New Blog from Dennis Lindberg: Signs of Winter

Most of the rice fields around Richvale are flooded and that’s brought on quite a wildlife show!   Our most prevalent visitor seems to be the Tundra Swan, but there are plenty of Specklebelly Geese, ducks and White-faced Ibis.  I recently saw a 70-acre rice field completely covered with geese. At another spot right along the road there were 100 ibis eating and looking quite content.

I love seeing birds and knowing that our fields help them out with food and a place to rest.

Following my 71st consecutive rice harvest our harvester has been cleaned and inspected and is now put away.

I’ve had a chance to work on more scrap metal art pieces.  I just completed the fifth in a series of dogs – a Dachshund with a coil spring for the body, pieces from a chopper for the legs and a spring from a rototiller for the tail.  I also look forward to presenting a Lame Duck sculpture to Wally Herger, who is winding up his long service in Congress.  This duck is a thank you for the decades he spent in Washington representing his constituents.  The duck is holding an American Flag, a fitting symbol.

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Dennis Lindberg has grown rice in Butte County for more than 70 consecutive years. He’s a well-known author and metal artist, taking scrap metal and creating beautiful animal sculptures. His civic work and love of community is evidenced by his being honored as “Outstanding Citizen of the 20th Century” by Lundberg Family Farms. He and his wife Charlotte have two children – Gary and Sherry. Gary farms with his father in the historic community of Richvale, which recently celebrated its centennial.

New CRC Blog- Sacramento Valley, the perfect place to “Get some on ya”

By Tim Johnson, California Rice Commission President & CEO


The holidays provide an opportunity for wonderful reunions, decadent food and unplanned days where you can just get out. Maybe it’s the overheated living rooms or just grabbing the extra serving of my favorite but the weekend after Thanksgiving and certainly during the Christmas and New Years week I nearly always find myself in a car heading someplace – anyplace outdoors.

As a lifelong outdoorsman, my choice is often associated with waterfowl hunting this time of year. There are few things better than a turkey sandwich and black coffee in a duck blind. The Sacramento Valley has a huge number of waterfowling opportunities with state and federal refuges abounding. After hunting rice for years, I have to say that the hunting is every bit as good at the Yolo refuge or any of the others. While it takes a bit of work, the habitat is spectacular, staff helpful and the outing memorable.

If you are not into hunting, head to the refuges for spectacular birding. Reading historic accounts of the valley in books like Up and Down California (Brewer, William H., 2003, University of California Press) makes me wonder how many more ducks and geese we could really get in the Sacramento Valley. Where would you put them all? Honestly, if you have not been up Highway 99 or 70 up toward Chico you are missing one of the most spectacular migrations in the world. On I-5 near Williams and Willows, there are geese right only the side of the freeway! An absolute must is the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge.

They have (as do most of the refuges) great driving tours and a terrific visitors center. You will see half a dozen species if geese, tundra swans, avocets and other wading birds and huge number of ducks – all about an hour outside downtown Sacramento.

Another great thing about the Sacramento Valley are the small towns. Try Colusa, Williams, Gridley and Richvale for the quintessential small town America right here in the Sacramento Valley. Take a drive around the Sutter Buttes through the town of Sutter. You will see fields, farm equipment, silos, grand old homes and winding levy roads. One of my favorite drives is Highway 45 between Colusa and Knights Landing. It’s about as authentic, untouched Sacramento Valley as you will find.

Finally, there are the eats. Granzella’s Inn is a must stop in Williams.

Chico has tons of restaurants and the Sierra Nevada Brewery. There are farm stands, small taco shops and great local restaurants everywhere along the way. Stop in and grab coffee, hot chocolate or pancakes for lunch.

So get out in the rain and get some mud on your tires. Or as we say at my house – “go out and get some on ya.”

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Tim Johnson, CRC President & CEO

New CRC Blog: Passionate caretaker of California Wetlands honored

By Paul Buttner

I recently enjoyed being a part of a special day for Dr. Fritz Reid of Ducks Unlimited organized by the Central Valley Joint Venture (CVJV).  The event was very appropriately held out at the Cosumnes Preserve near Galt—a site that exemplifies collaborative conservation success—hosting an array of beautiful waterbirds such as the beautiful Sandhill Cranes that I saw on my way to the event.  It was a great day in the company of many key players in the wildlife conservation community.  It is always enjoyable to visit with such committed professionals who care so deeply about wildlife.

The CVJV is a coalition of non-governmental, state and federal agencies deeply concerned with bird conservation here in our great Central Valley.  They are great friends of rice due to the considerable amount of habitat provided by ricelands cited referenced in the CVJV 2006 Implementation Plan (www.centralvalleyjointventure.org).

Fritz has been a long-time, very passionate supporter of wetland protection and restoration in the Central Valley.  Towards this goal, he has devoted many hours of work helping to guide the efforts of the CVJV.  Therefore, he was very appropriately honored by his peers and fellow CVJV Board Members.  He is shown here receiving his award presented by Ellie Cohen, Chairwoman of the CVJV Board and Bob Shaffer, Coordinator of the CVJV.

Fritz is now off to focus his efforts on the Northern Boreal Forest region.  While the Central Valley will always be near and dear to Fritz’s heart, we’ll miss seeing him out here as often as we have in the past.  Yet he’ll still have a connection with us in the Central Valley given that many species of ducks and other waterbirds that visit us here originate from that region.

Fritz, thanks for all your years of great work here in California.  Best wishes in your work up north!

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Paul Buttner is Manager of Environmental Affairs for the California Rice Commission.

