The UC Agriculture & Natural Resources RREA Project & Student Intern Grant Program solicits project proposals that develop and/or support new or existing Cooperative Extension projects and/or activities to address the educational and extension needs in the management of California's valuable renewable resources on forest and rangeland. The primary purpose of this program is to promote the proper management of these resources, especially on private lands, and to provide the information/education/training needed by Extension personnel, landowners, land managers, and natural resource professionals. The program also solicits student intern proposals that utilize services and talents of student interns. Internships are open to undergraduate or graduate students from any institution of higher education in California, particularly the University of California and the California State Universities.
Since 2006 the UC ANR RREA Project and Student Intern Grant Program has provided approximately $1.5M in funding for over 150 renewable-resource focused Extension projects. We invite you to explore the program's funded projects by clicking the links below.
For a list of past funded projects, please visit the archive.
2024-2025 funded projects:
Cooperative Extension Service Wildland Fire Peer-Learning Exchange
Project leader: Alison Deak, Fire Advisor, UCCE Mariposa
This project addresses the RREA program’s mission by expanding the capacity of natural resource Extension educators to deliver programming under the wildfire prevention and management critical issue area. Our Exchange will share and expand the impact of current, relevant, research-based programming that is helping forest and rangeland owners and managers, communities, policymakers, and the public make more informed decisions regarding wildfire preparedness, response, mitigation, and recovery. The Exchange will equip Extension professionals to deliver this programming through a mix of presentations, hands-on demonstrations, field tours, and workshops where participants collaborate to adapt existing resources to their local contexts and service areas.
Forestry Institute for Teachers (FIT) Focus Workshop Delivery
Project leader: Tori Norville, Fire Science Advisor UCCE Sonoma
To address the growing need for active forest stewardship in the face of climate change and wildfires, a robust and healthy natural resources workforce, including but not limited to qualified Registered Professional Foresters and Licensed Timber Operators is necessary. Despite ongoing efforts to grow this sector, an aging workforce and uninformed public remains a significant barrier. The Forestry Institute for Teacher (FIT) seeks to address this workforce deficit by growing professional interest with previously under-served urban communities and among youth. By providing week-long professional development workshops for California educators, the FIT program prepares PreK-12 educators to teach students and communities about current forest science, management practices, and career pathways.
Fish & Fire Workshop 2025: Where There are Fish
Project leader: Lenya Quinn-Davidson, Director of the UC ANR Fire Network
The 2025 Fish & Fire Workshop, to be hosted at the 2025 SRF Conference next April, will continue the conversation started over the last two years, highlighting recent examples like the Park Fire and digging further into the ecology of fish and fire, the impacts of fire exclusion and fire suppression on aquatic habitats, and the potential for restoration practitioners to more meaningfully bring fire into the way they envision and implement their work. The workshop will engage restoration practitioners, fisheries and fire scientists, local and regional Tribes, and many others, and will open the door for further collaboration on research, project implementation and habitat conservation, and policy.
UC EcoRestore: Advancing restoration of California’s ecosystems through online tools for practitioners
Project leader: Justin Valliere, Assistant Professor of Cooperative Extension, Invasive Weed & Restoration Ecology, Department of Plant Sciences, UC Davis
California’s diverse ecosystems face significant threats from human activities, including climate change, habitat destruction, and invasive species. These factors have led to the loss of biodiversity and essential ecosystem services, such as soil health, wildlife habitat, pollination services, forage for livestock, and carbon sequestration. Ecological restoration is critical to reversing these impacts and preserving the state's natural and working lands. For restoration to succeed, practitioners need easy access to science-based recommendations and tools. Restoration is complex, requiring localized strategies that consider environmental conditions, species interactions, climate adaptability, and long-term management goals. By making scientific information readily available—through online resources and decision-making tools—practitioners will be able to implement more effective and tailored restoration strategies. These online tools could offer a variety of practical solutions for the challenges land managers face, such as selecting climate-resilient species, setting restoration goals, and developing effective monitoring protocols. Additionally, restoration practitioners working on-the-ground already have extensive knowledge and expertise. By creating a platform for sharing that knowledge, we can foster greater collaboration and improve restoration outcomes at a broader scale. Ensuring this information is accessible will be important for equipping professionals and the public with the knowledge needed to implement effective restoration. This project aims to advance these goals through stakeholder engagement and the development of the UC EcoRestore website.
Invasive Shothole Borer in Northern California: Targeted Training and Extension Resources for Wildland Systems and Local Land Managers
Project leader: Brian Woodward, Forest Advisor, UCCE Santa Cruz
Invasive Shothole Borer (ISHB) has killed thousands of trees in Southern California, where urban forests are particularly vulnerable. In Northern California, wildland riparian forests are highly susceptible because ISHB preferentially attacks boxelder (Acer negundo) and western sycamore (Platanus racemosa) — two species that dominate native riparian areas in the region. Infestations in riparian habitats present significant management challenges not often encountered in urban forests, as they often lack vehicle access and are strictly regulated, complicating traditional wood management. The situation is further complicated in Northern California because at-risk forest species are a significant part of natural riparian canopy cover, which support threatened wildlife such as steelhead and red-legged frogs. This makes active management and infested tree removal ecologically sensitive and challenging from a regulatory perspective. As such, new approaches and guidance are necessary to address these challenges.
Offering tailored extension resources, workshops, and training specifically for wildland areas will be essential for curbing the spread of ISHB and supporting active management in northern California. These resources will equip landowners, managers, and local communities with the tools needed to prevent further ISHB spread and protect California's wildland forests.
