects were designed by Stillwater Sciences and constructed by Native Ecosystems, Inc and Edwards Excavation and Restoration on lower Cahto Creek along the Cahto Trail and on Streeter Creek at the Black Oak Ranch. Riparian gallery forest restoration at the Cahto Trail sites will be assisted by Laytonville High School and Laytonville Elementary School Students. The project also has an extensive monitoring component and a report is forthcoming on the ecological condition of Tenmile Creek and its tributaries. Click on the images below to learn more.

Bioengineering Projects

Monitoring

Education and Outreach

Tenmile Creek Watershed Forest Health Project

ERRP was awarded a CAL FIRE Forest Health Program grant in August 2023 with funds derived from California Climate Investments (CCI), a state-wide program that puts billions of Cap-and-Trade dollars to work reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, including forest health implementation focusing on rural disadvantaged communities. See more at www.calclimateinvestments.ca.gov. Environmental permitting took about a year. The project is now in full swing with a target of thinning 941 acres of forest and using prescribed fire to manage the fuels on 880 acres in the Tenmile Creek watershed near Laytonville. In addition to thinning the forest to reduce catastrophic fire risk, we are also seeking to use the project to obtain ecological restoration objectives. Education elements are aimed at the community, including schools, so landowners can learn techniques that they can implement on their own land, and to make students more aware, involve them in restoration and monitoring, and interest them in natural resource career paths. Our project is mostly thinning and pile burning, but that is only the beginning. In the long term, we hope to foster community capacity to carryout frequent low intensity ground fires, similar to the practices of Native Americans historically.

Forest thinning

Ecological Restoration

Prescribed fire

Oak woodland restoration

Permitting & Monitoring

Education

Tenmile Creek Phase 2

The Eel River Recovery Project was awarded a State Coastal Conservancy Prop 1 grant in April 2021 to continue work in the Tenmile Creek watershed after completion of their successful pilot project. The Project promotes water conservation and erosion control, monitors stream and flow conditions, and will create a model and a water budget to inform the community. All of the elements of this Project were envisioned in the Tenmile Creek Watershed Conservation and Restoration Action Plan. The Tenmile Creek Temp, Fish, Flow Report (2020-2021) summarizes conditions in Tenmile Creek in WY 2020 and WY 2021. Read the report.

Erosion Control

Water Conservation

Aquatic Monitoring

Flow Modeling

Flow Measurement

Town Creek Restoration and Education Program

The Town Creek Restoration and Education Project was funded by the Department of Water Resources through an Urban Stream Restoration Program grant using Prop 68 resources. We worked with our co-sponsor, the Round Valley County Water District, over three years to arrive at a bioengineering solution to bank erosion and flood risk on Town Creek near Covelo. As they seek funding for implementation, the District will also be seeking resources to plan similar bio-technical projects throughout their jurisdiction in Round Valley in cooperation with the Round Valley Indian Tribes. Read the 100% Basis of Design Report and see Drawings of bioengineering project we got permitted. See a summary of the project in the Final Report, or see this summary of the various project elements.