A non-profit organization with 15 employees performing a natural resource management mission, with an emphasis on water. Incubated for 25 years in the upper Feather River basin, Plumas Corporation has developed into a nationally recognized, innovative restoration organization. Leveraging federal, state, local and private partnerships forged in the Feather, Plumas Corporation has expanded to providing its restoration expertise to partners in the other major river basins of the Sierra Nevada and southern Cascade mountains, affecting the water supply of over 24 million Californians. Within the Feather River alone, over 70 projects have restored 56 miles of river and 4,800 acres of floodplain meadows. Recognizing that it is difficult to manage what’s not measured, Plumas Corporation and partners installed an innovative high-resolution nested watershed monitoring network that has been continuously collecting selected sub-watershed flow and temperature data for fifteen years. These long term monitoring data are beginning to tell the full story of the benefits of ecological water supply management. The work in the Feather River also includes coordinating forest health/fuel reduction projects on private parcels to complement federal and private industrial forestland efforts in minimizing the potential for a catastrophic wildfire. To ensure that future generations steward the resources that sustain the region, Plumas Corporation has also worked with partners to support a model place-based watershed education program. All of this work been supported through a variety of short term funding sources that Plumas Corporation has woven together into an exemplary fabric of sustainable water management.
