Getting Water to Places Birds Need Most

When December’s rains furnished a bit of respite, Californians and the birds of the Pacific Flyway go on to wrestle as a result of the ongoing drought. Migratory and wetland-dependent bird species have by now shed above 90 percent of California’s normal wetlands, and even in soaked years they lack sufficient, higher-top quality habitat for foraging, resting, and breeding. As this drought persists, Audubon and our partners ought to function with urgency to come across, provide, and safeguard drinking water materials for birds.

In 2022, Audubon California is prioritizing 4 water coverage strategies to bolster birds’ resilience as a result of this drought.

• Making certain agencies supply the h2o required to build habitat on our past remaining wildlife refuges and to put up-harvest rice fields that are supplying surrogate habitat, although identifying chances to reconnect floodplains and strengthen ecosystem functionality to benefit fish, birds, and men and women.
• Preserving managed wetlands that rely on groundwater during the implementation of California’s groundwater security law, the Sustainable Groundwater Administration Act (SGMA).
• Restoring habitat at the Salton Sea, advocating for protections for the Sea and nearby communities and pushing attempts for sustainability on the Colorado River, the supply of water for the Salton Sea.
• Expanding drinking water provides and money methods for the Klamath National Wildlife Refuge, the staging and molting floor for thousands and thousands of migratory waterfowl every single 12 months.

Investing in California’s Wetlands

Audubon is centered on conserving, increasing, and growing California’s very last 220,000 acres of wetlands in the Central Valley. At one time, wetlands sprawled across four million of the Valley’s 13 million acres and supported tens of millions of birds. But after agriculture and city advancement drained lakes, plowed wetlands, cleared riverside forests, and disconnected floodplains, hen populations declined by the thousands and thousands and go on to wrestle.

Wetland-dependent birds like migratory shorebirds, ducks, and geese need each acre however out there and depend on a mosaic of managed wetlands across the Valley. These locations are distribute throughout community and non-public lands, and are supplemented by chicken-helpful agriculture, this kind of as rice fields that are strategically flooded just after harvest. Approximately all battle to get access to ample h2o provides to supply habitat, primarily all through drought.

In 2022, Audubon is contacting on point out and federal determination-makers to invest in wetlands on the similar scale as investments in drinking water infrastructure to gain agriculture, industry, and substantial cities. These investments will improve water supply programs to refuges, get extensive-time period h2o legal rights for sensitive ecosystems, and endorse pure infrastructure that help floodplain reconnection and groundwater recharge. Elevated expenditure in drinking water for wetlands is necessary if the Biden administration’s The usa the Stunning and the Newsom administration’s “30 by 30” initiatives are to be successful in California.

State and federal general public lands should have at minimum as considerably taxpayer investment decision as personal water supply constructions. For case in point, previous calendar year, the Condition of California dedicated $100 million in community money to restore h2o shipping and delivery buildings broken by subsidence induced by around pumping groundwater. It is probable that hundreds of millions additional in federal taxpayer pounds will be invested in coming yrs to maintenance h2o supply systems that advantage personal landowners. Although Audubon recognizes the value of these public investments, we are doing the job to make sure that investments are matched with funding for the neighborhood ingesting drinking water and the setting.

Defense of Managed Wetlands

As California wrestles with decreasing reliance on groundwater and utilizing the Sustainable Groundwater Administration Act (SGMA), managed wetlands and ecosystems that count on groundwater are significantly at risk of getting rid of an important resource of drinking water. In 2022, Audubon and our associates will be functioning with the California Department of Drinking water Assets, the Office of Fish & Wildlife, non-public landowners, and groundwater sustainability agencies to make certain that habitats that depend on groundwater are safeguarded in the implementation of SGMA.

Audubon analyzed proposed groundwater sustainability programs (GSPs) in critical regions in the state where by implementation of the plans will have immediate repercussions for thousands of acres of managed wetlands. Quite a few of these wetlands rely fully on groundwater to present crucial habitat for migratory birds. In our critique of GSPs, only a handful even acknowledged the wetlands in their basin, and only one particular look at wetland groundwater requires. None of the GSPs proposed adequate protections or materials for wetlands or wildlife.

Audubon is calling on the Condition of California to satisfy its community belief obligations to safeguard birds and critical habitats like wetlands as SGMA is carried out. With a wide coalition of wetland advocates, Audubon will pursue advocacy with the suitable organizations and Legislature and take into account crafting legislation and other policy solutions to assure these last remaining wetlands obtain the water birds will need.

Restoring Chook Habitat at the Salton Sea

In 2021, Audubon and our companions served safe a a few-yr determination for $220 million to be invested in jobs to lower dust emissions and make habitat at the Salton Sea. It is all element of the implementation of an arrangement amongst the Point out of California, the Imperial Irrigation District, and stakeholders including Audubon, which mandates that in excess of 29,000 acres of dust suppression and habitat projects be completed by 2029.

In 2022, Audubon is prioritizing securing the 2nd payment in the 3-12 months commitment, this time about $100 million for jobs. Some of this funding may assist Audubon’s Bombay Beach habitat restoration venture which will protect and improve wetland habitat, as effectively as give dust suppression near the city of Bombay Seashore on the japanese shore of the Salton Sea.

A sustainable Salton Sea that is managed for habitat and dust regulate to guarantee enhancements to air good quality is integral to Audubon’s advocacy for drinking water provide sustainability on the Colorado River, since the Colorado River is the main supply of water sustaining the Salton Sea. Ongoing endeavours to uncover sustainable drinking water solutions on the Colorado River are integrally related with the Salton Sea.  

The Klamath National Wildlife Refuge

Audubon California is operating with the Klamath Basin Audubon Modern society, Portland Audubon, and other companions to make improvements to problems at the Tule Lake and Decrease Klamath National Wildlife Refuges, which are important stop-about websites on the Pacific Flyway. For a long time, the refuges have not acquired adequate h2o to guidance the wetlands required by migratory birds. 

In 2020, extra than 60,000 birds died due to an outbreak of botulism. A comparable catastrophe was averted in 2021, most likely simply because there was so minor habitat obtainable that lots of birds skipped earlier the Klamath refuges through their migration.

In addition to advocating for the $162 million in federal funding from the infrastructure monthly bill to assistance drinking water acquisition and infrastructure enhancements, Audubon proceeds to do the job to increase the public profile of this vital refuge. More state and federal funding will be necessary to accomplish even essential reputable water materials for this lynchpin in the Pacific Flyway.