SOUTH YUBA RIVER CITIZENS LEAGUE

The purpose of SYRCL’s River Science program is to ensure that our advocacy and program work is informed and supported by the best science available. Specifically, River Science guides our River Monitoring and Restoration programs, as well as our watershed education, salmon advocacy, and dam relicensing work. The River Science program enhances our understanding of the watershed and provides SYRCL with the authority to be in the forefront of scientific discussions about the Yuba.

River Restoration
The River Restoration program is focused on working with partners to restore the health of mountain meadows and the vitality of the lower Yuba River fishery. In addition, the program seeks to protect and rehabilitate the river corridors from threats like invasive species, abandoned mines, and large illegal cannabis grow sites, all of which will reduce fire risk, stream degradation, and improve biodiversity. A new "Restoration Plan for the Yuba Watershed” will highlight the restoration needs of the watershed from the headwaters all the way down to the confluence with the Feather River.

Restoration in the lower Yuba (primarily riparian planting, and gravel and wood augmentations) will increase ecosystem-wide biodiversity and improve the survival of juvenile salmonids. SYRCL has already planted more than 6500 trees at Hammon Bar on the lower Yuba River and we will continue to monitor their growth.

Meadow Restoration
Meadow restoration purifies and stores groundwater while sequestering carbon - creating resiliency in our headwaters against drought and climate change impacts. We have secured grants to restore over 800 acres of mountain meadows during the next few years.

River Monitoring
Started in 2000, SYRCL’s River Monitoring program is guided by a detailed River Monitoring Plan. This plan highlights the importance of citizen science data collection and focused projects to scientifically monitor pollution sources and potential water quality threats. Each year, more than 60 well-trained, active volunteer River Monitors collect high quality baseline data at nearly 40 sites. SYRCL provides careful scientific oversight to ensure that water quality and restoration monitoring data are collected in a scientifically defensible way, ensuring that SYRCL’s data is a respected and reliable resource for members of the scientific community and within collaborative forums about the Yuba River. Should a threat be detected and SYRCL called upon to be a whistle blower, the data will be credible and scientifically sound – and it is publicly available at www.yubashed.org.

The River People program’s core functions include volunteer coordination, communications, media relations, community outreach, and grassroots mobilization.

The numbers behind SYRCL’s people-powered activities are staggering: over 700 people volunteer for the Yuba River Cleanup each fall, over 600 support the Wild & Scenic Film Festival every January, up to 80 volunteers are trained River Monitors, and another 40 serve as River Ambassadors.

Yuba River Cleanup
SYRCL’s River People program produces the annual Yuba River Cleanup to engage the community in keeping the river clean. Over the past 19 cleanups (1998-2019), our volunteers have removed more than 200,00 pounds of trash and recyclables (100 tons!) from 80 miles of rivers and creeks.

River Ambassadors
In 2012, we recognized that a one-day-a-year cleanup was no longer enough to deal with the ever-increasing number of river visitors. SYRCL’s River Ambassador program recruits and trains up to 40 volunteers to speak one-on-one with visitors at the four major crossings. Using a friendly, non-confrontational approach, River Ambassadors educate folks about the polluting impacts of trash and dog waste, the dangers of broken glass, and the catastrophic potential of wildfire. After five summers (2012-16), the River Ambassadors logged 4,513 hours on the river, spoke with 28,000 people about best stewardship practices, and picked up 30,000 pieces of garbage and dog waste.

Informing our Members
SYRCL strives to keep our members well informed and engaged. That’s why we publish an e-newsletter every two weeks and host an annual "State of the Yuba” forum as part of Earth Day celebrations. We want to be responsive to community interests, which is why we formed a Community Advisory Board, and conduct an extensive Community Survey during the update of these Strategic Action Plans.

This action plan calls for increasing the number of volunteers in all aspects of SYRCL’s work, and raising the visibility of Yuba River issues throughout the community to encourage increased stewardship.

SYRCL’s River Education program provides premier educational programs about Yuba salmon, water conservation, and watershed health to students and the larger community.

Salmon Education
Many Yuba watershed residents are unaware that up to 300,000 salmon once returned to the Yuba every year; now as few as 8,000 return in a given year. That’s why we want people to see for themselves the salmon that do make it back to spawn in the lower Yuba River. We offer rafting and walking Salmon Tours for the public and school groups to learn about the salmon life cycle first-hand. Nearly 500 students participate in our fall Salmon Tours – and we hope to see that number grow each year.

School Assemblies
Our program reaches students at their schools too. Our school assembly about water conservation, the "Great Water Mystery,” will reach over 6,000 students at nearly 70 assemblies in 2015. That’s up from 4,000 at 33 assemblies the year before thanks to funding from local and regional water agencies. We also have a new "water audit” program where they learn how to take action to conserve water at their very own schools. And should funding become available, we hope to re-launch our "Journey of the Salmon” assemblies for kids in the greater Yuba River watershed.

Field Science
Our "Field Science” Program is engaging high school students to protect the Yuba River. We take large groups of students on overnight field trips to learn about our watershed and assist with our meadow restoration and river monitoring efforts. This experiential learning opportunity allows them to participate in SYRCL’s work, collecting data on the ecology, biology, and hydrology of the Yuba watershed. They learn how removing invasive plants and restoring meadow health purifies and stores our water – important knowledge given the ongoing drought and diminishing snowpack.

Youth Environmentalist of the Year Scholarship
High school graduates with a commitment to the environment are encouraged to apply for SYRCL’s Scholarship. Since 2002, SYRCL has awarded a $4,000 college scholarship each year to a dedicated high school senior who is interested in pursuing a career in the natural sciences.

Ongoing community education about the Yuba watershed is critical to fulfilling SYRCL’s mission. With greater knowledge, our community members become more effective advocates on behalf of the river.

The Wild & Scenic Film Festival enters its 14th year with a strong foundation and a proven track record of success. What began as a two-day festival with one venue has grown to a five-day festival with more than nine film venues in both Nevada City and Grass Valley. In 2015, more than 6,000 people attended the festival from near and far with 60% of the audience coming from the local area.

The film festival aims to inspire environmental action. We strive for excellence among environmental film festivals by weaving together an exciting and layered program that combines cutting edge films, activist workshops, art, music, and celebrations. The festival is a boost to SYRCL’s revenues and our local economy through lodging, meals, and temporary hiring.

Film Festival On Tour
The Wild & Scenic Film Festival On Tour brings together the best of the home festival’s films in an evening program designed to provide other national and international organizations with a turn-key event to increase their membership, raise funds, and inspire activism in their community. Traveling to more than 150 venues each year, the On Tour program also raises funds to support SYRCL’s other programs.

This action plan seeks to ensure that the Wild & Scenic Film Festival remains sustainable and financially successful while presenting an excellent environmental film festival, one that educates the community about issues global and local while inspiring activism and love for the natural world.