Conservation Corner

River Otter at Yolo Bypass (Deb Ford)

A Wildlife Corridor in the Yolo Bypass

An abandoned railroad trestle in the southern part of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is getting a new look as part of a habitat restoration project led by the Yolo County Resource Conservation District. The earthen mounds originally designed to elevate a train track will now provide refuge from rising

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Fremont Weir Wildlife Area

Public Access to Public Lands: Fremont Weir Wildlife Area

As noted here before, the conservation goals of Yolo Audubon are to protect and expand local bird habitat and ensure public access to that habitat, wherever possible. The situation at Fremont Weir Wildlife Area is unusual in that a formerly accessible public recreation area is now much harder to get

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Lower Elkhorn Basin Levee Setback Project

The Lower Elkhorn Basin Levee Setback Project

Projects that involve water or flood management are typically contentious almost anywhere in California. Nevertheless, a plan to widen the Yolo Bypass on its east side, in the lower Elkhorn Basin, is heading smoothly toward construction. It has support from the Yolo County Board of Supervisors and the affected landowners.

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Lesser Nighthawk at Capay Open Space, © Deb Ford

Capay Open Space Park

Last winter I discussed the Cache Creek Parkway Plan and the Cache Creek Conservancy and Nature Preserve as parts of an effort to improve and expand habitat and public access along the reach of the creek between Roads 85 and 96B. I can now report on a second on-the-ground element

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Southport Levee Improvement Project, © SkyHigh Perspectives, used with permission.

Bird Habitat and the Southport Levee Improvement Project

The City of West Sacramento is in the middle of a major upgrade to flood protection along the Sacramento River. Rather than relying on the riverside levee that South River Road sits atop, it is building a much wider levee, and setting it back a hundred yards or so from

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Birding In Your Own (Urban) Backyard

Although backyard birding in the city is not as thrilling as in more natural landscapes, it can offer conservation lessons. I began to bird in Slide Hill Park in Davis in 1986, when the park was fairly new and the vegetation was still young. I have watched the various groves

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Golden Eagle ; Jim Dunn

Wind Turbine Development at Bogle Vineyards

On 25 April 2014 Yolo Audubon Society filed a lawsuit together with Tuleyome and a group of local landowners against Yolo County and the Board of Supervisors challenging the county’s approval of a wind turbine development on Bogle Vineyards, the county stating that no environmental impact report was needed via

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Putah Creek Nest-Box Highway

This month I want to report on a bird conservation success story that is as close to home as Putah Creek. Yolo Audubon’s own Melanie Truan came up with the idea and made it happen, and has ensured its continuation ever since. Working at the UC Davis Museum of Wildlife

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An abandoned railroad trestle in the southern part of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is getting a new look as part of a habitat restoration project led by the Yolo County Resource Conservation District. The earthen mounds originally designed to elevate a train track will now provide refuge from rising floodwaters for animals that otherwise can’t escape.

The project will construct two east-west corridors across the bypass, one incorporating the trestle mounds and one perched on a low levee. The bypass normally fills with water from east to west, so that animals will be able to follow dry ground westward under the cover of shrubs that will be planted. All told, the project area will include twenty acres of native prairie and three acres of seasonal wetland.

The project includes a half-acre demonstration native-plant garden next to Parking Lot A, near the start of the auto tour loop. It will feature floodplain meadow and streamside woodland plants that grow, or used to grow, naturally in the Yolo Bypass.

The RCD and partner organizations will arrange for community volunteers to go to the site to plant and tend the vegetation. They expect a dozen community stewardship events and three field days for high school students, starting this fall. These events will provide the chief public access to the sites.

The project is being built in cooperation with the CA Dept. of Fish and Wildlife, which owns the Wildlife Area. Its $700,000 budget comes from Proposition 1, as a grant from the Delta Conservancy, part of the California Natural Resources Agency. Planting began last year, and will continue into 2021. 

For more information, email the project manager, Alex Tremblay.

Michael Perrone, YAS Board, Conservation