New Habitat Conservation Projects on Our Part of the Sacramento River

Black-headed Grosbeak ©JoAnne Fillatti

The Sacramento River has a long history of severe constriction inside flood-control levees.  Today’s river managers understand that giving the river more room to meander down the valley both reduces the risk of unwanted flooding and makes space for vegetation that is important bird habitat.
   Looking at a map of the river in northern Yolo County, from the Colusa County line downstream to the head of the Yolo Bypass at Fremont Weir, one sees a series of sharp bends in the river and U-shaped lakes alongside it, reminders of a time when the river chose its own route.  Now a nonprofit organization called River Partners, based in Chico, has won State grants to restore floodplain habitat at two sites in this stretch.  I toured both sites this past summer with the project director, Mike Davis.
   One site, called Dos Rios Norte, is on the river at its confluence with the Feather River.  It preserves a chunk of magnificent old forest.  Beginning in 2028, workers will install hundreds of thousands of native plants, everything from grasses to trees.  Gradually the place should look something like the forest on the Cosumnes River Preserve does today.  About 175 acres of unforested land has been planted to native herbaceous vegetation, which will flood in most winters.  Then it will offer habitat for juvenile salmon – and for the birds that eat them.  The property has significant water rights, which are being dedicated away from crop irrigation and toward increasing stream flows.
   The other project, the Turning Point Preserve, is across the river from Tyndall Landing in north Yolo County.  It’s near the rice dryer you can see from State Highway 45.  The site is a thousand acres, two hundred of them planted to organic rice inside the levee.  The rest is in row crops outside the levee, and will likely be restored to forest.  River Partners hopes to move the levee back, so as to subject more of the property to flooding and its ecological benefits.
   Once again this year, both project areas will take part in the “BirdReturns” program (see Conservation Corner, December 2023), in which fields in key locations are flooded to provide crucial shorebird habitat in spring and again in late summer and fall.  And, unlike most habitat development in our area, both projects intend to be open to the public when construction ends.  Mike Davis has offered early access to Yolo Bird Alliance for field trips and other visits.  If you are interested, or for information about other work at River Partners, contact Mike here. 

–Michael Perrone, Conservation Chair