MENDOCINO CO., 9/18/25 – A new cannabis industry-led program has launched to control sediment and restore watersheds across Northern California, the nonprofit Cannabis for Conservation said Thursday.
The Arcata-based organization is dedicated to conserving wildlife and restoring habitats in cannabis-impacted areas. It recently received a grant from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife to implement the Sediment Reduction on Cannabis Farms in Priority Northern Watersheds program starting this month.
According to CFC, over the next three years the program will support projects on over 40 privately-owned properties in watersheds that feed into the Eel, Mad, Trinity and Mattole rivers.
The goal of the program is to reduce harmful sediment production and restore degraded watersheds, CFC said. All the areas to be served through the project have been impacted by cannabis cultivation and rural development.
“Contrary to popular belief, sedimentation from rural roads, eroding slopes, and bare unvegetated soils is one of the leading causes of aquatic habitat degradation and water quality in the state,” said Jackee Riccio, executive director & co-founder of CFC. “By stabilizing roads, restoring streambanks, and replanting native vegetation, we are helping rivers run cleaner and colder, which is critical for salmonids and amphibians already on the brink.”
The CFC grant was awarded through the CDFW’s Cannabis Restoration Grant Program, which is funded through cannabis tax revenue. The grant program funds projects across the state that promote ecosystem restoration.
Cannabis cultivators and environmental groups, contractors and regulators work collaboratively across 105 cannabis sites in 41 watersheds, including in Mendocino County.
Projects include upgrading stream culverts to allow for improved streambed functions and species migration; fish-bearing stream bed and bank restorations; decommissioning onstream ponds that impede flow and contribute to sediment; and revegetating soils with native plants.
The land that will be impacted by the project is privately-owned, said Vanessa Salamon, project manager for Cannabis for Conservation. “Restoration on private lands, including those historically used for cannabis, is one of the most cost-effective and impactful strategies for watershed health,” she said. “We’re working directly with landowners to turn past impacts into future solutions.”
So your fixing private roads & getting rid of some ponding areas. Planting plants. Water sheds at MRC has had to have biologist and conservationist specialist, to care for water sheds and road maintenance. They have an entire department for this. Does this group… have those specialty people hired for each site? Or does any contractor…owner of property, get to do the work? It’s mind boggling that farmers are getting money to maintain the water sheds. Truthfully, it was cannabis, that destroyed so many and drought. But I have thought that if cannabis farmers actually individually, helped be environmentally conscious…it would do more, than a large corporation could do. Just where is the scientist or biologist oversight, so no abuse of the funds, would be my big question?
Nitrogen runoff is what needs to be mitigated as the 10ft burdens that line the hills above our beautiful creeks and rivers have caused algae blooms that could kill. I also hold my breath on any financial assistance from an industry that promises billion dollar economy with pocket change results when it comes to claimed financial status. So here’s hoping Phillip Morris takes over the green spurge and the industry evolves into well monitored agriculture like every other commercial crop.
So now, dope growers are saving the environment? Give me a break….another nonsense nonprofit scam. I grew up in Mendocino County and have seen the damage done. WHAT’S being done about the illegal pot farms?
Hopefully they look at the old mill property in willow creek talk about runoff from grow site. Any true local knows about the washout straight into the trinity river jus saying