California urgently needs ecological restoration to reconnect fragmented habitats, improve water supply and quality, and build resilience to climate change. These efforts are essential — not just for protecting wildlife, but for supporting healthy, thriving communities.
For over 20 years, Sustainable Conservation has partnered with government agencies and restoration practitioners to accelerate the pace and scale of ecological restoration by developing and advancing expedited permitting tools. These tools create a more efficient regulatory path for habitat restoration, distinct from traditional development permitting, and ensure that vital environmental safeguards remain in place.
Investing in faster, more cost-effective regulatory processes for restoration pays dividends for both ecosystems and the communities that depend on them. This blog series will spotlight recent and upcoming restoration projects that leverage these efficient permitting pathways, showcasing how scaling up restoration is possible — and how improved permitting is helping to make it happen.
About this Project
Before (left) and after (right) restoration implementation on the alcove and tidal wetland complex on the Ten Mile River South Fork, PCI Ecological
The Ten Mile River, flowing through coastal Mendocino County, provides vital habitat for California’s endangered coho salmon. The Nature Conservancy (TNC) has been leading habitat restoration efforts in the Lower Ten Mile River watershed for over a decade. Their latest project, the South Fork Ten Mile Habitat Enhancement — Phase 2, represents a significant step in revitalizing key salmon habitat and restoring natural floodplain functions. In addition to the vital habitat they provide, healthy floodplains are very effective at mitigating flood risk by providing a natural place for excess water to spill. In this case, a restored and connected floodplain can reduce the impact of potentially dangerous flows on the Ten Mile River during a storm, while providing access to slow water and rich feeding grounds for salmon. Strategically restoring floodplains like this are essential for overall watershed resilience as California continues to see more frequent and intense atmospheric rivers during the rainy season.
Project planning and permitting began in 2022, backed by funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW). Construction was completed in the summer of 2024 with support from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the State Coastal Conservancy. TNC collaborated with PCI Ecological for engineering and permitting, and Wylatti Resource Management for on-the-ground implementation.
Building on Past Success
Left: Overview of project design, PCI Ecological. Right: Project site map, PCI Ecological
This project extends habitat restoration efforts downstream from Phases 1A and 1B, completed in 2018 and 2020, respectively. These earlier efforts successfully introduced a range of habitat enhancement features, including large wood structures, side channels, and seasonally flooded wetlands, all designed to create a more consistent and protected river environment for juvenile salmon.
The latest phase expands these efforts to a broader reach of the river, providing:
Expanded Floodplain Connectivity – A 1.6-acre wetland, previously dry, was excavated to reconnect with the main channel, and now floods with daily tidal cycles and storm events.
Alcove and Pond Development – A long, deep alcove and shallow pond now connect an existing seasonal wetland to the river, providing essential slow-water habitat for juvenile salmon.
Large Wood Structures – Multiple log structures were installed to enhance channel complexity and create refuge areas.
Refined Access to Winter Habitat – Inlet modifications to previously restored sites now allow salmon to access critical rearing areas more frequently, even during drought conditions.
The Ten Mile River saw record-breaking returns of Central California Coast coho salmon over the 2023-2024 spawning season, with 5,574 fish returning — surpassing NOAA’s recovery target of 3,700 for the first time. This milestone highlights the effectiveness of the habitat restoration efforts, as monitoring indicates that coho using restored floodplain sites grow quickly, increasing their chances of survival as they make their way to the ocean and back again.
Leveraging New Permitting Possibilities
Photos clockwise, starting at top:
Project reach in 2022 prior to implementation, credit PCI Ecological
Completed tidal wetland complex in October 2024, credit TNC
Wood structure installation, credit TNC
Construction in June 2024, credit TNC
This project used two new permitting pathways that were developed through Sustainable Conservation’s Statewide Restoration Permitting Initiative with the State Water Board and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. These authorizations were designed to align well for larger, more complex projects by coordinating project types and conditions. Importantly, they complement the longstanding permitting pathways that have supported a wide range of restoration efforts along California’s coast — from small-scale habitat improvements to multi-site projects — making the process more efficient across the board. TNC also worked closely with regulatory agencies, utilizing NOAA’s Programmatic Biological Opinion for the Central Coast and the Coastal Commission Federal Consistency Determination for projects on California’s Central and North Coasts, pathways that have enabled more restoration on the coast for over a decade.
TNC North Coast Restoration Project Manager Peter van de Burgt emphasized that this spectrum of permitting options for restorationists empowered his team to focus on what mattered most: ecological outcomes.
This Project went from concept to construction in just two years, and our restoration design was able to focus on maximizing ecological benefits at the site without having to narrow things down to meet permit-driven size limitations. Peter van de Burgt, TNC North Coast Restoration Project Manager
Sustainable Conservation’s Accelerating Restoration team is thrilled to see essential restoration projects such as the South Fork Ten Mile Habitat Enhancement increase their impact by using a full suite of restoration-specific permitting pathways. After many years of strategic partnerships and methodical progress to put habitat restoration on a more efficient regulatory path, it is extraordinarily validating to see the on-the-ground work that has ensued. As PCI Ecological’s Principal Environmental Planner, Carrie Lukacic, noted, “Having a menu of protection measures for restoration activities that are agreed upon in advance by permitting agencies allowed my team to quickly identify the measures needed for the project. It saves time and allows more funds to go toward implementation of great restoration work.”
Permitting pathways used (efficient permits are hyperlinked)
Section 106 concurrence from the State Historic Preservation Office
The Road Ahead
The success of the South Fork Ten Mile Habitat Enhancement project marks a critical milestone in coho salmon recovery efforts. However, TNC’s work on the Ten Mile River is far from over. With funding from NOAA’s Transformational Habitat Restoration and Coastal Resilience grant, TNC is expanding its restoration efforts across the North Coast, including projects on the Navarro and Garcia Rivers. Future projects in the Ten Mile watershed will continue to build on past successes, restoring additional floodplain and in-stream habitat to further support coho salmon and other native species.
By restoring the natural processes of the Ten Mile River, TNC and its partners are not only supporting a keystone species but also enhancing the resilience of the entire watershed. These efforts showcase how strategic, science-based restoration, and the expedited permits that enabled them, can help California’s imperiled salmon populations recover while benefiting broader ecosystem health and climate resilience.
Photos of restoration sites on the Garcia River in Mendocino County, credit Katie Haldeman
