At its Aug. 28 quarterly meeting, the Wildlife Conservation Board approved approximately $10.7 million in grants to help restore and protect fish and wildlife habitat throughout California.

Some of the 16 approved projects will benefit fish and wildlife – including some endangered species – while others will provide public access to important natural resources.

Several projects will also demonstrate the importance of protecting working landscapes that integrate economic, social and environmental stewardship practices beneficial to the environment, landowners and the local community.

Funding for these projects comes from a combination of sources including the Habitat Conservation Fund and bond measures approved by voters to help preserve and protect California's natural resources.

Funded projects include:

– A $505,000 grant to Environmental Defense Fund for a cooperative project with two private landowners to plant up to 325 acres of multi-benefit breeding and migratory habitat for monarch butterflies in two maturing pecan orchards. This project is on privately owned land north of Colusa in Colusa County and southeast of Knights Landing in Yolo County.

– A $750,000 grant to the California Association of Resource Conservation Districts to administer a block grant to Resource Conservation Districts to implement monarch butterfly and pollinator habitat improvements on privately owned land in various counties.

– A $499,000 grant to the Sacramento County Department of Regional Parks to enhance public access at the American River Ranch Interpretive Center in the City of Rancho Cordova in Sacramento County.

– A $2 million grant to the John Muir Land Trust for a cooperative project with the East Bay Regional Park District to acquire approximately 281 acres for the protection of wildlife habitat and several special-status wildlife species and to help expand the Bay Area Ridge Trail Corridor near the City of Martinez in Contra Costa County.

– A $1.9 million grant and two U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Habitat Conservation Plan Land Acquisition grants to the Rivers & Lands Conservancy, to acquire approximately 34 acres of land in the City of Colton in San Bernardino County to protect and preserve the Delhi Sands flower-loving fly.

– A $390,000 grant to the Resource Conservation District of the Santa Monica Mountains for a cooperative project with Caltrans, the Santa Monica Mountains Conservancy and the Mountains Recreation and Conservation Authority, to improve wildlife's ability to cross U.S. Highway 101. This project will restore and enhance an existing wildlife undercrossing approximately nine miles east of Thousand Oaks in Los Angeles County that was damaged in the 2019 Woolsey Fire.

– A $1.6 million grant to the Endangered Habitats Conservancy to acquire in fee approximately 42 acres of land to protect habitat that implements or helps establish Natural Community Conservation Plans near the City of San Diego in San Diego County.

For more information about the WCB please visit www.wcb.ca.gov .