Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields

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Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields

Home | Key Initiatives | Integrate Wild Fish & Working Landscapes | Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields

Project Goal:

Bring together farmers, conservationists, universities, and state and federal agencies to demonstrate innovative solutions for reintegrating fish food created in floodplain wetlands back to the river food web where fish can take advantage of it.


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Project Stages

100% Planning, Design, and Permitting

Implementation

Estimated Completion Date:
Ongoing

Region:

Project Funders

Northern California Water Agencies 

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation

Metropolitan Water District

Water Foundation 

Battery Powered (Past)

Fish Affected:

Project Description

Today, 95% of the Central Valley's historical floodplains are cut off from the river by levees. Built in the early 1900s to combat devastating floods, levees and bypasses were constructed to corral mighty rivers and push water quickly through the system. Even before invasive species, large rim dams, and Delta water export facilities were introduced into the system, salmon populations started to dramatically decline with the construction of levees. Simply put, levees cut off fish in rivers from one of their primary food resources, bugs that grow in floodplain wetlands.

CalTrout launched the Fish Food on Floodplain Farm Fields (Fish Food) project in 2017, working with farmers and water suppliers to pioneer new practices to help recover fish and wildlife populations in the greater Sacramento Valley by reconnecting floodplain-derived wetland food webs to river. Now having finished five field seasons, the project has shown that this science-based approach to managing California's resources has the potential to boost the depleted food resources in Central Valley rivers and help recover endangered fish populations. All data generated from this project is shared with the Bureau of Reclamation and integrated in their salmon population model for the Sacramento Valley.

In 2019 and 2021, we orchestrated two pilot seasons of the Fish Food program at scale, and those pilot seasons were successful in proving the benefits of the fish food practice. In 2021 alone, enough fish food was carried by the 13,000 acre-feet delivered to the river to have doubled the size of one million juvenile salmon!

To expand the benefits, we partnered with Reclamation District 108 to secure funding to open the program up to public participation. This is a major step in turning what started as a CalTrout experimental program into our vision of a publicly funded conservation easement program, similar to winter flooding programs for waterfowl or shorebirds on farms and managed wetlands (e.g., NRCS Environmental Quality Incentive Programs, CDFW Private Lands Incentive Programs).

The program grew substantially from water year (WY) 2023, the first year it was open for public enrollment, to WY2024. In WY2023, we received 29 bids with a total of 69,000 acre-cycles bid on 32,700 acres for a total cost of $2.9M. We selected 43,000 cycles on 29,000 acres for $1.99M. In WY2024, we received 42 bids with a total of 89,000 acre-cycles on 43,000 acres for a cost of $3.6M. We selected 54,800 cycles on 27,400 acres for $2.1M. Between the two years, we are getting more bids, more cycles per acre, and lower cost per cycle.

The program has gotten more efficient and more engrained in the management culture in the core area where we initially developed the program (Yolo, Colusa, and Sutter counties), and has expanded into new areas with high potential impact like the Butte Sink, Bear River, Honcut Creek, and lower Butte Creek above the Sink. Our Central Valley team is extremely proud of this program and we hope to secure more long-term funding to establish a legacy that manages at least 500,000 acre-cycles of fish food annually and in perpetuity in the Central Valley.

Project Partners:

NOAA
CA Department of Fish & Wildlife
UC Davis Center for Watershed Sciences
Northern California Water Agencies
State & Federal Contractors Water Agency
Reclamation District 108
Cal Marsh & Farms Ventures LLC
California Rice Commission
CA Department of Water Resources
Knaggs Ranch
Davis Ranches
Next Generation Foods
San Luis & Delta-Mendoza Water Authority
Montana Farms
Lundberg Rice

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