New CRC Blog- Plenty of water for migratory birds these days!

By Paul Buttner

I was driving up and down the Sacramento Valley recently and realized that something seemed different.  It was the presence a lot of more winter water (used for rice straw decomposition) being held in the fields longer than I think I’ve seen in years past.  And many, many species of waterbirds were out there taking full advantage of this habitat.

Normally, very soon after duck hunting season ends in late January, our growers are “pulling their boards” which is rice grower jargon for draining the winter water in order to begin drying out their fields in preparation for the next year’s planting season.  However, this year there is a mosaic of varying depths of water being held and much of it will still be there through the month of February.

So, what’s the possible game-changer here?  Well, it's likely the effect of new program that’s been fashioned for the birds called the Waterbird Habitat Enhancement Program (WHEP).  This is a program developed with valuable help and funding from the Natural Resources Conservation Service and the valued technical expertise of some of our other bird conservation partners.  Of these, Audubon California and PRBO Conservation Science have spent a considerable amount of time on this particular effort but virtually all of our valued partners have supported the creation of WHEP.  WHEP is now entering its third year of implementation with over 100,000 rice acres--about 20 percent of our industry--participating!  And, we hope to add another 20,000 acres this year.

One WHEP practice, in particular, can be credited with most of the “extra” February water I’m seeing the birds happily using.  It’s called variable drawdown.  Growers who signed up for this practice have committed to “pulling” about 25 percent of their boards per week and finishing this staggered drawdown process no earlier than March 1.  Never have I seen the effects of a single conservation practice be so obvious on a huge, landscape scale.  And, most importantly, the birds are loving it!  

I feel strongly that rice and its valued conservation partners have significantly improved habitat values for the many species of waterbirds using the Pacific Flyway here in California.  I’m thrilled to see the results of all the collective conservation work to help these beautiful waterbirds.

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

New CRC Blog- Ducks get top billing at wildlife celebration

By Jim Morris

Naturalist John Muir once said, “In every walk with nature one receives far more than he seeks.”  I couldn’t agree more.

There’s something meaningful about traveling to the countryside and learning more about our natural world. It feeds part of the soul that can’t be met with concrete and neon. Our opportunity came this weekend in California Duck Days, an annual event organized by the Yolo Basin Foundation and a host of city, state and conservation groups.

What a fun event!  There were tons of things to see and do, from arts and crafts to hands on exhibits about wildlife. You could build a bird box, practice your duck calling and get an up close view of such wonderful raptors including a Barn Owl and American Kestrel. One of the favorite stops for many was being able to hold duckling.

Other kids were trying their luck hunting for invertebrates, although I know at least one boot had to be retrieved from the pond!

The fishing was good, as son RJ landed two Rainbow Trout in about 20 minutes.

Our family is lucky in many ways, including opportunities to have our kids and ourselves in the country, witnessing things like a flock of thousands of Snow Geese taking off from a rice field or having a staring contest with a Burrowing Owl family.   But what about the urban family that doesn’t venture out of the city limits very much? How can they appreciate nature and understand its needs without seeing it for themselves?  That’s what makes events like California Duck Days so worthwhile.

Plus the trout made a wonderful dinner!

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Jim Morris is Communications Manager for the California Rice Commission. Jim has worked in communications for more than 20 years. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys his family, faith, football, outrageous monster stories and running marathon

New Blog- A home for birds

Rice grower Brian McKenzie talks about the wildlife activity on their family farm in the Pleasant Grove area.

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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 Blog- The Sacramento River subject of a new book

By Bob Madgic

After retiring from a career in public education, I took up writing on my passions—conservation, fly fishing, and the outdoors. My initial effort was a book detailing the outdoor ventures I have enjoyed over the decades, titled Pursuing Wild Trout. A Journey in Wilderness Values. It was followed by A Guide to California’s Freshwater Fishes and Shattered Air. A True Account of Catastrophe and Courage on Yosemite’s Half Dome. I then turned to the Sacramento River, a river that was the primary reason that my wife Diane and I moved from the Bay Area to the north state in the mid 1990s.

Although it is one of the most important rivers in the world, amazingly no comprehensive book has been published on the Sacramento River. I embarked on telling its story about six years ago through text and photos. In addition to my own photos, I was able to attract many outstanding photographers who wanted to contribute to this important project. The book contains over 190 stunning photos, most in color.

The finished book, The Sacramento. A Transcendent River, is the first comprehensive publication on the river. It covers the headwaters to the estuary, and its human history from before Euro-Americans arrived to the present.

