The Upper Stony Creek Watershed Project is a land treatment program located in the Upper Stony Creek watershed which lays on the eastern slopes of the coast range mountains and foothills west of the Sacramento Valley of California. The 243,000 acre area includes public (USFS, BLM) and private landholders and also takes in western portions of Colusa and Glenn counties. The primary land use on private land is livestock grazing and timber harvest, and grazing on the public lands.

The Resource Conservation Districts (RCD) which cover the area raised concerns in the late 1970's and early 1980's about numerous symptoms of general declining productivity of their natural resources. Because those resources are the basis of their livelihoods, they asked for help to clearly identify their problem(s) and once identified to provide technical and financial assistance to treat their resource problems. Since that request, a process that has created much excitement, teamwork, innovation and some early successes has been put into place. The watershed plan has developed with maximum input from all vested interests. The Soil Conservation Service Watershed Planning staff in Davis with heavy involvement of the local SCS area and field offices gathered resource data for the plan with on-going input from a landowner steering committee. With input from those three directions, an innovative plan was developed that had the support of all involved.

The innovative components of the project are central to treating the main problem which is livestock management. In order to change management, there has to be changes in human behavior. That recognized, we built in an educational component that provides for annual workshops, demonstration exercises, guest speakers and other educational instruction for the landowners. Attendance at the educational sessions is required for eligibility for certain cost share management practices. The steering committee is using the Holistic Resource Management model in conjunction with SCS Conservation Planning techniques as a basis for developing plans with the participating landowners.

In the first three years of the project, participation has greatly exceeded our expectations. It was expected that at the end of the project half of the private landowners would be participating. Already nearly half are under long term contract.

One of the major weaknesses of the plan is that there is no provision for monitoring either with technical or monetary assistance. We have been able to secure one three year grant that gathered baseline data on two ranches on soils and vegetation. Another has been written to continue with that work.

There is keen individual landowner interest in participation of their ranches in the project. Landowners have formed a group that meets regularly to discuss how they are progressing. The group is called MORE (Managing our Resources Effectively), and currently has nearly 30 members from families in the project area.

This year the main focus of the educational effort, and of the MORE group, is on developing ranch grazing plans.

Wendel can be reached at (916) 343-3976