When I saw the adjacent chart, I realized that what we are doing here at the Conservancy is essential. I like to quote California’s original Giant garter snake expert, George Hansen, who said many years ago: “If you want to know where Giant garter snakes live, find rice farms.”
His point was that the infrastructure that surrounds rice farming and certain other types of agriculture provide considerable habitat for the many endangered and threatened species that remain in the California’s Central Valley, especially the Giant garter snake. Of particular importance are the water conveyance structures especially needed by rice agriculture.
Saving farms, saving wetlands, and enhancing them with rich biological features is the only way the wildlife populations we have now will be sustainable.
