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Sugar Creek Ranch New Beginnings

There are places in a watershed where history, water, people, and possibility come together. Sugar Creek Ranch is one of those places. Set within the heart of the Scott River watershed, the Scott River Tailings, a five-mile section of the Scott River, has been recovering from past mining activities. For more than a decade, the Scott River Watershed Council has been working in these waters and on this land, working to restore habitat, monitoring flows, partnering with landowners, Tribes, agencies, and neighbors to better understand how this system works and how to care for it into the future. The Council has helped steward this area as a living laboratory, supporting long-term, place-based research that bridges academic inquiry and real-world watershed management. Over the years, this site has provided graduate students from UC Davis and Cal Poly Humbolt with rare access to active restoration projects, robust monitoring datasets, and collaborative partnerships with landowners, Tribes, and agencies. Through hands-on fieldwork and applied science, the Council has directly supported the completion of numerous master’s theses and PhD dissertations, helping students translate theory into practice. With the Council’s long-term relationships with the private landowners, there was an opportunity that presented itself which ultimately changed the course of history for the Sugar Creek Ranch forever. On December 27, 2024, the Scott River Watershed Council assumed responsibility for the stewardship of Sugar Creek Ranch. On that day, the property entered a new chapter—one rooted in long-term care, conservation, and shared responsibility for the benefit of the Scott River watershed and the broader community. Thanks to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and the people of California, this place is now being held for the benefit for the fish and wildlife and for the entire Scott Valley community. This moment represents trust. Trust that local stewardship matters. Trust that science, collaboration, and community can work together. And trust that caring for land and water today shapes what’s possible tomorrow. Sugar Creek Ranch has always been important. It sits within one of the most altered stretches of the Scott River, the historic tailings reach, where past land use dramatically changed how water moves through the reach. Yet even here, the river remembers. With careful restoration, we believe Sugar Creek Ranch can once again contribute to the overall health and wellbeing of the Scott River and the fish that depend on it. Supporting salmon and agriculture and building a resilient future in a changing climate. This property holds extraordinary conservation and restoration potential, not as a single project, but as a living landscape. It offers space to reconnect isolated water, protect cold-water refugia, improve instream habitat, and better understand how surface water and groundwater interact across seasons and years. It is a place where monitoring informs design, where lessons are shared openly, and where success is measured not just in data, but in trust and continuity. Where we adaptive manage and we learn from the beaver and listen to our neighbors. In May of 2025, the Scott River Watershed Council opened the gates and invited the community in. Neighbors, families, partners, and friends gathered at Sugar Creek Ranch, not just to see a place, but to celebrate what it represents. That open house marked the first of what we hope will be many community moments here—opportunities to learn, to ask questions, to share memories, and to imagine what this landscape can become. Because conservation is not something that happens behind closed doors. It is something that grows stronger when people are welcomed in. This land now belongs to a larger story—one that includes the people of Scott Valley, Tribal partners, farmers and ranchers, scientists, students, and future generations who will walk these banks and wonder how the river once flowed. It is a place for education. A place for restoration. A place for listening and experience nature and one another. The work ahead will take time. Restoration always does. And that’s exactly the point. By holding Sugar Creek Ranch with care and intention, we are choosing patience over quick fixes, learning over assumptions, and long-term stewardship over short-term gain. Sugar Creek Ranch now belongs to the future of the Scott River watershed, a place where water is given room to move, fish find refuge, beaver shape the land, and community gathers. Though this chapter began in December 2024, its meaning will unfold for generations to come.