The San Francisco Chronicle published an in-depth insert on California rice that provides valuable insight on future water management opportunities in the Sacramento Valley. Included in the insert was an article highlighting the Nigiri Project–the California Trout and University of California program to study rearing juvenile trout on harvested rice fields. This highly acclaimed program seeks to coordinate agricultural and environmental land uses to provide maximum benefits for fish, birds and groundwater recharge. As California Trout’s Jacob Katz says in the article, “You can really finally break the logjam of this mentality of conflict of fish or farms. That’s why rice is really remarkable. Rice fields can be surrogate wetlands for fish and birds.”
The article reveals the innovative thinking in the Sacramento Valley on how to best utilize water resources, with water resources managers working closely with conservation partners and state and federal agencies to develop new strategies to spread water in the Valley to improve the food supplies and habitat for fish, birds and other species, as well as recharge valuable groundwater resources.
