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 challenges are largely attributable to the Spring 2010 weather, which included unseasonally cool temperatures and late rain. Not only did rice farmers get in their fields late due to extended rain last spring, cool temperatures delayed plant maturity. Then, September and October weather was cooler than normal, which made for even more challenging conditions. Since the NBHCP requires that the Conservancy plant rice on 50 percent of its mitigation acres for the benefit of the giant garter snake, having a viable and healthy rice operation in the Natomas Basin is essential. We just hope that the post-harvest activities (reducing the fields of post-harvest rice straw especially) won’t get delayed so that we are forced into a late planting again next season. This is one for the record books!
Big bird
Photo taken by Conservancy staff at a Conservancy preserve, 2025. With this article is a photo of a Great horned owl (Bubo virginianus) in flight. It’s on one of the Conservancy’s marsh complexes. While the Conservancy has prepared the preserves mostly for the benefit of the Swainson’s hawk (Buteo swainsoni), …