The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is restoring wetlands in a low-lying flood control channel, the Yolo Bypass, to provide food, shelter, and a breeding ground for ducks and waterfowl. The Corps built the Yolo Bypass to hold floodwater from the Sacramento River, and the California Department of Water Resources and the state Reclamation Board are responsible for its operation.
Creating the wildlife area in a flood control channel took seven years of work by a partnership of local, state, and federal agencies, and community and nonprofit groups.
California's Secretary for Resources Douglas P. Wheeler said the project is a manifestation of Governor Pete Wilson's long-term strategy to increase wetlands in California by acquisition and restoration. Wheeler said he will ensure that the Governor's budget includes adequate funding to manage the new wildlife area.
"Nothing attracts support like the kind of collaborative effort this project represents," Wheeler said. "We can work as partners, state, federal, and local government, and the private sector. We can integrate economic and environmental objectives without doing undue injury to either, and we can use creative thinking to solve heretofore intractable problems. We are leading the country in our approach to these issues."
Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt, addressing the dedication ceremony, said the cooperative work of the partners was indispensable.
"It says that agriculture, wildlife, and a dynamic urban area can work together, not exclusively, and I believe that message has to be spread across this entire country," Babbitt said.
The Corps is funding the $16.7 million restoration project, of which $4.7 million was for land, and $12 million for development, planning, and construction. The state Wildlife Conservation Board purchased 3,100 acres of Putah Creek Sinks from PG&E Properties, Inc. The land, historically a marshy flood plain rich in biodiversity, has been farmed since the 1950s when Monticello Dam was built to hold back the waters of Putah Creek, forming Lake Berryessa.
Another 390 acres was provided by the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) in a transfer to the California Department of Fish and Game (DFG). The DFG will manage the wildlife area, and has developed a proposed plan.
The restoration, which began in August, calls for 2,323 acres of seasonal wetlands, 484 acres of uplands and grasslands, 185 acres of perennial wetlands, and 28 acres of riparian forest.
Regional Director Michael Spear of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service said restoring the Yolo Bypass is the agency's top priority for wetlands protection in the Central Valley.
The Yolo Basin Wetlands Project is a cooperative restoration program of the Corps, DFG, Yolo Basin Foundation, Fish and Wildlife Service, Department of Water Resources, Wildlife Conservation Board, and Ducks Unlimited, a conservation group that promotes and helps establish wetlands and other waterfowl habitat.
In addition to Babbitt, Wheeler, and Spear, speakers at the dedication included Brig. Gen. Bruce Scott and Col. John Reese of the Corps, Yolo County Supervisor Betsy Marchand, Executive Director Robin Kulakow of the Yolo Basin Foundation, Rep. Vic Fazio, Assistant Executive Director Jim Sarro of the Wildlife Conservation Board, and Alan Wentz, group manager for conservation and communications for Ducks Unlimited, Inc.
Creating and restoring areas like the Yolo Bypass is necessary because California has lost 90 percent of its historic wetlands, the largest percentage lost in any state. Only about 450,000 acres remain of the 5 million wetland acres that historically covered one-twentieth of California. The Central Valley has lost the most wetlands, mostly to conversion for farming.