Sacramento River Basin Floodplains at the Heart of Landmark Agreement

On October 23, 2024 an MOU was signed to improve communications between agencies, enhance flood protection, create and protect habitat for fish and wildlife, increase long-term health for farms and communities.

Federal and State of California government agencies, overseeing water, agriculture, fish and wildlife, public lands and flood control, have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance collaboration on landscape-scale, multi-beneficial floodplain water projects in the Sacramento River Basin.

The purpose of this agreement is to elevate the opportunity for landscape-scale funding and to streamline planning, design, implementation, monitoring, and information sharing of projects located on the floodplains that enhance flood protection, restore fish and wildlife habitat, improve groundwater aquifer recharge, provide water supply reliability, and sustain farming and managed wetland operations.

The agencies who signed on to the MOU include:

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS)
U.S. Bureau of Reclamation (USBR)
U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM)
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE)
USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS)
California Natural Resources Agency (CNRA)
California Department of Fish and Wildlife (CDFW)
California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA)
California Department of Water Resources (DWR)
National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF).

Read the full agency press release here.

As a first-of-its-kind, broad coalition of 27-members representing landowners, irrigation districts, higher education, and wildlife conservation groups in California, we are encouraged by the agreement signed by state and federal agencies today, October 23, 2024, to ensure further collaboration and investment into our natural floodplains; so that we may benefit fish, wildlife and people in the Sacramento Valley. Focusing efforts into projects that support flood protection, fish and wildlife habitat, improve water supplies and sustain farms and communities is vital to ensure the long-term health of the region.