Blog

Now that we have transitioned from fall into winter, the Sacramento Valley is welcoming incredible numbers of migratory and wintering birds to the region every day. The habitat these species are now benefiting from is the result of months of deliberate water and land management activities, as well as decades of work to establish the varied land uses that make up this habitat, including flooded rice fields, the establishment of privately managed wetlands as well as the creation of National Wildlife Refuges and State Wildlife Areas. All of this habitat is dependent upon the availability of high quality water supplies throughout the year.

It’s tree planting time. The rains have come, and our habitat team is in high gear: augering holes, sowing native grass seed, and getting young plants in the ground. We at Audubon California plants trees and shrubs to support the birds that need them for food, cover, and nest sites. Valley oak, coyote brush, redbud, coffeeberry, wild rose, toyon. When there is sufficient room next to a waterways , these plantings mimic the riverside forests that used to run ribbons across the Valley, providing one of the richest habitats for wildlife in North America.

As a public agency, Browns Valley Irrigation District, a northern California water purveyor, hires an outside accountant (CPA) to do an annual audit of the financial records. This process is one of the ways that we insure that public funds are being expended appropriately. As is the norm, there are always transactions that need to be clarified as the CPA works through the previous year’s records.
This year, I was hit with one question that made me take pause. The CPA saw that one of the budget line items was for “Delta Issues.” He posed “why on earth is an irrigation district that is located some 60 river miles upstream of the Delta, spending money on issues in the Delta?” Good question. This was not going to be one of those one or two sentence answers that simply tied the expense to a District project. I asked the CPA to sit down and I will try to explain.

The 2012 harvest is getting close to completion, while Thanksgiving and the Holidays will soon approach. My hope for our family and yours – that we can finish the harvest before winter’s rain takes hold. At our farm in Richvale, it has rained a day each of the past two weeks – a very strong indication that winter isn’t far off. Yesterday our neighbors at the Gorrill Ranch in Nelson started flooding their fields to decompose rice straw and provide habitat for ducks and geese. This morning thousands of waterfowl were already enjoying the Gorrill’s fields. These are clear signs of the changing seasons and we cannot take for granted the importance of completing the harvest before stormy weather settles in the Valley. Every farmer will press on till the harvest is complete because a whole season’s work is at stake!