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Funded by the California Rice Commission, the University of California, Davis partnered with the Point Blue Conservation Science to release a first-of-its-kind report looking into the necessity of state flooded rice fields, finding the state will need up to 500,000 acres to support wildlife conservation needs.
In “A Conservation Footprint for California Rice,” authors suggest the state’s current rice field-acreage — ranging between 250,000 to 540,000 acres — will not be able to bear the many species of fish, birds and snakes reliant on farms without adequate water allocations.
“For decades now, our growers have seen firsthand how much their rice fields are used by wildlife all throughout the year,” said Tim Johnson, California Rice Commission president and CEO, in a release, with the study estimating that roughly $1 billion and 7,500 jobs come out of Sacramento Valley rice production.
Though the transition of rice acres to perennial tree nuts poses a long-term loss to conservation potential, the study found orchards have mostly been planted on the periphery of the most productive rice land.
They added that the greatest threats to sustaining rice habitats are drought, water supply, water costs and climate whiplash, referring to the 2022 drought that fallowed acres down to nearly half of what they are today.
The researchers also recommend strategies for water management in the state’s most critical basins for wildlife, finding that the precise timing of floods, draining and rice harvest are key factors to the success of wildlife.
“This was a highly interdisciplinary effort that I don’t think has been attempted at this scale for California rice or perhaps any other California agricultural crop working with wildlife,” said report co-lead John Eadie, a UC Davis professor emeritus in the Department of Wildlife, Fish and Conservation Biology, who coordinated the 173-page effort among 13 authors. “I think this report provides the baseline for future work to come.”
