River partners proposes to (1) permanently conserve 358 acres of agricultural floodplains currently disconnected from the sacramento river (2) complete planning, design, stakeholder engagement, and…

River partners proposes to (1) permanently conserve 358 acres of agricultural floodplains currently disconnected from the sacramento river (2) complete planning, design, stakeholder engagement, and permitting for habitat restoration at three project sites (3) construct new seasonally inundated habitat and potentially install gate structures to attain desired hydrologic residence time for floodplains and (4) design and deploy a monitoring program at the project sites to document progress of fish habitat improvements made through this project. Following acquisition, this project will create 55 acres of new seasonally inundated floodplain across 13 river miles, extending from stegeman to colusa, california at three (3) different project locations: the r j orchard, the scurria property, and rancho caleta. This reach is critically important to juvenile salmon because these sites will serve as the last possible rest stops on out-migration before salmon must navigate a channelized river corridor characterized by denuded levee slopes and heavy agricultural practices that extend to the rivers edge. This project will occur entirely on land owned in fee title by river partners or land to be purchased by river partners in the near term. Funds requested in this proposal will leverage an additional 6 million in state funding from californias department of water resources, central valley tributaries program. This proposal describes river partners procedures for improving juvenile salmonid rearing habitat at each of the three (3) project sites. River partners will implement similar project components at each location, all of which will focus on floodplain reconnection, floodplain expansion, and juvenile rearing habitat creation for freshwater life stages of anadromous salmonids in the sacramento river and its tributaries. These individual projects will assist the bureau of reclamation in meeting their fish doubling goal. Each individual site is treated as a stand-alone project and projects can be severed from this proposal to meet budget availability. These projects will take approximately five years to complete, with an estimated completion date of september 30, 2027. None of the project sites are located on federal land.