The Nature Conservancy

 

Sandhill cranes

“We’ve created healthy and vibrant forests. I can’t think of a better measure of success for the Sacramento River Project.”

— Ryan Luster, restoration ecologist

Hamilton City school children participate in the Sacramento River restoration project.
Hamilton City school children participate in the Sacramento River restoration project. © Peggy McNutt/TNC

Go Deeper

Migratory Bird Program
Nearly half the world’s 10,000 bird species depend on the forests, wetlands and grasslands of the Americas — from Canada to Argentina. But habitat loss is threatening their ability to survive.
Read what the Conservancy is doing to protect migratory birds.

Sacramento River Project
Years ago, the Sacramento River supported more species than any other river ecosystem in California. By the end of the 1980s, as few as 10,000 acres, or 2 percent of the riverside forest, remained.
Read what the Conservancy and its partners are doing to preserve California's largest river.

Fisherman on the Sacramento River

The 20th anniversary of the Sacramento River Project marks an important milestone in California. Since 1988, The Nature Conservancy has planted more than 1 million seedlings and is nearing its goal of restoring a continuous 100-mile stretch of vital riparian habitat to flood-prone lands along the river between Red Bluff and Colusa.

The Sacramento River is truly the lifeline of the Great Central Valley. It's the largest river in the Golden State, supplying 35 percent of all water used by Californians — including valley farmers who grow one-quarter of all produce consumed in the United States.

The river and its flood basins also support more than 250 species including tropical migrant songbirds, Chinook salmon, steelhead trout, bald eagles and river otters.

Restoring a once-lush forest

Agriculture, development and water management have taken their toll on this rich ecosystem over the last 150 years. Once totaling a million acres, only 2 percent of its original vast riparian woodland forests, grasslands and wetlands remained intact when The Nature Conservancy entered the picture 20 years ago. It was the first time any agency or environmental conservation group had attempted to protect the depleting habitat of the Sacramento River.

Since then, The Nature Conservancy and partners, including the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the California Department of Fish and Game, the California Wildlife Conservation Board and stakeholders participating in the Sacramento River Conservation Area, have undertaken the largest riparian restoration project in the United States; aided in the creation of the Sacramento River National Wildlife Refuge, the main winter stopover site for migratory waterfowl on the Pacific Flyway; and protected more than 20,000 acres.

Pioneering a new direction for conservation

“The Sacramento River Project has led to groundbreaking conservation strategies like the Hamilton City levee project, a first-of-its-kind effort combining both flood management and public safety benefits with ecosystem conservation benefits,” said Gregg Werner, director of the Sacramento River Project. “We’ve forged a new way of doing business working in close partnership with local residents and unlikely partners like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. It has been very rewarding.”

Even more extraordinary is that in 20 years, the footprint of our earliest restoration work has become invisible, as if we were never there. “It is virtually impossible for birds, insects and even the human eye to distinguish the original forests from those we have restored,” said restoration ecologist Ryan Luster. “We’ve created healthy and vibrant forests. I can’t think of a better measure of success for the Sacramento River Project.”

Nature picture credits (top, left to right): Photo © Grant Johnson (fishing on a slough adjacent to the main channel of the Sacramento River); Photo © Tim Wolcott (sandhill cranes).