A Position Paper by The North Coast Restoration Jobs Initiative of the Alliance for Sustainable Jobs and the Environment
March 2003

Senate Bill 297

Senate Bill (S.B.) 297, introduced by Senator Chesbro (D-Arcata), is an important step towards bolstering current watershed restoration efforts. The bill will expand the available length of restoration project contracts up to five years when appropriate. The legislation will apply to projects funded under the Coastal Watershed Salmon Habitat Program administered by the Department of Fish and Game.

Although restoration has been occurring in some regions of California for more than two decades, efforts are relatively nascent in many communities and represent a significant step toward the recovery of listed salmonid species. Current restoration projects constitute an impressive shift towards ecosystem recovery and community revitalization at a time when such efforts are most needed throughout California. The modest reform offered by S.B. 297 will build upon an impressive foundation of efforts to restore California’s watersheds. As restoration experience increases, practitioners have identified opportunities for additional improvements in the process. Legislation to extend the available length of contracts is one such improvement that can result in positive reform to watershed restoration in California.

Many practitioners and advocates of community-based restoration efforts have cited extending the available length of state funding contracts as one legislative change that would provide needed options to improve watershed restoration. Several state and federal agencies such as the California Coastal Conservancy, the United States Forest Service, and the Bureau of Land Management, have already expanded their procurement and granting policies to allow opportunities for longer-term contracting. British Columbia, Canada has also been at the forefront of the five-year contract model, pursuing longer-term restoration projects for nearly a decade.

Why is Senate Bill 297 necessary?

Currently, most watershed restoration in California is implemented using two or three-year contracts that ultimately allow for one or two seasons of field work, at best. These short-duration contracts result in an abbreviated work season of three to four months in a given year. The narrow work window is largely due to regulatory requirements for listed species and unforeseen weather events.

Short-duration contracts are not as conducive to implementing a comprehensive watershed recovery plan in a given area, including monitoring, up-slope stabilization and road decommissioning, in-stream habitat improvements, revegetation, and other restorative needs. State and federal agencies have indicated interest in pursuing restoration projects based on watershed-level and basin-level assessments. Short-duration contracts disallow opportunities for longer periods of monitoring and the ability to refine restoration projects while they are in progress.

Short-duration contracts have the potential to result in less than optimum ecological results, posing more risk of adverse impacts over shorter periods of time. This is especially true with heavy equipment-based projects that move large volumes of soil in a short period of time. Such projects can lead to a large initial delivery of sediment into already impaired watersheds. This has been a continuing concern since the inception of this type of process. The inevitable short-term deposition resulting from road removal and upgrading projects will cause minimal damage to salmonid spawning and rearing habitat when released more gradually.

Road decommissioning and upgrading as well as other heavy equipment-based projects are essential to watershed restoration, helping to mitigate long-term sediment contributions to salmonid habitat and improving fish passage into spawning refugia. It is imperative that these projects continue.
Finally, short-duration contracts present several barriers to the restoration workforce. According to Denny Scott, with the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Advisory Council member to the University of Oregon’s Ecosystem Workforce Program, “This [single-task] method of contracting has negative impacts on the environment and on workers…There is insufficient emphasis on the quality of work being performed, it discourages long-duration employment, skill upgrading, and advancement…and it fails to promote a stable and readily available workforce.”

Environmental Benefits of Senate Bill 297

S.B. 297 will enhance the environmental quality of watershed restoration projects. Five-year contracts will create a contracting process that will be able to address a variety of ecological needs in a single, more complex project, allowing efforts to be developed with a greater benefit to key ecosystems. They can have broader scope and facilitate greater ecological improvements overall. S.B. 297 will also facilitate project monitoring and the ability to alter and refine field techniques while the project is in-progress.

Although it is unrealistic to restore an entire watershed in just five years, five-year contracts will provide a more manageable and sustainable foundation for communities to pursue their restoration goals. Given the dire condition of many California watersheds and salmon runs, these programmatic approaches are critical to progressing towards large-scale ecological recovery.

Fragmented approaches are not adequate. Dividing larger projects into a series of smaller contracts throughout several years or more has several drawbacks. The most frequently cited drawback is that funding is not secure and has the potential to dry up mid-project, leaving projects incomplete. Additionally, community-based restoration groups are only able to make investments in training, personal, and infrastructure based on a consistent work plan. Without this consistency, these organizations are challenged with a continual “start and stop” dynamic. It also further alienates community organizations from participating in watershed restoration because of uncertainties in funding, a lack of programmatic continuity, and the inability to make longer-term organizational plans.