The main theme of the book is the necessity for preserving habitat, whether retaining as many of the characteristics of the natural river itself, or the vast lands adjacent to it. Because the original floodplain encompassed the entire Sacramento Valley—once one of the most prolific bio-regions in the world—this entire valley is in a real sense the “habitat” that the book addresses.

What has become a dominant factor in the Sacramento Valley is the explosion of rice farms. As stated in The Sacramento. A Transcendent River: “Rice contributes more than $1.3 billion to the state’s economy, more than ninety-five percent of it from the Sacramento Valley. Rice fields also provide wildlife habitat, especially for waterfowl. These surrogate wetlands have almost quadrupled the acreage formerly in place. This has helped duck populations to increase, delighting hunters who pay to hunt on the rice fields, and rice farmers who have found a new source of income. It’s ironic that farmlands and rice fields which replaced riparian forests, woodlands, and grasslands are now highly valued in the face of expanding urbanization, housing tracts, and other paved uses.”

To learn more about the book and for ordering information: BobMadgic.com.

Bob Madgic
Amherst College, BA; Stanford University, MA, PhD.

New CRC Blog- Seriously, what is a Hock Farm?

By Tim Johnson

For about 20 years, I have driven past a state historic marker on Hwy 99 just south of Yuba City. In its bronze lettering and brown background, it notes to drive east two miles to Sutter’s Hock Farm. Once I made the drive. It didn’t shed much light on what a hock was.

I just love the stories of history in the Sacramento Valley. On its surface, the small towns and out of the way back roads between Interstate 5 and Hwy 70 to the east there look like anywhere else in rural California – quaint, worn and picturesque. Scratch beneath the surface and you will almost always find great history deep in family ties and rich in the stuff that made early California the melting pot of cultures from around the world.

A bit of research on Sutter’s Hock Farm yielded just that – great layered history and wonderful stories. The Sutter was of course John Sutter who made Sacramento and really California the place to be in 1849. Sutter was a Swiss immigrant, who had secured a land grant of some 48,000 acres (225 square miles) from then Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado. (In future postings, I’ll talk more about this interesting early settler of Northern California.)

As for the Hock farm, it was his summer home and farm. It was, in fact, the first non-Indian settlement in Sutter County and the first large–scale agricultural settlement in Northern California. He eventually lost the farm following the downturn of his personal finances following the Gold Rush. The original mansion built on the property was lost to fire in 1865. Today, a set of original steel doors from the farm resides in front of Sierra Gold Nurseries. The nursery sits on a corner of Sutter’s original farm.

As to the name, a number of theories are offered from a close spelling of the name of a nearby Native American village to a misspelling of the German word for high – meaning above Sacramento or perhaps referring to the farm as high ground.

Here is a great link to the local Marysville Appeal-Democrat on the marker and the history of the site.

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Tim Johnson, CRC President & CEO

New: Farming and Wildlife pair well

Naturalist, artist and educator John Muir Laws discusses how rice farming in the Sacramento Valley coexists well with wildlife habitat.

New CRC Blog- The Fourth R

By Jim Morris

My son RJ loves third grade and likes to share his daily activities at Arnold Adreani Elementary School in Sacramento. A topic that caught my attention was their “Harvest of the Month Program,” where students learn in-depth about a particular type of food.  A lesson plan including agriculture is such a worthwhile endeavor: the more kids know about their food, the better decisions they will make and the better chance they have at a healthier lifestyle. My only challenge with the program was the omission of rice, an important and very local crop.

Fortunately, RJ’s teacher Mrs. Jerome allowed me to visit with the kids to provide a brief lesson plan about California Rice.  We talked about some simple but valuable facts:

• Rice has sustained much of our population for thousands of years
• California plays a big role in rice production, with the majority of it grown in the Sacramento Valley
• California farmers grow virtually all of the sushi rice in the U.S.
• California rice fields provided habitat for nearly 230 wildlife species including millions of birds that migrate along the Pacific Flyway

The kids viewed rice seed, dried rice still on the panicles, red rice, black rice and even came face to face with a wooden carved Long-billed Curlew, one of the signature birds of rice country.  Here’s a photo of this magnificent bird, held by my son, with Mrs. Jerome and myself.

I was amazed and impressed with all of their questions, which ranged from wanting to know more about how it’s grown to the different varieties of rice grown and what habitat the birds need.

RJ offered his insight, commenting on his two harvester rides and magnifying a grain of rough rice (still in its husk) on the overhead projector that really wowed the class. This simple act allowed them an up-close look at a grain that may be simple in appearance but one with global significance.

