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)

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