Serving Our Planet: PG&E Teams with Rice Growers and Waterfowl Conservationists to Protect Species in Central Valley

SUTTER COUNTY — There are unsettling moments in the rice fields of the Sacramento Valley when a low rumble suddenly rises and sounds like the instant just before a rogue wave slams the coast.

But these fields just outside Yuba City are more than 150 miles from the Pacific Ocean and that’s not the sound of the surf.

It’s the beating of tens of thousands of wings against the air whenever a massive flock of birds such as tundra swans or curlews or pintails decides in unison to relocate from field to the next.

It’s within this unique environment that Pacific Gas and Electric Company is working with partners to ensure the Sacramento Valley remains rich in both rice agriculture and wildlife for decades to come.

The valley has been a critical stopover for hundreds of species of migrating birds since time immemorial. During late autumn and early winter countless birds migrating from as far as northern Alaska and Siberia stop to rest and feed in the region north of Sacramento.

Prior to California statehood in 1850, migrating birds would have thrived across millions of acres of natural wetlands. The development of cities, flood control and irrigation projects and some forms of agriculture reduced natural wetlands more than 90 percent.

Snow and white fronted geese in a flooded rice field in Sutter County.

While natural wetlands still exist in places such as the Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex, rice fields have become the predominant habitat for migrating birds and other species, such as the giant garter snake, which is listed as threatened under both the federal Endangered Species Act and California’s Endangered Species Act.

Rice Farming and Wildlife Work Together

The annual flooding of the fields coincides with the fall and winter bird migrations and when the fields are dry, they can support other species, such as the snake and even large mammals such as deer.

“It’s just rice farming, but it’s good for a lot of different wildlife,” said Jake Messerli, chief operating officer for California Waterfowl, a conservation organization.

The problem is both wildlife and rice agriculture in the Sacramento Valley are threatened by drought, climate change and other challenges.

“The rice industry is basically shrinking,” said John Brennan, a partner in Tule Basin Farms, a rice growing operation near Robbins in Sutter County. “It used to be 550,000 to 600,000 acres. It will probably end up being about 400,000 acres.”

A recent project by PG&E, however, aims to help both wildlife and rice growers in the Sacramento Valley while helping the company achieve important habitat conservation goals.

“This is a good fit for PG&E’s conservation strategy,” said Matt Brown, a PG&E land consultant. “We have natural marsh and also rice agriculture, so we’ll get the best of both worlds rather than trying to conserve both of those resource types separately.”

Partnership Helps Everything from Snakes to Sushi

Under the joint project PG&E is purchasing the rights to a conservation easement from Tule Basin Farms and California Waterfowl will manage the easement to conserve wildlife, specifically the threatened giant garter snake.

Giant garter snake

The deal will help Tule Basin Farms by providing financial support for their operation, which is important to local economy and the global food supply.

“Every sushi restaurant in the United States gets their rice from here,” Brennan said. “We go on sales tours in New York and the chefs want to know where the rice came from. The rice comes from the Sacramento Valley.”

More importantly, Brennan said, rice agriculture has emerged as critical to the viability of the Pacific Flyway, one of the planet’s great routes for migrating birds.

That makes the sustainability of farms like Tule Basin important to millions of migrating birds, in addition to the importance of the farm and others like it to local economies in the Sacramento Valley.

“The future of rice is basically integrating it more with the environment and making (rice agriculture) look like what the floodplain used to look like,” Brennan said.

For California Waterfowl, a non-profit organization founded in 1945 to support habitat conservation for duck hunting, it’s a chance to become more deeply involved in expanding waterfowl and wetland conservation and support water supplies for wetlands and wildlife-friendly agriculture.

Wildlife habitat and rice agriculture overlap in Sutter County.

“When you look at the Sacramento Valley the landscape is changing at a pretty dramatic rate and a lot of the land uses are changing to non-wildlife-friendly crops or other land uses,” Messerli said. “Anything we can do to protect rice agriculture and other wildlife-friendly crops, we are working with partners to do that.”

For PG&E the project is an opportunity to support economic prosperity in its Sacramento Valley hometowns while conserving the planet through its habitat conservation.

Under PG&E’s Bay Area Habitat Conservation Plan, the company has an opportunity to streamline environmental permitting for construction, operation and maintenance of infrastructure by conserving habitat in advance of impacts for species such as the giant garter snake.

“For PG&E for the next 30 years we don’t have to worry about finding conservation opportunities for giant garter snakes, we can provide that here,” Brown said. “We’re getting our conservation goal here and now, which provides substantial savings and benefit to PG&E.”