The central valley of california is one of the most important wintering areas for waterfowl in north america, supporting approximately 60% of the pacific flyway population

Historically, the central valley contained more than 4 million acres of wetlands and provided habitat for an estimated 20 to 40 million waterfowl annually. Today, less than 5% of historic wetlands remain, and of those, two-thirds are in private ownership. California department of fish and wildlife s (cdfw) s wetland conservation program (WCP) was established in 1990 as a mechanism for the cdfw to accomplish the wetland protection, restoration, and enhancement objectives of the central valley joint venture (cvjv). Cdfw state wildlife action plan (swap 2015) identifies wetland restoration and partnerships with private landowners as a high priority to reverse past wetland declines. The WCP addresses these needs by working with both the public and private sectors to protect, restore, enhance, and improve management of california s wetlands for waterfowl and other wetland-dependent species. For the 2023-24 grant term, we anticipate that the WCP will have management agreements on 56,417 acres of private lands and help with the enhancement and management of 173,773 acres of public lands statewide. Cdfw identifies the following specific conservation needs to increase acreage and quality of freshwater wetlands: -cdfw should strengthen its capacity to implement conservation actions and to assist local agencies and landowners with planning and implementation of wildlife and habitat restoration and conservation efforts. -while numerous private landowners are leaders in conservation, the cdfw, the U.S. Fish and wildlife service (USFWS), natural resources conservation service (nrcs), and local resource conservation districts need to expand efforts to improve conservation and restoration on private lands by assisting private landowners. -public agencies and private organizations should conserve and restore water-dependent habitats (including wetland, riparian, and estuarine) throughout the central valley region. If these needs are not met fewer wetland acres will be restored in california, and current wetland acres under state control (cdfw lands and private lands under contract with cdfw) will be lower in quality, drastically reducing the benefits to wetland-dependent wildlife species.