Tribe grants $200K for Tomales Bay, West Marin habitat restoration

The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria awarded $200,000 to fund habitat restoration and fire prevention projects along Tomales Bay and Bolinas Lagoon during the next three years.

The grant is the third and largest award the tribe has given to the Audubon Canyon Ranch nonprofit organization since 2017 aimed at restoring the Coast Miwok people’s ancestral lands in West Marin. Founded in 1962, Audubon Canyon Ranch manages several land preserves on 26 properties in Marin and Sonoma counties totaling about 5,000 acres.

“We are so proud and happy to be able to support Audubon Canyon Ranch and all the good work they do to help build and maintain a sustainable future,” Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria Chairman Greg Sarris wrote in a statement.

Jim Jensen, a land steward at the Cypress Grove Preserve along Tomales Bay, said the new projects will take place on a mosaic of habitats spanning from redwood forests near Bolinas Lagoon to grasslands at the tip of Tomales Bay. Five sites were selected for restoration work: Tom’s Point, Walker Creek Delta, Cypress Grove, Shields Marsh and Olema Marsh.

“We know there is a lot of cultural significance with Tomales Bay, specifically some of the sites we’ve chosen,” Jensen said. “Each site has a little bit of a different history and ecology.”

“For instance, the focus at Tom’s Point is trying to maintain our open grasslands there. There are a lot of native prairie grasslands and also the cultural heritage history there,” Jensen continued. “Part of that is targeting and focusing on invasive species that are established as well as implementing a cultural burn to help maintain the native coastal grasslands that are there.”

Some of the proposed projects will include marsh restoration; prairie restoration; invasive plant monitoring and removal; surveys of cultural resources; monitoring the effectiveness of past prescribed burns of preserves; and fuel reduction using prescribed fires and sheep grazing. Sites were also chosen to protect plants of cultural interest to the tribe, cattails, bog dogwood, lupine and salmonberry.

Prescribed burns are also planned to take place at Tom’s Point on the northern tip of Tomales Bay and at the Martin Griffin Preserve, potentially as soon as this fall. Jensen said Marin County Fire will be involved in reviewing the burn plans.

As projects are advanced, Jensen said Audubon Canyon Ranch will be consulting with the tribe, providing grant reports, hearing feedback and inviting them to the sites to view the projects or volunteer.

“Think part of this is continuing to make sure their voice is heard,” Jensen said. “What’s mutual is we can learn a lot from traditional ecological knowledge.”

The Federated Indians of Graton Rancheria is a federation of the Coast Miwok and Southern Pomo peoples that were federally recognized in 2000. The Coast Miwok people inhabited what is now West Marin for thousands of years before the arrival of Spanish missionaries and other European settlers began arriving in the 1500s.

The tribe first donated $25,000 to Audubon Canyon Ranch in 2017 to help fund a prescribed burn at Bouverie Preserve in Glen Ellen. The project initiated the beginning of Audubon Canyon’s Fire Forward program, which provides prescribed burning training for landowners. The tribe provided another $100,000 to the nonprofit as part of a three-year grant in 2018 to advance the program and collaboration with the tribe on stewardship of the preserves.

“We are grateful for their generosity in sharing time, expertise and guidance as well as this additional round of funding to improve the health of some of California’s most diverse coastal habitats,” Audubon Canyon Ranch chief executive officer Tom Gardali wrote in a statement.