As the kids chomped on Rice Krispies Treats to close the afternoon, I felt encouraged and reminded that we shouldn’t underestimate the curiosity of children and their desire to learn. I challenged the kids to ask their parents if they knew where their food comes from. Hopefully these small steps will help us all better appreciate our next meal.

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Jim Morris is Communications Manager for the California Rice Commission. Jim has worked in communications for more than 20 years. When he’s not on the job, he enjoys his family, faith, football, outrageous monster stories and running marathons.

New Blog- Rice Growers and Scientists track Shorebirds

PRBO’s Shorebird Connectivity Project aims to further enhance the value of rice fields for birds

By Blake Barbaree

Rice growers provide critical habitat for wintering shorebirds in the Central Valley of California.  It’s thought that shorebirds move regularly between flooded rice and nearby wetlands during the winter, but no scientific proof exists.

In August 2012, PRBO Conservation Science, through the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership with Audubon California and The Nature Conservancy, initiated a two-year research project to figure out how shorebirds move among the mosaic of flooded rice fields and wetlands in the Sacramento Valley and the San Joaquin Basin.  To find the answer, researchers are capturing and attaching VHF radio-tags to Long-billed Dowitchers and Dunlin, two of the most common wintering shorebirds in the Central Valley, allowing their movements and locations to be tracked by plane throughout the winter. 

 

These birds nest on the Arctic tundra in northern Alaska and northwest Canada during summer months, and most birds rely on a mix of flooded agriculture and wetlands in winter and during migration.  Our study will find out how and why shorebirds move around the landscape and measure the distances that shorebirds move.  This information will help wildlife managers, farmers, and conservation partners identify the timing and locations that management practices will most efficiently enhance shorebird habitat in rice and wetlands.

Capturing shorebirds for this research project is a considerable challenge.  The hardest part in this study is finding and accessing areas where shorebirds can reliably be found.  Luckily, several Colusa County rice growers teamed up with the researchers and helped attract shorebirds to their fields.

Last November and December, growers maintained exceptionally “shorebird-friendly” fields; soft, muddy substrate with generally less than six inches of standing water to attract the birds.  Farmers created this habitat by allowing some, but not all, water to drain from several adjacent flooded fields.  This assistance from growers enabled PRBO to capture nine Long-billed Dowitchers and 47 Dunlin in flooded rice fields this winter. Bird capture is always conducted with the bird’s safety in mind, and trained researchers are on hand at all times. 

Looking forward to next winter, PRBO Conservation Science is seeking new partnerships with rice growers throughout the Sacramento Valley. 

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Blake Barbaree is an Avian Ecologist at PRBO Conservation Science. If you have questions on the project or are interested in partnering with PRBO, please contact him at (541) 740-2337 or bbarbaree@prbo.org.

Governor Brown on rice and the environment

California's first family toured the Colusa Farm Show. Governor Brown provided comments about farming and the environment, including about the role rice farmers play.

New CRC Blog- Monday's Meeting in Sunday's Building

By Tim Johnson

On a bright, cold Monday morning I drove to Richvale to speak at a UC Cooperative Extension rice meeting. The annual series of four meetings in mid-winter offer the best opportunity for rice farmers to connect with the outstanding research done at UC Davis. It was engaging, as always. The meeting was, however more than weed studies, fertilizer research and water use analysis. It was a striking picture of farmers intimately integrated into their community. Monday’s meeting was in Sunday’s building.

Lost in the often repeated arguments about “big ag” and “corporate farming”, is the very real fact that farmers and farming are inseparable from the communities where they live. There is no better example than the UC Cooperative Extension meeting at the Richvale EV Free Church.

Richvale is a small town with a population of 244. Outside of the high school gymnasium, there is no other building large enough or with the audio/visual equipment necessary to hold a meeting. Farmers are a practical group.

“Well,” people might say, ”that’s Richvale – small town… no other place to meet… how quaint…” Our afternoon meeting was at the Veterans Memorial Hall in Yuba City. In any small town, this is the second place the community meets to learn, eat together and catches up on life.

Agriculture may appear big from an outside view. Take a step closer to the farmer and the places they farm and they view is much more personal. I have been at the Richvale EV Free church for more than Extension meetings, sitting in the back of the small sanctuary as family, friends and children of friends hug, smile and cry at loss. The church has Scandinavian roots, just like the original immigrants into the community in the early 1900’s. I know that many, many farmers and their fathers have served this country in times of war and also in peace. And, like quite, solemn Veterans Hall they don’t boast or draw attention to themselves.

A closer view reveals that farmers are inseparable for the small communities where they live, farm and celebrate among life–long friends. Farmers are not big or corporate. They are real.

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Tim Johnson, CRC President & CEO