F24AS00364 Feather River/Sutter Bypass Nelson Slough (CDFW Nelson Slough Unit) Floodplain Feasibility for Juvenile Salmonid Habitat Improvement | F24AS00364

Opportunity Information: Apply for F24AS00364

Funding Opportunity F24AS00364 is a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) discretionary grant run through the Red Bluff Fish and Wildlife Office under the Central Valley Project Improvement Act (CVPIA) Program. The grant is focused on paying for a feasibility study, not construction, to figure out practical, science-based ways to increase floodplain connectivity and the amount of usable rearing habitat for juvenile salmonids in the lower Feather River corridor at Nelson Slough. The study is intended to generate the technical foundation USFWS and its partners will use to shape a future habitat restoration project at this site, with planning and analysis continuing into FY2025 and potential implementation/construction work anticipated as early as FY2026 depending on results and follow-on funding.

The project location is the California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW) Feather River Wildlife Area, specifically the Nelson Slough Unit, near the confluence of the lower Feather River corridor and the Sutter Bypass. This is a strategically important landscape because Nelson Slough (about 750 acres) sits next to a larger network of conserved lands: more than 3,500 acres along the Feather River and roughly 4,500 acres within the Sutter Bypass. By improving how often and how long water can access remnant floodplain features (including an abandoned Feather River oxbow) and connect them to existing Sutter Bypass floodplain, the project could expand floodplain habitat availability for Feather, Yuba, and Bear River salmonids by as much as 1,000 acres or more under certain flow conditions.

The basic idea being evaluated is to increase the frequency of floodplain activation so juvenile fish can take advantage of shallow, productive inundated areas that typically produce abundant food resources and provide safer rearing conditions than main channels. The feasibility study will explore restoration concepts such as restoring more natural floodplain processes, creating or enhancing side-channel habitat (including through historic oxbow features), lowering and widening an existing slough within setback levees downstream of Highway 99, tying that conveyance into the Sutter Bypass, creating multiple swales, and/or lowering portions of the floodplain terrace. These kinds of changes are aimed at allowing Feather River basin water to reach the Sutter Bypass more often than it does today, improving connectivity across the landscape while also considering flood conveyance and infrastructure constraints.

A central expectation of the grant is rigorous technical analysis. The awardee is responsible for collecting and evaluating data and developing a multi-dimensional hydrodynamic flow model to quantify inundation patterns and frequencies under existing and altered conditions. A sediment transport model is also required so the partners can understand how proposed reconnection features might behave over time, where sediment could accumulate, and what that implies for maintenance, habitat quality, and long-term performance. The study also calls for updating physical habitat characterization with modern elevation and bathymetry data (for example, LiDAR/topo-bathy products), and it emphasizes practical field-oriented measurements such as longitudinal profiles and cross sections that can be installed and revisited. Drone-based mapping is specifically mentioned as a tool for documenting baseline conditions and, later, supporting post-project comparisons.

The feasibility study is also meant to answer real-world implementation questions, not just generate conceptual designs. Applicants are expected to assess flood conveyance, flood storage, inundation frequency and duration, fluvial geomorphic processes, aquatic and riparian habitat outcomes, project costs, land availability/access, sedimentation risks, excavated material handling and spoil placement options, and potential conflicts with infrastructure such as utility pipelines and roadway bridge abutments. Because the work occurs on and around managed public lands and flood infrastructure, coordinating access and integrating constraints into alternatives analysis is a core part of the assignment.

Coordination and stakeholder process are built into the scope. The awardee must facilitate, plan, and document meetings of a Technical Advisory Committee that includes USFWS, the National Marine Fisheries Service, CDFW, and the California Department of Water Resources (CDWR). This structure is intended to keep the feasibility work aligned with regulatory, engineering, and biological priorities across agencies and to ensure the final products are directly usable for the next phase of design and permitting. The opportunity also notes the need to consider timing and design compatibility with DWR and Sutter County levee improvement work in and around the Nelson Slough Unit, referencing the Riparian Restoration Plan for the Nelson Slough Unit (River Partners, 2009) as a relevant planning context.

