Scientific Research and Monitoring
Research and Monitoring Strategies
- Partner with the UC Davis Watershed Center and other science stakeholders to begin full scale monitoring and assessment of existing conditions
- Evaluate and address critical uncertainties in watershed, riverine, riparian, floodplain restoration and conservation efforts.
- Partner with the Fall River Resource Conservation District to prioritize restoration projects and sources of potential funding
Research and Monitoring Objectives
- Determine baseline conditions
- Identify conservation targets
- Prioritize stressors and threats to conservation targets
- Develop metric indicators for measuring success of future conservation actions
- Make management recommendations for future restoration projects
Background
FRC recently established a partnership with the UCD Center for Watershed Sciences to help facilitate objective, credible, and useful science throughout the valley. The Center for Watershed Sciences, a unit of the John Muir Institute of the Environment, is dedicated to the interdisciplinary study of critical issues in watershed science — with a focus on the sustainable and cost-effective restoration and management of stream, lake and estuarine ecosystems.
Watershed Science Center Approach
- The Center for Watershed Sciences conducts problem-solving research in restoration and water resource management, principally within the Central Valley, Sierra Nevada, Coast Range and San Francisco Estuary of California.
- The center seeks to evaluate and address critical uncertainties in watershed, riverine, riparian, floodplain and tidal marsh restoration and conservation efforts.
- Center projects typically involve teams of researchers drawn from both the physical and biological sciences that work in partnership with public and private agencies.
- The center seeks to produce notable peer-reviewed contributions to the literature in the environmental sciences and apply this knowledge to solving practical problems related to watershed management.