Since the late 1800s, levees have cut off about 95% of the Central Valley's historic floodplains from its rivers, and with them, the food-rich wetland habitat that once nourished juvenile Chinook salmon before their journey to the ocean. Restoring that connection, project by project, is slow work. The Floodplain Forward Coalition exists to make it happen faster and at a much larger scale.

CalTrout helped found the coalition alongside Ducks Unlimited, the California Rice Commission, and the Northern California Water Association, formalizing their partnership with a Memorandum of Understanding in 2021. Since then, the coalition has grown substantially, expanding to include landowners, irrigation districts, universities, and conservation groups, with federal and state agencies signing an expanded MOU in October 2024. Today the coalition includes roughly two to three dozen member organizations working from a shared, science-based portfolio of floodplain projects, including CalTrout's own Nigiri Project and Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields, rather than pursuing restoration piecemeal.

The scale of opportunity is enormous: the Sacramento Valley's 500,000 acres of ricelands sit fallow for much of the year and could function as seasonal floodplain habitat, supporting not just endangered Chinook salmon but the estimated 4 million ducks and geese and 250,000 shorebirds that rely on the Central Valley's wetlands every year. Beyond wildlife, seasonal floodplain reconnection also supports groundwater recharge during wet years and reduces flood risk, making the case that habitat restoration and agricultural and water security can reinforce each other rather than compete. That case has already attracted real federal investment: Congressman John Garamendi helped secure more than $12.8 million in federal funding to support the coalition's project portfolio.