State grant to support restoration efforts on the Salinas River.

The Salinas River is an embattled water body. It's over-tapped, a long-term problem that's exacerbated in drought years; it's heavily polluted; it's heavily litigated.

There's one area where growers, environmental groups and regulators have partnered in an effort to improve the river from an ecosystem standpoint, flood protection and to minimize harm to farms the abut the riverbank.  

And they just got a boost thanks to a $276,000 grant from the California Coastal Conservancy. 

The grant, announced Friday, goes to the Nature Conservancy, Monterey County Water Resources Agency, Grower-Shipper Association and the Resource Conservation District of Monterey County.

They'll use the funds for planning, design and permitting for removal of vegetation along overgrown sections of the Salinas River. 

It's part of the channel maintenance program, which green-lights removal of dense vegetation along portions of the river.

The motivation for farmers and landowners is to clear the way for heavy flows if and when rain comes; they hope to protect their fields (and also public works like bridges and roads in some places) from flooding if the water pools behind fallen trees and overgrown invasive plants.

In the process of developing a channel maintenance program, environmental groups spoke out against a clear-cutting approach. The Nature Conservancy partnered with growers to develop a plan that's much more targeted vegetation removal, and keeps more plants intact. 

The plan they came up with was designed both to protect wildlife habitat along the river, and also to make a bigger, more helpful impact on flood control. 

Growers have been doing pilot projects, with help from TNC's director of working lands, Jennifer Biringer. 

“The Salinas Valley is a critical place to develop solutions for farmers and nature,” Biringer said in a statement. 

"We are learning how to address pain points like flood risk and designing ways to reduce it that also help wildlife.”

A second grant of $75,000 from the Coastal Conservancy will fund two-dimensional hydrological modeling of flood-prone segments of the Salinas River. The Nature Conservancy and partners will use the model to better understand which practices actually reduce flood risk.   

Earlier modeling by TNC showed that just straight-up bulldozing vegetation might actually exacerbate flooding, by allowing water to move faster.