Streamkeeper’s Blog – September 2016
Wild Fish, Working Landscapes
A word from CalTrout’s ED, Curtis Knight
At CalTrout we work in some of the most pristine and beautiful places in California—the high Sierra, the spring waters of the Mt. Shasta area, the towering redwoods of the North Coast. We also increasingly recognize the need to work within California’s managed landscapes such as the Central Valley, one of the most productive agricultural valleys in the world.
And right now we believe we have ‘lightning in a bottle’ with our Nigiri Project where we are working with farmers on their lands to reconnect the river to its historic floodplain.
We are changing the conversation from fish OR farms to fish AND farms.
California is a diverse place with over 38 million people. The effects of climate change and increasing demand for limited water supplies means we need to double down on innovative solutions to complex resources issues. The Nigiri Project represents this approach: wild fish in managed landscapes.
With four years of rigorous scientific results, the Nigiri Project has demonstrated that we can create fish abundance on working agricultural landscapes. The results are proven, we’ve scaled-up and demonstrated success. Now it’s time to put that science into action.
It’s time for an update. The old operating system separated species from the landscape. It’s time to put nature back into the mix, integrating fish, wildlife and natural process into design and operation—creating sustainable water solutions with global impact.
Watch our No Going Back video and see how we can reshape the way water is managed in state to put nature back in the mix.
For the fish,
