By Cliff Feldheim, Central Valley Project Manager, and Analise Rivero, Policy Associate
Last Friday CalTrout and our partners at Ducks Unlimited, the California Rice Commission, and the Northern California Water Association gathered in the Central Valley to sign a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for collaborative work that will strengthen protections to water ecology throughout the valley. The MOU formalizes our organizations’ relationships and reinforces CalTrout’s commitment to ecosystem-level solutions to salmon recovery. This agreement serves as a template for Caltrout’s work with the waterfowl community and public and private landowners as we develop fish food production projects in the Suisun Marsh, the Delta, and the Grasslands region of the San Joaquin Valley. Members from each organization joined together at River Garden Farms in Knights Landing for a signing ceremony hosted by Bryce Lundberg of Lundberg Family Farms. Many illustrious members of the community spoke in support of the MOU including: Representative Dough LaMalfa, California Natural Resources Agency Secretary Wade Crowfoot, and Assemblymember Cecilia Aguiar-Curry.
The ceremony was followed by field tours of flooded ricelands that provide waterfowl habitat and food for salmon. CalTrout’s Jacob Montgomery and Jacob Katz treated participants to demonstrations of water sampling in various rice fields to show the number of insects available for birds and fish.
For decades we have worked alongside Ducks Unlimited, NCWA, California Rice Commission and farm owners to initiate models that support land use for fish, fins, feathers, and people. The model can be viewed in the video below:
Special thanks to River Garden Farms for hosting this historic day.
For more information:
Capital Weekly Article: A joint effort to protect the Central Valley’s water, ecology – Capitol Weekly | Capitol Weekly | Capitol Weekly: The Newspaper of California State Government and Politics.
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Peter Moyle is the Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology and Associate Director of the Center for Watershed Sciences, at UC Davis. He is author or co-author of more than 240 publications, including the definitive Inland Fishes of California (2002). He is co-author of the 2017 book, Floodplains: Processes and Management for Ecosystem Services. His research interests include conservation of aquatic species, habitats, and ecosystems, including salmon; ecology of fishes of the San Francisco Estuary; ecology of California stream fishes; impact of introduced aquatic organisms; and use of floodplains by fish.
Robert Lusardi is the California Trout/UC Davis Wild and Coldwater Fish Researcher focused on establishing the basis for long-term science specific to California Trout’s wild and coldwater fish initiatives. His work bridges the widening gap between academic science and applied conservation policy, ensuring that rapidly developing science informs conservation projects throughout California. Dr. Lusardi resides at the UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences and works closely with Dr. Peter Moyle on numerous projects to help inform California Trout conservation policy. His recent research interests include Coho salmon on the Shasta River, the ecology of volcanic spring-fed rivers, inland trout conservation and management, and policy implications of trap and haul programs for anadromous fishes in California.
Patrick Samuel is the Conservation Program Coordinator for California Trout, a position he has held for almost two years, where he coordinates special research projects for California Trout, including the State of the Salmonids report. Prior to joining CalTrout, he worked with the Fisheries Leadership & Sustainability Forum, a non-profit that supports the eight federal regional fishery management councils around the country. Patrick got his start in fisheries as an undergraduate intern with NOAA Fisheries Protected Resources Division in Sacramento, and in his first field job as a crew member of the California Department of Fish & Wildlife’s Wild and Heritage Trout Program.