New findings from the Interagency Watersheds Task Force report, led by the Resources Agency and the State Water Resources Control Board, Addressing the Need to Protect California’s Watersheds: Working with Local Partnerships highlights the importance of community-based restoration groups. According to the report, “Locally-based collaborative efforts at the watershed and basin scale serve to compliment the existing programmatic and regulatory structure of the State…Frequently these community partnerships are the driving force behind getting state agencies to coordinate programs. Better and quicker management of state resources at the watershed level is frequently the result.” Projects with longer timelines can provide more consistent and realistic work plans for these community-based restoration groups. In order to support these groups, provisions must be made to allow for a consistent work plan.

S.B. 297 also allows for higher-quality work with fewer risks to the environment. Five-year contracts allow high-risk projects, most notably those involving large volumes of earthwork, to be appropriately planned and implemented over a longer period of time. Currently, the maximum allowable length for Department of Fish and Game contracting is two years, with a third year allowed only as an extension. The first year of the contract is usually absorbed securing approval of the proposal and the contract, followed by a window of permitting. This leaves one remaining year, on an average contract, for project implementation. The remaining year actually results in one or two short seasons—a narrow window of several months—to implement the project. Five-year contracts will increase the potential for higher-quality work and decrease the potential for adverse ecological impacts.

S.B. 297 will allow a longer timeline for implementing projects. Extending the contract period can actually increase the amount of high-quality work accomplished with limited dollars. Both restoration contractors and community-based restoration groups will be able to partner with the Department of Fish and Game and develop longer-term programmatic restoration plans with clear priorities and parameters of work for larger, more complex projects.

Finally, many involved with watershed restoration have repeatedly expressed the need for more monitoring in order to better understand the effects of watershed restoration. “Lack of appropriate monitoring assistance, in the form of staff time and funding, impedes everyone’s ability to measure their programs’ effectiveness,” according to key findings of the Interagency Watersheds Task Force report. S.B. 297 can be a significant step toward integrating monitoring into restoration contracts. Five-year contracts will allow for better opportunities for monitoring that result in positive modifications of restoration projects while they are in progress. This has the potential to improve upon restoration field techniques throughout the duration of the entire project. Trends in watershed recovery cannot be detected in one year. For example, the response of a stream channel to an upslope project is not immediately noticeable. Projects need to be monitored for multiple years to identify success or further steps that may be required for optimal ecological results.

Community and Worker Benefits of Senate Bill 297

In addition to benefiting the natural environment, S.B. 297 will benefit rural communities and the restoration workforce. Five-year contracts will make it easier for community groups and emerging restoration organizations to participate in California’s forest and watershed restoration efforts. Many of these community-based restoration groups operate around only one or two projects at a time. Thus, it is critical that one or both projects come to fruition each year. If one or both projects fall through, the consequences can be devastating and the larger efforts of the group are thwarted. This is because of job loss and an interruption in cash flow. As a result, the entire organization can collapse. Larger contractors with many projects and contracts do not face this obstacle.

Watershed restoration has been most successful in watersheds with high levels of community involvement. “The State cannot accomplish its natural resource responsibilities to protect and restore its watersheds alone,” Interagency Watersheds Task Force report also finds. “Working in partnerships with diverse interests at the local level is a better way for the State to implements its programs.” S.B. 297 will increase the accessibility of watershed restoration to these community-based partnerships by decreasing their risks and allowing them to develop longer work plans.

Five-year contracts provide predictability, increased efficiency, and stability for restoration businesses and the restoration workforce at no extra cost. Fiscal allocations for watershed restoration will extend beyond political terms and will be less subject to year-to-year budget cuts. Contractors will be able to engage in longer-term business planning and invest in training skilled workers to do high-quality work. Additionally, less time will need to be spent continuously reapplying for funding on an annual basis—a process proven to drive down wages and internalize extra costs for contractors and community-based restoration groups seeking funding for their proposals.

Five-year contracts assure the likelihood of more longer-term funding opportunities, providing a greater degree of job security over the five-year contract period. They also help to alleviate high worker turnover. Currently, due to employment uncertainty, there is little reason for workers to remain with a group from one season to the next. Workers realize they are better off pursuing more consistent employment elsewhere. With S.B. 297, the restoration workforce will experience heightened continuity from season to season, further mitigating the costly need to continuously retrain new workers each year. Employers will be more willing to invest in training restoration workers because they will know that their employees will be needed beyond one or two field seasons. Five-year contracts are necessary for workers to be able to make long-range professional commitments to the trade.

Please Support Senate Bill 297

The dire need to restore California’s watersheds and rural communities is acutely apparent. Allowing five-year contracting opportunities is a modest reform with the potential to yield much-needed improvements in watershed restoration. This small step will build upon decades of impressive efforts to restore California’s watersheds. With wide support, S.B. 297 can compliment current efforts to improve depleting salmon runs, safe drinking water, and vital wildlife habitat by creating more flexibility in contracting processes. This legislation is an accessible opportunity to build on the existing foundation of watershed restoration and move forward together in a way that benefits the natural environment, restoration workers, and local communities.

• Frequently Asked Questions About Five-Year Contracts