The Roots Program: Connecting People Through Wildlife Habitat Restoration on Working Landscapes

11/18/2025
By: Bonnie Eyestone, Working Lands Group Director, Point Blue Conservation Science

Introduction 

Since 1992, Point Blue Conservation Science (founded as Point Reyes Bird Observatory in 1965) has been partnering with private landowners in the agricultural community to restore habitats and build ecological resilience through thoughtful land stewardship. 

Through programs like STRAW (“Students and Teachers Restoring A Watershed”) and the Working Lands Partner Biologist and Innovation Group, we’ve partnered with Resource Conservation Districts, the Natural Resources Conservation Service, TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation, nonprofits, tribes, farmers and ranchers to improve ecological outcomes and build habitat on thousands of acres of private working lands across California. 

In 2022, Point Blue leveraged the collective experience and strengths of the many groups we work with for a partnership with the State of California’s Wildlife Conservation Board (WCB) using a novel block grant model known as the “Roots Program”. This program funds dozens of small-scale wildlife habitat restoration projects throughout the state. Through this program, we also lead an effort to engage private lands to help reach California’s 30×30 goals. 

The Roots Program supports community-led wildlife restoration projects for on working lands in California with the primary goal of increasing historically underserved communities’ and individuals’ access to conservation implementation funding. Point Blue defines working lands broadly: landscapes that are stewarded for food, fiber, and cultural resources, including rural and urban farms, annual and perennial row crops, vineyards, orchards, livestock grazing lands, non-industrial forestlands, and school and community gardens.

Projects and Impact

The three overarching priorities of the Roots Program are:

1. Maximize the benefits of working landscapes to wildlife, pollinators and fish by providing technical and financial implementation assistance to land stewards. 
2. Focus resources toward communities who are currently underserved due to both historic and current structural barriers to conservation. We intend at least 50% of funding to be implemented in partnership with Native American Tribes, disadvantaged communities, and underserved individuals.
3. Prepare California’s working landscapes for the increased impacts of climate change by catalyzing community-led conservation that directly engages a broad spectrum of Californians around the value of land stewardship for wildlife conservation.

Leveraging our networks of STRAW Restoration professionals and Working Lands Partner Biologists, we have funded 114 projects, with 68% of those participants identifying as historically underserved and 49% of the projects occurring in a disadvantaged or severely disadvantaged community. To date, ~$15.3M have been awarded to these habitat implementation projects, set to be completed by December 31, 2026.

The Roots Program spans 39 counties from Modoc to San Diego from the Central Coast to the Great Basin, and the projects are just as varied as the landscapes on which they occur. Many of the conservation practices are multi-benefit and grounded in regenerative agriculture principles. To appreciate the breadth of work underway across California, we will take a narrative tour of the state from north to south.

In the northeast corner of the state in Modoc and Lassen Counties, partner biologists have co-created riparian restoration projects with ranchers and hydrologists. Utilizing process based restoration techniques, such as beaver dam analogues (BDAs), meadows are rehydrated to create a nurturing environment for riparian plant restoration, which builds soil carbon while supporting wildlife dependent on these sensitive ecosystems. These restoration techniques, paired with prescribed grazing management, allow for both raising livestock and wildlife restoration in a harmonious and sustainable way.  

Heading west towards the coast,the Roots Program, along with partners in Humboldt county, has co-funded portions of a large-scale fish-passage project that is critical for floodplain restoration and salmonid habitat. In Humboldt and Mendocino counties, the Roots Program has funded multiple oak woodland enhancement projects aimed at reducing the impact of Douglas-firs that outcompete native oaks, encroach on open woodlands, alter the woodland structure, and reduce biodiversity. These projects are in-line with state priorities of improving and maintaining healthy forests and woodlands.

Between the crests of the Coast Range and Sierra Nevada mountains, partner biologists and STRAW project managers are working together to bring watershed education to local schools, whose students will take their classroom learnings into the field to help restore riparian habitat on a working cattle ranch. In addition to working with schools in this region, the Roots Program has funded the removal of nearly 10 miles of hazardous fence in critical migration corridors, helping protect deer and other wildlife often entangled in derelict fences. These efforts complement the numerous oak woodland restoration projects—from thinning of encroaching understory shrubs and pine trees to the simple act of planting acorns—throughout the Sierra Foothills as maintaining healthy oak woodlands is critical to over 300 species of wildlife in California. 

Continuing west to the salad bowl of the Central Coast, the STRAW Team is leading efforts to bring students to the fields to build on-farm riparian and pollinator habitat. And in the San Francisco Bay Area, the STRAW Team is working with students to help farmers and ranchers implement the multi-benefit practices identified in carbon farm plans, which will both boost soil health and restore habitats for sensitive species around the Bay. These particular projects are  wonderful ways to engage young people with  agricultural communities early so that they can discover new connections to the land where their families live and work. 

Traveling south of the Tehachapi Mountains, partner biologists in Southern California are working with urban farmers to improve native floral diversity for pollinators and beneficial insects, and grow the number of nesting and perching structures for owls and raptors to increase capacity for natural pest control. With support from the Roots Program, students from Los Angeles School District are gaining hands-on experience on a local organic family farm as they dive into the synergistic relationship between agriculture and land stewardship.By installing habitat features for wildlife and pollinators, students are actively contributing to community-based conservation. 

A special element of the Roots Program has been a commitment to working with local tribes, non-profit tribal organizations, and land trusts to ensure restoration work is done in consultation and coordination with local Indigenous communities. Respecting and listening to the knowledge of tribal partners allows us to learn from, and support, tribes and their continued stewardship of culturally significant plants. 

Across all of our projects, Point Blue strives to encourage local communities to participate in restoration activities, demonstration days or field trips, and learn how careful land stewardship supports wildlife.  As we highly value rigorous monitoring to gauge the effectiveness and durability of our projects, all projects include a tailored monitoring plan paired with a social science study to assess the drivers of durable restoration projects on working lands and the impact of centering local communities in restoration work. 

Roots Program has been tremendously meaningful to the staff at Point Blue and our community partners. We thank the Wildlife Conservation Board for the opportunity to create the Roots Program and thank all of the partners over the past decades who have helped us learn and grow, and who support our work to make a positive impact on the ecological health of our state. We hope to carry the Roots Program beyond this first block grant through new funding opportunities. To learn more about the Roots Program and ways to connect, please visit our story map or visit our website to view the short Roots Film. 

To learn how you can support our work, contact Bonnie Eyestone, Working Lands Group Director at beyestone@pointblue.org; John Parodi, STRAW Program Director at jparodi@pointblue.org; or Liz Chamberlin, Director of Innovation at lchamberlin@pointblue.org.