The Mattole Restoration Council is a membership organization of landowners and residents in the Mattole River watershed of northern California. MRC's mission is the restoration of natural systems in the Mattole River watershed and the maintenance of sustainable levels of health and productivity with regard to forests, fisheries, soil, and native flora and fauna.


Water Conservation Effort Begins in the Mattole
As the prerequisite for life, water is an important substance for all living beings. When local supplies are polluted or reduced, we are moved to action. The lack of flowing water in the mainstem Mattole River during the last three summers prompted the Mattole Restoration Council (MRC) to begin a concerted water conservation effort. Our goal is to educate and involve local residents in reducing their water use during the low flow period and to therefore reduce impacts to fish and other aquatic organisms. This summer, the MRC offered free water system inspections and tune-ups. During the confidential inspection, an MRC representative visits your home, examines your water system for efficiency and checks for leaks. Participants then receive advice about how to save water, and are eligible to receive free or reduced cost water conservation devices such as tank shut-off valves, low-flow shower heads, and sink aerators. (read more)

Lectures and Workshops Focus on the Mattole Estuary
May 11, 2010
The spring of 2010 brings a renewed focus on the Mattole River estuary among folks in this coastal watershed. A series of lectures and workshops has been underway thanks to a partnership between the Mattole Restoration Council and the Mattole Salmon Group, with funding from the U.S. EPA. The goal of the lecture and workshop series is to share information and learn about estuary restoration efforts, methods, and results. Many exciting new ideas about estuary ecology have kept participants engaged. (read more)


MRC's Good Roads, Clear Creeks Program Takes Streambank Stabilization to a New Level: Multigenerational Effort Tackles 16 Landslides in One Stream Reach
December 18, 2009
This summer the Mattole Restoration Council's Good Roads, Clear Creeks program (GRCC) completed a large project in Panther Creek, a tributary to Mattole Canyon Creek. Mattole Canyon flows into the Mattole River about a mile downstream from Ettersburg and has been one of the tributaries hardest hit by sediment impairments over the last half-century. Panther Creek was targeted for restoration work because in addition to roads crying for improved drainage through culvert upgrades and armored fords, it contained a number of treatable landslides that were contributing extensive sediments to the system and wreaking havoc on the riparian vegetation. With the headwaters of Panther Creek under single ownership, it also boasts a healthy flow of water throughout the late summer months and is home to impressive numbers of steelhead. (read more)


Pulling Weeds Where It Matters Most: Invasive Plants Projects on Conserved Properties
August 19, 2009
"My first trip to the Mattole Valley was in 1949, when there were still old-growth forests throughout the watershed; where there were still an abundance of fish in the river; when the river was still deep and cold and the channel narrow. And I was there after the clear-cutting and saw the devastating results of that destructive practice; and I never wanted it to happen again on any of my land." (read more)


Shaded Fuel Break Completed
April 15, 2009
In mid-January 2009, an MRC forestry crew "drove home the golden spike," signaling completion of the Telegraph Ridge Shaded Fuel Break. Running the entire length of Ettersburg Road, the project encompassed 5.8 miles and approximately 74 acres. Along with completed shaded fuel breaks on Wilder Ridge, Prosper Ridge and Panther Gap, this represents a major accomplishment towards the goal of creating a regionally-strategic network of fuel breaks. Funded through the National Fire Plan, these projects complement well work done through the MRC's popular Fire Safe Forests and Homes program, which has created defensible space from wildfire around homes as well as shaded fuel breaks along associated access roads. (read more)


Community-based Forestry: Community Restoration Begets an Approach to Community Forestry
December 31, 2008
When the Mattole Restoration Council was founded in 1983, it grew out of the founders' realization that salmon don't just live in rivers, they live in watersheds. What's more, those watersheds aren't just made up of forests, prairies, and wildlife--they are home to people, too, the only species able to make a conscious effort on the salmon's behalf. For any restoration effort to gain traction and staying power, it would need to be rooted in an approach that invited all landowners and residents to participate in whatever way they could: a community-wide approach to restoration. (read more)


Good Roads, Clear Creeks Program Update
December 31, 2008
The Mattole Restoration Council's Good Roads, Clear Creeks (GRCC) Program completed another successful work season this year, stabilizing an amazing 106,832 cubic yards of sediment which was threatening to enter the Mattole River and fill in the pools needed for salmon and other aquatic species. GRCC replaced and upgraded 41 old culverts with new, properly-installed culverts, installed 47 armored fords on seasonal access roads that were not maintained regularly, we also decommissioned 23 stream crossings, putting three different road segments to bed. Lastly, GRCC also completed several streambank projects, stabilizing over a thousand feet of streambank with a combination of bioengineering and rock work. (read more)


Comprehensive Watershed Restoration
September 2, 2008
The Mattole Restoration Council engages in an array of projects to heal the landscape for the benefit of the wildlife and people who make the North Coast's 300-square-mile Mattole River watershed home. While much of our work focuses on improving habitat for imperiled salmon, those efforts have beneficial side-effects for human landowners and residents. Today, the MRC is actively working through a number of programs to comprehensively accomplish watershed restoration. (read more)


Mattole Restoration Council: MRC Working Toward Good Roads, Clear Creeks
November 15, 2006
The main objective of the Mattole Restoration Council's (MRC) Good Roads Clear Creeks (GRCC) program is to reduce sediment runoff that is harming salmon habitat, while improving private roads. This season has been particularly exciting and productive, with restoration projects completed at more than a hundred sites in the Mattole River watershed, from Four Corners to Ettersburg. These projects generally consist of storm-proofing road crossings, although they often incorporate stream channel stabilization upstream or downstream from the crossing. The projects will reduce future sediment delivery into the Mattole River and its tributaries, helping to obtain the ultimate goal of healthy salmon runs. (read more)


Mattole Restoration Council: MRC Plans for Riparian Conifers
April 28, 2004
Ecosystems are composed of inter-related functions and parts that create a larger collective whole. Restoration groups in the Mattole watershed, working in partnership, also create a larger whole. While it is beyond the scope of any one organization to address each of the restoration issues effectively, the joint effort of the Mattole River and Range Partnership is enabling Mattole groups to rapidly propel our important work forward. In 2002, the Mattole Restoration Council helped form the Mattole River and Range Partnership to coalesce our efforts with the Mattole Salmon Group, Middle Mattole Conservancy, Lower Mattole Fire Safe Council, and Sanctuary Forest, in hopes we will accomplish even greater work as a collective force. (read more)


Good Roads, Clear Creeks
March 1, 2003
Most of the time that restoration practitioners talk about roads and their impacts on water quality and salmon habitat in our North Coast creeks and rivers, they are talking about how roads handle the heavy rainfalls that we often see at this time of year. How well water can drain off of a road surface is as important a consideration as the culverts and bridges that carry creeks under our roads. For salmon habitat, the main issue is how much dirt (sediment) is carried off of the road surface and fill along with that water. (read more)


Mattole Restoration Council
January 30, 2001
After twenty years or more of intensive bioregional efforts, the watershed concept seems to have grown strong roots here in the Mattole. People talk about the watershed as the context for education, community planning, their neighbors, and everyday life. (read more)



Contact Information

Email: mrc@mattole.org
Web Site: www.mattole.org
Phone: (707) 629-3514 - Fax: (707) 629-3577
P.O. Box 160 Petrolia, CA 95558