Outreach on puma biology and tools for mitigating conflict
Project leader: Carolyn Whitesell, Human-Wildlife Interactions Advisor, UCCE Alameda
A lack of understanding of puma biology and behavior can lead to unsustainable management of livestock and/or pets and a lack of empowerment on how to coexist peacefully. This outreach program will develop and disseminate science-based educational materials (brochures) and will offer on-site consultations for property owners that will:
1. Educate the public within San Mateo and Sonoma Counties on puma biology and behavior and ways that residents can contribute to local puma research projects (“Public Awareness and Youth Engagement”).
2. Share research findings on how pumas are integral to a healthy ecosystem, including information on the ecosystem services that pumas provide (“Ecosystem services”).
3. Provide science-based tips on how residents can share the landscape with pumas while minimizing the potential for conflict (“Fish and Wildlife Habitat”).
Improving Community-Driven Biomass Utilization Efforts through Workshop Series
Project leader: Cindy Chen, Woody Biomass and Forest Products Advisor, UCCE Central Sierra
This project aims to empower local stakeholders by providing them with up-to-date knowledge on land management strategies, policies, and innovative business ventures through a series of workshops. These workshops will focus on lectures, trainings, and field demonstrations concerning value-added wood products, biochar applications, and bioenergy projects, enabling stakeholders to better contribute to and benefit from the state’s bioeconomy efforts. The long-term vision is to develop a biomass and wood utilization extension program that reaches stakeholders statewide, fostering both local and regional capacities to manage renewable resources.
Guidebook for Prescribed Burning in California
Project leader: Barb Satink Wolfson, Fire Advisor, UCCE San Benito
To address regional lack of guidance in all stages of prescribed burn planning and implementation, the UCANR Fire Network seeks to develop a regionally-focused guidebook to improve opportunities for and broaden knowledge surrounding prescribed fire use in California. The proposed Prescribed Fire Guidebook for California (hereafter, “Guidebook”) will introduce a tool that is lacking for landowners and prescribed fire practitioners to plan, permit, and conduct prescribed burns. The workshop aims to bring wildland, prescribed, and cultural fire practitioners and other subject matter experts together to adapt an existing guidebook developed for the US Southern region to produce a manual of contemporary best management practices for prescribed fire use in California’s unique ecological and regulatory landscape. Once completed, the Guidebook will be publicly available online and in print to improve understanding of and enhance adult education to a broad audience about prescribed fire use across California.
Cows to Carrots Onscreen: Sharing the Story of How Good Range and Forest Management Restore the Soil and Support Diverse Food Production
Project leader: Laurie Wayne, Community Nutrition, Health, and Food Systems Advisor, UCCE Modoc
Community awareness of environmental conditions helps residents make more informed decisions for their community and take action on issues that directly impact their lives. The healthy soil and ecosystem services that are indicative of well-managed rangelands and forests provide the foundation for a productive foodshed. This project raises public awareness and appreciation of the link between the provisioning (outputs from an ecosystem, including food, forage, fiber, fresh water, and other resources) and cultural (non-material benefits that ecosystems provide to human societies) services provided by working landscapes and the capacity for rural communities to produce food and support an improved quality of life.
This project will use film showings and discussion to raise community awareness of the way good range and forest management creates healthy ecosystems that support their access to good healthy food of all kinds.
California Forest Science Conference
Project leader: Ricky Satomi, Forest Advisor, UCCE Sutter-Yuba
All forest management in California requires environmental review of cultural, hydrological, plant, fire, economic, and policy risk factors prior to implementation. Furthermore, federal landowners are required to respond to public comments regarding their planning recommendations using the best available science.
At present, continuing education is not required in any discipline directly involved with forest management planning (exception for Pest Control Advisors), and research is rapidly evolving as our knowledge and understanding of best practices have evolved to incorporate climate change factors. Furthermore, while there are discipline-specific professional and research societies, there is limited cross-pollination of membership between these organizations. To develop a more qualified workforce and promote opportunities for adopting current science into management application, the California Society of American Foresters and California Fire Science Consortium is collaborating with UC advisors to host the first join California Forest Science Conference. This project will implement a two-day statewide conference extending the wide range of forest research disciplines to scientists and practitioners. The workshop is being jointly planned by the California Society of American Foresters (SAF) and California Joint Fire Science Consortium (CJFSC), and focused on facilitating knowledge transfer between scientists and practitioners while also building community between students and professionals.
Utilizing Grazing Technologies for Sustainable Range Management
Project leader: Laura Snell, Livestock and Natural Resources Advisor, UCCE Modoc
Management of range cattle for sustainable beef production can be complex. Cattle ranchers and rangeland managers strive to control the intensity, timing, and location of grazing animals across vast and often very diverse landscapes. This presents an array of challenges. To date the most reliable and effective way to control cattle across such landscapes is through conventional barbed or mesh wire fencing. Virtual fence (VF) technology has the potential to provide a more precise, flexible, cost-effective and environmentally neutral tool for controlling the distribution of cattle on range.
We have been conducting real-world case studies to evaluate how different challenges and opportunities could be addressed through VF systems. Some of these have included utilizing cattle for targeted grazing including vegetation management for ecosystem health and fuel breaks, creating grazing exclusions around sensitive natural and cultural resources, and expanding grazing on lands difficult to fence or in post-wildfire environments. This internship will have access to ground breaking research to help create extension outreach materials, educate land managers, and showcase the opportunities and challenges of this new technology.