State, Federal Agencies Unite to Address Climate Resilience

• by California Natural Resources Agency
• Oct 24, 2024
• Water News

SACRAMENTO –  Federal and State of California government agencies, overseeing water, agriculture, fish and wildlife, public lands and flood control, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance collaboration on landscape-scale, multi-beneficial floodplain water projects in the Sacramento River Basin.

The purpose of this agreement is to elevate the opportunity for landscape-scale funding and to streamline planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and information sharing of projects located on the floodplains that enhance flood protection, restore fish and wildlife habitat, improve groundwater aquifer recharge, provide water supply reliability, and sustain farming and managed wetland operations.

The agencies who signed on to the MOU include: the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service
(USFWS), U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR), U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE), USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA), California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW), California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA), California Department of Water Resources (DWR), and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

“We are deeply grateful for this commitment to floodplain restoration with so many conservation leaders in the Sacramento Valley,” said Paul Souza, Pacific Southwest Regional Director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Floodplains provide rich habitat for birds, fish, and so many other species, and this partnership again shows how agriculture and species conservation can work hand in glove to benefit people and communities, foster a healthy environment, and adapt to a changing climate. We are committed to this restoration action.”

The Sacramento River Basin and its floodplains spans from Sacramento to Chico, a coverage area of approximately 1,100 square miles – or larger than the state of Rhode Island. Floodplains are defined as low-lying areas of land around a river or stream that when flooded, fills the area with nutrients.

The bypasses in the Sacramento Valley (e.g.; Sutter Bypass, Tisdale Bypass, Yolo Bypass, etc.) are natural overflow areas that are critical to protecting farms, cities and communities from devastating floodwaters. The lowlands also serve as essential habitat for many fish, birds and wildlife – many who are listed as endangered or threatened species – and have historically relied on the Basin’s floodplains for food and habitat during their migrations.

“Reclamation looks forward to being a part of this vital effort to promote the development of projects that help restore the ecosystem and boost the overall health of the Sacramento River

Basin and the economy it supports,” said California Great-Basin Regional Director Karl Stock. “We’ve been engaged with our federal, state and local partners on many habitat restoration and improvement projects along the Sacramento River, and this memorandum of understanding is another pillar on which we can build our growing partnerships.”

California’s Central Valley, which includes the Sacramento River Basin, is a vital stopover site for migrating waterfowl and shorebirds along the Pacific Flyway. The valley supports 80 percent of the Flyway’s total duck and goose population, provides habitat for hundreds of thousands of shorebirds, and a variety of neotropical migrant species.

With the advent of winter flooding, agriculture plays a critical role with rice fields offering roughly 300,000 acres of habitat to birds each winter. This leads to approximately 200 million pounds of food resources available to the millions of geese, ducks, swans and other migratory birds that rely on rice fields after harvest.

“Restoring seasonal floodplains across California is a win-win-win,” said Wade Crowfoot, California Natural Resources Secretary. “Allowing water onto historic floodplains reduces flood risks to downriver communities, expands habitat for fish and wildlife, and often helps recharge groundwater basins. This MOU will turbocharge collaboration already happening in the Sacramento Valley to get more of these multi-benefit projects in place more quickly.”

The Sacramento River Basin is also home to four runs of Chinook salmon – spring-run, fall-run, late-fall run and winter-run – making it the watershed containing the richest diversity of Chinook salmon in the world. Formerly, the Sacramento River and its tributaries such as the Feather River and Butte, Mill, Deer, Clear, and Battle Creeks, produced immense numbers of these fish. Today, the spring-run and winter-run Chinook salmon are listed as threatened or endangered by state and federal agencies, while the fall-run, on which the commercial and sport fisheries depend, is largely supported by hatchery production. In addition to salmon, the Sacramento River Basin supports a wide diversity of native fishes.

“We look forward to working collaboratively with leaders from across these state and federal agencies to align salmon restoration projects in the Sacramento Valley,” said Jonathan Birdsong, western regional director, National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.  “Coordinating both projects and funding opportunities will allow us to deliver much-needed resources to willing landowners and their non-government organizational partners who are ready to implement solutions to benefit this vital natural resource.”

Members of the MOU understand, as outlined in the agreement, that by working together, the partners can not only expand upon the conservation success created for migratory birds in the Sacramento Valley, but can extend those benefits to salmon and other fish and wildlife as well.  However, successful implementation of conservation at this scale will require coordination and collaboration among and across federal and state resource management entities, Tribes, landowners, conservation organizations, water managers, local governments, and nongovernmental conservation organizations.

“The Central Valley is the hub of the California water system.  As extreme weather events intensify and become more frequent, managing our water resources for multiple benefits becomes more of an imperative,” said COL James Handura, Commander of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers South Pacific Division. “This Memorandum of Understanding signifies the Corps’ commitment to maximize collaboration with our federal, state, and local partners, and to support the goals of improving flood risk management, restoring sensitive ecosystems, and enhancing drought resilience in the Sacramento River Basin and beyond.”

The MOU was inspired by the Floodplain Forward Coalition, a 27-member organization representing landowners, irrigation districts, higher education, and conservation groups. The coalition, and their collaborative model of dynamic conservation, has resulted in farms, refuges, and managed wetlands providing essential habitat for waterfowl and shorebirds as well as potential food production for endangered fish species. The Floodplain Forward Coalition supports the action taken by the MOU signees.

The agreement was signed on October 23, 2024 at the California Natural Resource Agency’s headquarters in Sacramento.