The Pacific Flyway is a California jewel that depends upon reliable water supplies. Birds rely upon the ricelands, wildlife refuges and other managed wetlands for their food and habitat. Meghan Hertel, Audubon California’s Working Land’s Director, has highlighted and made a plea for the important and ongoing water needs of the wildlife refuges in California’s Central Valley. We encourage you to read her blog at: Audubon – No, the Central Valley refuges aren’t getting 100% of their federal water allocations. Not remotely.
In the Sacramento Valley, local water suppliers provide nearly all of the water for the National Wildlife Refuges and several of these local water agencies are aggressively working with Audubon and other conservation partners and the federal and state refuge managers to advance the infrastructure and other improvements that will provide more reliable and additional water supplies for these refuges. Even though the Sacramento Valley has been blessed with good snowpack and full reservoirs in 2016, we know there are more dry years around the corner. Water resources managers will continue to work hard to further secure and augment water supplies for the wildlife refuges.
This is another example of the importance of managing water in a sustainable manner for all uses: birds, fish, farms and local communities.
