We are on the lookout for a badger on the preserves. We’ve had three reports from trusted individuals that one exists. State wildlife officials are doubtful. So we set up a few motion-detect cameras to try to see if it was true. I was excited when I fi …

Now I know where the saying came from. The photo attached to this entry is a few days worth of work by some very industrious beavers at the Conservancy’s Silva tract near Water Control Structure “R.” When I first came to work for the Conservancy, I had …

One of the Conservancy’s rice farmers said recently about this year’s rice crop: “Just let it be over.” For sure, rice farmers up and down the Sacramento Valley have said that the 2010 rice crop is the most challenging they’ve ever experienced. The cha …

Nearly all of the rice planted on the Conservancy’s land is still in the ground, unharvested as of today. The Conservancy’s rice farmers are “mired in a slough of despondency” (to quote Shakespeare) over this year’s crop. One told me recently, “I just …

The nearby photo shows several of the Conservancy’s goats doing the “close-in” vegetation management work around marsh complexes. To a preserve manager, this is beauty beyond belief. We are required to manage the marsh complexes for the benefit of 22 o …

Some years ago, the Carlos Ayala family donated funds from their wedding gift to the Conservancy. It was an unexpected gift, but a wonderful, magnanimous gift, for sure. We wanted to commemorate the gesture, and did so by naming a bridge in their name. …