Tag: restoration
-
Growing food for ducks and fish in seasonally flooded managed wetlands
By Kyle Phillips, Alice Tung, Teejay O’Rear, John Durand In a recent publication in Freshwater Biology, UC Davis researchers found that waterfowl food-plants in managed wetlands of Suisun Marsh can boost plankton production by an order of magnitude compared to plants in open tidal habitats. Suisun Marsh is one of the largest tidal wetlands on the west coast…
-
Restoration of Tidal wetlands of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta – Where are we at?
By Rosemary Hartman, Matt Young, Dylan Chapple, Stacy Sherman, Dave Ayers, Emma Mendonsa, Elizabeth Brusati, and Louise Conrad Tidal wetlands in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta used to be vast. You may have seen artistic renditions of how the landscape may have looked with meandering channels weaving through a mosaic of land and water…
-
The Big Impact of Small Waters: Zooplankton Density Trends in the North Delta
By Kim Luke & John Durand Zooplankton and their history in the San Francisco Estuary Zooplankton are tiny aquatic organisms unable to swim against currents; they include microscopic crustaceans, small jellyfish, and larval life stages of other organisms (Figure 1). Although zooplankton are small in size, they have a big impact on the food web…
-
Strategic Decision Making for Dam Removal Planning
By Suman Jumani, Ted Grantham, Lucy Andrews, Jeanette Howard California has a dam problem. Since the start of the 20th century, the state has built thousands of dams on its rivers and streams. Now, more than 75% of the largest dams (totaling over 900) are greater than 50 years old, and the mean age is…
-
Shell-shocking Details About Freshwater Mussel Reproduction
By Andrew L. Rypel, Miranda Bell Tilcock, and Christine A. Parisek One of our favorite aspects of teaching is (occasionally) being able to really surprise a student. Many of the fun nature facts folks pick up nowadays come from TV, YouTube, social media, and other media outlets. But these outlets have an inherent bias: they…
-
Being patient and persistent with nature
By Andrew L. Rypel In the coming weeks, fall-run Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha) will appear in Putah Creek again to spawn. The fact that any salmon spawn in Putah Creek is a small miracle, and testimony to the resilience of salmon and a small army of people that worked tirelessly to restore and care for…
-
The Putah Creek Fish Kill: Learning from a Local Disaster
By Alex Rabidoux, Max Stevenson, Peter B. Moyle, Mackenzie C. Miner, Lauren G. Hitt, Dennis E. Cocherell, Nann A. Fangue, and Andrew L. Rypel Putah Creek is a small stream located in the Central Valley that has been extensively modified to suit urban and agricultural water needs. Following ratification of the Putah Creek Accord in…
-
Napa County strings together a ‘living’ river
By Amber Manfree In the historic heart of Napa Valley, a moderate climate and alluvial soils deposited by the Napa River create perfect conditions for world-class cabernets. An acre of vines here sells for around $300,000, or 25 times the state average for irrigated cropland. Yet a group of landowners have ripped out 20 acres…
-
When Good Fish Make Bad Decisions
Carson Jeffres, Staff Research Associate, Center for Watershed Sciences Restoration of degraded habitat is generally considered to be a no-brainer. But, what if by “restoring” the habitat, you inadvertently create a habitat that causes either the target species or other important non-target species to spiral towards extinction—that is, a place that looks good on the…
-
Wanted: An integrated strategy for recovery of Central Valley salmon
Jacob Katz, Ph.D. Candidate, Center for Watershed Sciences Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, University of California – Davis Historically, the rivers of the Central Valley had seasonally variable stream flows and diverse habitats. Rivers tended to flood in winter, with low flows in summer. Salmon used in-channel gravel beds for spawning, deep in-channel pools…
-
Israel’s Delta – The Hula Valley
Jay R. Lund, The Ray B. Krone Chair of Environmental Engineering, University of California – Davis History has many cases of deltas, lakes, and marshlands which have been “reclaimed” for agriculture, then as agriculture became uneconomical, have been returned to the environment (Mostert 2011). In far northern Israel is Hula Valley, about 44,000 acres of…
-
Dammed fish? Call 5937.
Peter Moyle, Professor of Fish Biology, UC Davis Brian Gray, Professor of Law, UC Hastings School of Law “The owner of any dam shall allow sufficient water at all times to pass over, around, or through the dam, to keep in good condition any fish that may be planted or exist below the dam.” California…