MONDAY, AUGUST 7, 2023. BY BILLY ABBOTT, THE NATURE CONSERVANCY.
The BirdReturns-Delta Farmlands Program is an opportunity in late summer-early fall this year for farmers and landowners in the Yolo and Delta Basins of the Central Valley, including the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, to receive financial compensation for temporarily flooding fields to provide shallow flooded habitat for migratory birds. Since 2014, BirdReturns has generated over $10 million in direct payments to farmers and created over 120,000 acres of wetland habitat.
The Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership (Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science), in partnership with the Delta Conservancy and the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, is now accepting online bids for the BirdReturns Program for Fall 2023.
The application for this program consists of a one-page bid form and will require a map and a bid price per acre for each proposed field. Applications are due by noon on August 14, 2023. Applicants interested in this practice should expect to be sprayed by mosquito abatement districts and should work with local district representatives to determine the approximate abatement fees prior to applying to ensure that they are accounting for these fees in their bids. Growers can find their mosquito vector control district HERE.
For any questions, please contact Billy Abbott by email william.abbott@tnc.org or by phone 530.288.1862.
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