Policy & Funding Resources

This report provides a roadmap with five strategic recommendations for federal agencies to unlock the potential of nature-based solutions and highlights bold Executive Office of the President actions designed to pave the way. Importantly, these recommendations position the United States to prioritize nature-based solutions as go-to options in fighting climate change, nature loss and inequities.

The recommendations in this report are some of the best opportunities we have to meet climate goals and grow climate-ready communities, economies, and sectors. All have a role to play in turning these recommendations into action. President Biden and his National Climate Task Force are in a position to act boldly and lead adoption of these recommendations, advancing naturebased solutions as powerful tools that the nation and the world need now.

Permitting and environmental compliance is acknowledged as an onerous, time consuming and costly component of meadow restoration projects and is recognized as a bottleneck for implementation on the ground. There is a need to improve the permitting processes for meadow restoration in order to increase the pace and scale of restoration to meet the targets of the Sierra Meadows Partnership and state and federal agencies, and to achieve benefits at the regional scale.

This white paper is the result of three years of knowledge gathering by the Sierra Meadows Partnership (SMP) Regulatory Workgroup and draws on the collective experience of Sierra Meadows Partnership practitioners implementing projects for more than 10 years. The SMP Regulatory Workgroup convened meetings between meadow restoration practitioners and regulatory agency staff, reviewed literature, participated in high-level initiatives including the CDFW-led Restoration Leaders Committee (RLC), and coordinated with other groups including Sustainable Conservation who are working to streamline permitting in California.

Our lands are a critical yet underutilized sector in California’s fight to achieve carbon neutrality and build resilience to the impacts of climate change. Healthy land can sequester and store carbon emissions, limit future carbon emissions into the atmosphere, protect people and nature from the impacts of climate change, and build resilience to future climate risks. Unhealthy lands have the opposite effect – they release more greenhouse gases than they store, increase climate risks to people and nature, and are more vulnerable to future climate change impacts.

This Strategy:

• Defines California’s eight natural and working landscapes.

• Describes how these lands can deliver on our climate change goals.

• Highlights priority nature-based climate solutions to address the climate crisis.

• Explores opportunities for regional climate smart land management.

• Identifies options to track nature-based climate action and measure progress.

• Outlines nearly 200 opportunities to scale climate smart land management across regions and sectors in California.

This annual report reviews the activities and performance of the Bay Restoration Regulatory Integration Team (BRRIT) through April 2021, and incorporates relevant information from the initial performance memo provided to the San Francisco Bay Restoration Authority (SFBRA) Governing Board in May 2020 (May 2020 Memo). 

The BRRIT mandate is to increase permitting efficiency for multi-benefit habitat restoration projects and associated flood management and public access infrastructure in San Francisco Bay.

The second Cutting Green Tape Exchange took place on September 29, 2021. During the two-hour session facilitated by Shawn Johnson, we examined progress we’ve collectively made towards the recommendations in the Regulatory Efficiencies report, engaged with leadership on topics important to the restoration community, and highlighted feedback from practitioners on how to continue increasing the pace and scale of ecological restoration in California. It featured welcoming remarks and updates on the interagency-led Cutting Green Tape Initiative from California's Secretary for Natural Resources Wade Crowfoot, Deputy Secretary for Habitat & Biodiversity Jen Norris, and more, including:

• Sharon Farrell (Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy & CLSN Steering Committee)
• Chad Dibble (CA Department of Fish & Wildlife) Phil Crader (State Water Resources Board)
• Madeline Cavalieri (CA Coastal Commission) Matt Clifford (Trout Unlimited)
• Shelana deSilva (SdS Consulting & CLSN Steering Committee)
• Darcie Goodman Collins (League to Save Lake Tahoe)
• Jessica Morse (Deputy Secretary for Forest Resources Management)
• Patrick Wright (Governor's Wildfire & Forest Resilience Task Force)
• Kellyx Nelson (CLSN Steering Committee)
• Kristopher Tjernell (Department of Water Resources)

On April 6, 2021, the California Landscape Stewardship Network hosted a virtual event on Cutting Green Tape that brought together colleagues from California Natural Resources Agency and restoration practitioners from across the state to share updates and engage around future efforts for the initiative.

Speakers and panelists included:

• Wade Crowfoot, California's Secretary for Natural Resources
• Jen Norris, Deputy Secretary for Habitat and Biodiversity
• Chad Dibble, Deputy Director of Ecosystem Conservation Division, CDFW
• Paul Hann, Chief of Watersheds and Wetlands, State Water Resources Control Board
• Erika Lovejoy, Program Director for Accelerating Restoration at Sustainable Conservation
• Kellyx Nelson, Executive Director of San Mateo RCD and CLSN Steering Committee

The conversation was moderated by Shawn Johnson.

The California State Coastal Conservancy hosted a webinar on 2/3/21 with Kellyx Nelson and Jim Robins about the Cutting Green Tape initiative and why it is needed to protect our natural resources. Ms. Nelson and Mr. Robins are two of the lead authors of the Cutting Green Tape: Regulatory Efficiencies for a Resilient Environment report (November 2020) and discuss the need for changes in our regulatory processes and present the recommendations in the report. With Trish Chapman, Central Coast Regional Manager, State Coastal Conservancy.

Connecting landscape-scale conservation partnerships through a national network will be essential to achieving the Biden Administration’s ambitious goals around biodiversity (“30 x 30” initiative), equity, and climate change. While some attempts have been made to coordinate landscape conservation efforts across the country, a robust, cohesive, nationwide network is not in effect today. We provide recommendations for building back a better national framework that supports landscape conservation efforts across the United States.

How can we increase the pace and scale of the ecological restoration and land stewardship necessary for climate resilient lands and water? One way is to change the permitting and regulation requirements so they encourage the “good” instead of just preventing the “bad.” That’s one of the goals of the Cutting Green Tape initiative which launched last year with a paper, Cutting Green Tape: Regulatory Efficiencies for a Resilient Environment. Watch this conversation with Sharon Farrell (Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy) and Kellyx Nelson (San Mateo Resource Conservation District) - both leaders of the California Landscape Stewardship Network - about what this means for you and our collective effort to build climate resilient lands and communities.

Learn more about TOGETHER Bay Area at www.TogetherBayArea.org

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