New Guest Video- Conservationist tours Rice Country

Paul Baicich with Great Birding Projects comments during his tour of wildlife in Sacramento Valley rice country.

New Debra DeWit Blog: Plenty of thanks to go around

Greetings and a happy early Thanksgiving to everyone!

This past week was really busy. I was wrapping up school before break and my dad and grandpa finished the rice harvest. Now it's time for some time off.

My grandpa is on his way to Africa to help with rice growing there. He'll be gone until December. My parents, my brother and I will be celebrating Thanksgiving by ourselves enjoying delicious food and hopefully an easy day.

I hope you all enjoy your holiday!!

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Debra DeWit: "I grew up in Davis and have been around both my grandpa’s and dad’s rice farms most of my life. My grandpa was the one that started farming and passed the tradition on to my dad. My dad farms rice in Yolo County and my grandpa farms rice in Sutter, Yolo and Sacramento counties. I enjoy talking to my dad and grandpa about their days in the fields and gaining more knowledge about the crop and the business. Currently, my family and I live in Davis, and I go to the high school there. I like to hang out with friends, write, draw, go hunting with my dad and my grandpa, teach Sunday school and going to youth group."

New CRC Blog- Honoring a visionary in conservation

By Paul Buttner

I can’t just let Dave White, Chief of the Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS), move on without a very sincere “thank you” on behalf of the California rice growers and the millions of waterbirds that rely on the 500,000 acres of flooded, working lands habitat provided by California ricelands.  Dave has announced his departure from NRCS, effective December 3.  However, the results of his interest and enthusiasm for helping to promote waterbird habitat programs in California rice and beyond will continue for years to come.

At the time Dave White was appointed to serve as NRCS Chief about four years ago, we and several of our valued conservation partners—Audubon California, PRBO Conservation Science and The Nature Conservancy—were busy having workshops with rice growers and testing out fresh ideas to further enhance the value of California ricelands for waterbirds.  Come about 2011, we had the best ideas on the table and monitoring results from pilot-scale implementation of these new practices.

Hearing about this effort, Dave saw a set of new conservation ideas and a working lands conservation coalition that seemed ready to graduate from study phase to pilot program phase.  As such, he acted to make funds available, through the good work of his California State Office, to expand this effort into a subregional pilot program in 2011.  The result is the newly created Waterbird Habitat Enhancement Program (WHEP).  This program now has over 100,000 acres of ricelands in California enrolled—20 percent of our industry—in just two years time.  These acres are now sprinkled with expanded options for waterbird nesting, feeding and loafing through the construction of nesting islands and improved water management practices along with many other enhancements.

Earlier this year our industry honored Dave White and his team, including the efforts of the California State Office, with its Circle of Life Award for both making funding available and assisting with program development and implementation.  Here is a photo of Dave accepting his award from me at his office in March.

Dave, you leave NRCS with a great legacy of being a “can do” type of leader and melding that with a tremendous vision for the role that working agricultural lands can play in helping to protect critical wildlife habitat needs such as migrating waterbirds and other species of wildlife.  I sincerely thank you for your positive impact wildlife conservation and wish you the best in your future endeavors.

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Paul Buttner is Manager of Environmental Affairs for the California Rice Commission.

New video- Final field harvest

Family farmer Brian McKenzie describes his feelings as they harvest the final rice field of the 2012 season.

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Brian McKenzie proudly represents the fourth generation of rice farmers in his family. Following his graduation in 2005 from The University of Nevada Reno where he earned bachelors degrees in Economics and Marketing, Brian returned to the family farm in South Sutter County to farm full-time alongside his father, Chris. Brian and his wife, Ashley, grow several varieties of conventional and organic rice. Brian enjoys the challenges that farming brings and takes pride in producing food for the world.

New Guest Video: Three Steps to Deeper Nature Appreciation

Naturalist, educator and artist John Muir Laws explains three prompts he has found that could greatly enhance your nature observation.

New guest video- Come visit the Flyway

The Nature Conservancy's Sandi Matsumoto talks about the amazing sights along the Pacific Flyway.

New CRC Blog- Saving Killdeer is all in a day's work

By Paul Buttner 

As the wildlife guy for the California rice industry, I often draw the short straw by having to drive around and see all the beautiful wildlife that use California wildlife.  It's a tough job but somebody’s got to do it!  Nearly 230 species use these fields, some more than others.  This list includes over a dozen species of beautiful shorebirds from the small Western Sandpiper to the much larger Long-billed Curlew.

Each of these shorebirds occupies its own special niche on the farming landscape.  The one that always mystifies me is the Killdeer.  This is because the Killdeer loves to lay its eggs on gravel roads.  Yes, the same gravel roads that cars drive upon. Yet the species lives on!

Grower Mike DeWit of DeWit Family Farms has developed a highly complex Killdeer egg protection system.

Once he locates the eggs through careful observation of the movement of the parents, he places the perfect cardboard box on the roadway forcing him and all of his crew to drive on the other side of the road until the new arrivals hatch. In this case, he unofficially joins forces with John Deere (see the logo on the box) but I’m sure he has shared the glory with other product manufacturers over the years.

I can vouch for how acceptable the cardboard box protection system was to the mother birds.  This is because my first photo had one egg.  However, when I stopped on my way out, less than one hour later, there were two!

I tip my hat to Mike for going extra mile (literally!) to preserve the beautiful birds calling his farm home.  Many of these special shorebirds are in decline globally and can use all the help they can get.

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Paul Buttner is Environmental Affairs Manager for the California Rice Commission.