1. Award purpose - the floodplain forward program is advancing a landscape scale vision of early implementation projects that will improve habitat conditions for fish, birds and other wildlife and…

The Department of the Interior's Bureau of Reclamation awarded a $7,359,000 Cooperative Agreement to Reclamation District 108 (RD108) under the Central Valley Improvement Act, Title XXXIV (CFDA 15.512) program. The award supports RD108's efforts to develop and evaluate options to create fish and wildlife benefits on historic floodplains in the Sacramento River Basin. Key activities include providing technical assistance, conducting 112 acres of riparian habitat restoration, and developing a better understanding of food web dynamics for juvenile salmonids. Sub-recipients River Partners and California Trout will assist with habitat restoration and scientific research. Through voluntary partnerships with private landowners and tribal entities, the award aims to improve floodplain function, reconnect rivers to their historical floodplains, and enable salmon recovery in the Sacramento River watershed.

1. Award purpose - the floodplain forward program is advancing a landscape scale vision of early implementation projects that will improve habitat conditions for fish, birds and other wildlife and advance actions to aid with their recovery. The recipient, reclamation district 108 (RD108) will assemble the team necessary to develop and evaluate options, and produce an implementable plan to create wildlife benefits on historic floodplains. The floodplain forward program will help advance a collection of projects in the sacramento river basin, generally grouped in five (5) categories: river connections projects that reconnect rivers to their historical floodplains in-river function projects that enhance, restore and create in-river function habitat floodplain flow corridors projects that improve create flow conveyance infrastructure needed to reactivate floodplains and improve fish passage floodplain reactivation fish food projects that reactivate floodplains, provide fish rearing habitat, and or generate fish food science data acquisition efforts that improve the knowledge base through research, experimentation, data collection and advanced analytics.2. Activities to be performed - objective 1: technical assistanceobjective 2: habitat restorationobjective 3: food for FISH3. Expected deliverable or outcome - benefits provided by this financial assistance agreement will include: RD 108 and its sub-recipients developing the technical tools and analyses needed to advance projects which improve floodplain function for multiple purposes through voluntary collaborative partnerships with private landowners, sovereign tribal entities. Assisting with the construction of 112 acres of riparian habitat restoration in the floodplain of the sacramento river in colusa county which will provide critical food source and migratory habitat for salmon in the sacramento river. Developing a better understanding of food web and diet dynamics and their uses by juvenile salmonids. This will aid in better utilized restoration projects pursuant to the salmon resiliency strategy.4. Intended beneficiary (IES) - the recipient has proposed to reclamation to develop and evaluate options and produce an implementable plan to create fish and wildlife benefits on historic floodplains. Today, 95 of the california central valleys historical floodplains are cut off from the river by levees. Built in the early 1900S to combat devastating floods, levees and bypasses were constructed to corral mighty rivers and push water quickly through the flood control system. Salmon populations started to dramatically decline with the construction of the levees. Simply put, the levees prevented out migrating juvenile chinook salmon from accessing floodplains, which are their primary rearing habitat and food source. A multi- year study led by UC davis center for watershed sciences, department of water resources, department of fish and wildlife, delta stewardship council and california trout found that zooplankton (which fish feed on) densities were up to 149 times higherin floodplain bypasses compared to tested sites in the adjacent sacramento river.juvenile salmon rearing on the bypasses grew 5 to 12 times faster compared to fish that only ATE in the sacramento river. This rapid growth among juvenile salmon is vital for the salmons overall health, ability to evade predators and the strength required for the species to reach the pacific ocean for the next phase of their lifecycle. The bigger and stronger they are as juveniles helps improve the chances the salmon come back to the river to spawn as adults.5. Subrecipient activities - objective 2 - river partnersobjective 3 - california trout