This week, California Trout, Trout Unlimited and CalWild announced that they would be working in partnership with the the North Coast Regional Water Quality Control Board (North Coast Water Board) to designate Cedar Creek and Elder Creek — two tributaries of the South Fork Eel River watershed — Outstanding National Resource Waters. The ONRW designation, a federal status established by the Clean Water Act, is “one of the strongest legal mechanisms available to protect water quality,” according to a joint news release issued Monday morning. … The ONRW designation would extend throughout the two creeks’ watershed to segments of Cedar Creek within the Little Red Mountain Ecological Preserve (including Little Cedar Creek, North Fork Cedar Creek and associated wetlands) and Elder Creek’s tributaries, all important areas for salmonid recovery efforts.

Other habitat restoration news:

• The Guardian (U.K.): Washoe Tribe buys 10,000 acres in one of California’s largest ever land returns
• KUNC: In the NoCo podcast: How scientists reversed a quarter-century of decline in a Rocky Mountain National Park ecosystem