From a biological benefits standpoint, the study is framed around improving juvenile salmonid rearing habitat quality by increasing floodplain-derived productivity and access to low-velocity rearing areas. Species expected to benefit include Feather River basin spring-run Chinook salmon, Sacramento River origin winter- and spring-run Chinook salmon (through expanded floodplain opportunity in connected corridors), juvenile Butte Creek spring-run Chinook salmon in the Sutter Bypass, Central Valley steelhead, and potentially juvenile green sturgeon. The rationale aligns with findings such as the Peterson Coarse Resolution model report (2014), which suggests that increasing juvenile Chinook size at emigration can improve adult return outcomes. The grant narrative also makes clear that monitoring and evaluation are considered essential, both to establish baseline conditions (hydrology, water quality, and biological communities such as insects and birds) and to later assess whether implemented restoration performs as intended and helps validate or refine existing modeling assumptions.

The opportunity includes explicit management constraints tied to the Nelson Slough Unit’s broader wildlife area purposes. Restoration alternatives must not reduce the current acreage of upland habitat and must avoid fragmenting the upland habitat that supports wildlife and area operations. If side channels are created, the design must include crossings that allow wildlife and staff movement, including access needed for habitat management activities such as planting. The feasibility work also has to protect public hunting opportunities offered by CDFW on the unit (including deer, waterfowl, quail, turkey, and pheasant seasons). In practice, that means the awardee must coordinate closely with CDFW wildlife area staff and shape alternatives so salmonid habitat improvements do not come at the expense of existing recreation, access, and wildlife management objectives.

In terms of expected outcomes, the feasibility study is meant to quantify how many additional acres of accessible floodplain habitat could be created at different flow ranges under different landscape modification scenarios, compared to current conditions. It also aims to reduce habitat fragmentation, improve rearing and emigration corridors, increase the quantity and diversity of riverine habitats (especially floodplain rearing habitat), and potentially reduce predation pressure from non-native fish by shifting habitat conditions and connectivity. Additional anticipated benefits include expanding native riparian vegetation in restored areas and supporting recovery of state- and federally-listed fish populations, contributing to the CVPIA objective of doubling natural production for the Feather, Yuba, and Bear rivers.

Administratively, the opportunity is offered by USFWS under CFDA 15.648 as a grant with an award ceiling of $265,000. Eligible applicants are broad and include federal-recognized tribes and tribal organizations, state and local governments (including special districts), public and state-controlled institutions of higher education, nonprofit organizations (with or without 501(c)(3) status), for-profit organizations (including small businesses), and even individuals. The original application closing date listed is July 22, 2024. Overall, the grant is designed to produce a decision-ready feasibility package: data-informed alternatives, modeling outputs, constraints analysis, and coordinated agency input that can be carried forward into design, permitting, and eventual construction if the results support moving forward.

• The Fish and Wildlife Service in the natural resources sector is offering a public funding opportunity titled "F24AS00364 Feather River/Sutter Bypass Nelson Slough (CDFW Nelson Slough Unit) Floodplain Feasibility for Juvenile Salmonid Habitat Improvement" and is now available to receive applicants.
• Interested and eligible applicants and submit their applications by referencing the CFDA number(s): 15.648.
• This funding opportunity was created on 2024-05-13.
• Applicants must submit their applications by 2024-07-22. (Agency may still review applications by suitable applicants for the remaining/unused allocated funding in 2026.)
• Each selected applicant is eligible to receive up to $265,000.00 in funding.
• Eligible applicants include: State governments, County governments, City or township governments, Special district governments, Public and State controlled institutions of higher education, Native American tribal governments (Federally recognized), Native American tribal organizations (other than Federally recognized tribal governments), Nonprofits having a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Nonprofits that do not have a 501 (c) (3) status with the IRS, other than institutions of higher education, Individuals, For-profit organizations other than small businesses, Small businesses.

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