Merced River Channel Restoration near Snelling, San Joaquin Basin, California Phase I

The summary for the Merced River Channel Restoration near Snelling, San Joaquin Basin, California Phase I grant is detailed below. This summary states who is eligible for the grant, how much grant money will be awarded, current and past deadlines, Catalog of Federal Domestic Assistance (CFDA) numbers, and a sampling of similar government grants. Verify the accuracy of the data FederalGrants.com provides by visiting the webpage noted in the Link to Full Announcement section or by contacting the appropriate person listed as the Grant Announcement Contact. If any section is incomplete, please visit the website for the Fish and Wildlife Service, which is the U.S. government agency offering this grant.

Merced River Channel Restoration near Snelling, San Joaquin Basin, California Phase I: The applicant will partner with Santa Fe Aggregates, Inc. (SFA), an aggregate mining company with plans to remove dredger tailings down to the natural floodplain surface beginning in approximately 2012 at a 600+ acre site near Snelling. The applicant will develop the planning and environmental documents to restore in-river spawning and rearing habitats for anadromous salmonids adjacent to the SFA site. Approximately 2 miles of river channel would be targeted for restoration activities, which would focus on the ditch-like channels and armored spawning beds. Within the ditch-like channels, restoration objectives would be to construct habitat units consisting of an 80- to 100-foot long, pool-tail shaped spawning bed and a 100-foot long, 4+ foot deep pool immediately downstream of each bed. Existing pools are not to be filled. Spawning-sized gravels would be added to armored spawning beds. The applicant may utilize environmental documents and hydraulic models developed for the river channel and floodplain that are being developed by SFA for their mining project. The applicant should assume that the river channel will not be realigned and that all mature native tree species will be preserved. SFA may provide labor and aggregate materials for this project. Phase I funding beginning in Fiscal Year 2008 is to develop the channel restoration and monitoring plans and environmental documents with input from landowners, SFA, and the local resource agencies. It is anticipated that the construction and biological monitoring phases of this project will be incrementally implemented in later phases as funding becomes available.