My Nonprofit Reviews

SYRCL is an unusual, small-town, grass-roots environmental advocacy organization. It has been working to protect the rivers and streams and meadows in our huge Yuba River Watershed since 1983, when it formed to stop a dam on the South Yuba River. SYRCL's efforts have expanded to include the entire Watershed, a large area stretching down from Donner Summit and the headwaters, all the way to the Upper Central Valley where the main stem of the Yuba flows into rivers that feed the SF Bay Delta. I fish throughout this region and encounter SYRCL's restoration, protection, and forest health efforts on most of my back country excursions. One of my chief delights is the restoration work being done on the Lower Yuba River, home to a threatened Chinook Salmon and Steelhead run. SYRCL is collaborating with construction companies and adjoining county governments to bring back salmon spawning habitat and "un-channel" the Lower Yuba, which has seen gold mining and gravel extraction since the mid-19th Century. SYRCL's successes in attracting grants and partnerships make it an unusually influential guardian of and advocate for a free-flowing, ecologically healthy Watershed.