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Farm to Fish: Lessons from a Multi-Year Study on Agricultural Floodplain Habitat Ted Sommer,*1 Brian Schreier,1 J

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Farm to Fish: Lessons from a Multi-Year Study on Agricultural Floodplain Habitat Ted Sommer,*1 Brian Schreier,1 J Sponsored by the Delta Science Program and the UC Davis Muir Institute RESEARCH Farm to Fish: Lessons from a Multi-Year Study on Agricultural Floodplain Habitat Ted Sommer,*1 Brian Schreier,1 J. Louise Conrad,2 Lynn Takata,2 Bjarni Serup,3 Rob Titus,3 Carson Jeffres,4 Eric Holmes,4 Jacob Katz5 ABSTRACT that seasonally flooded fields are highly Large areas of California’s historic floodplain productive, resulting in significantly higher have been separated from adjacent river levels of zooplankton and high Chinook channels by levee construction, allowing the Salmon growth rates as compared to the development of an extensive agricultural adjacent Sacramento River. We found similar industry. Based on successful partnerships results for multiple geographical areas in between agriculture and conservation groups the Central Valley, and in different cover to support migrating waterfowl, we examined types, such as non-rice crops and fallow whether seasonally flooded rice fields areas. Although field substrate type did not could be modified to provide off-channel detectably affect fish growth and survival, rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon connectivity with upstream and downstream Oncorhynchus tshawytscha. During winter and areas appeared to drive fish occupancy, spring of 2012-2017, we conducted a series because rearing young salmon were generally of experiments in Yolo Bypass and other attracted to inflow in the fields, and not regions of California’s Central Valley using all of the fish successfully emigrated off hatchery Chinook Salmon as a surrogate the fields without efficient drainage. In for wild Chinook Salmon, the management general, we faced numerous logistic and target for our project. Overall, we found environmental challenges to complete our research. For example, periodic unmanaged SFEWS Volume 18 | Issue 3 | Article 3 floods in the Yolo Bypass made it difficult to https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2020v18iss3art3 schedule and complete experiments. During severe drought conditions, we found that * Corresponding author: [email protected] managed agricultural habitats produced low 1 California Department of Water Resources Sacramento, CA 94236 USA and variable salmon survival results, likely 2 Delta Science Program, Delta Stewardship Council because of periodically high temperatures Sacramento, CA 95814 USA and concentrated avian predation. In 3 California Department of Fish and Wildlife addition, our project required substantial West Sacramento, CA 95605 USA landowner time and effort to install and 4 University of California Davis maintain experimental fields. Recent and Davis, CA 95616 USA future infrastructure improvements in Yolo 5 California Trout, Inc. San Francisco, CA 94104 USA Bypass could substantially improve options for experimental work and broaden efforts to enhance salmon habitat. 1 SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY & WATERSHED SCIENCE VOLUME 18, ISSUE 3, ARTICLE 3 KEY WORDS wetlands are relatively productive habitats Chinook Salmon, Yolo Bypass, floodplain, (Dybala et al. 2017), helping California rearing, agriculture, management. meet some of its shorebird and waterfowl conservation objectives (Gardali et al. 2017; Strum et al. 2017). INTRODUCTION Worldwide, the loss of floodplain habitat The success of these avian-oriented has resulted in considerable reduction in programs raises the question of whether the productivity and diversity of large flooded fields can also be used as habitat river ecosystems (Winemiller et al. 2016). for native fishes and whether management California is no exception, as widespread practices can affect habitat quality. One levee construction separated historical location where this question is relevant is riverine and estuarine floodplain habitats Yolo Bypass (Figure 1), Sacramento River’s from adjacent river channels (Mount 1995; primary remnant floodplain with large areas Opperman 2012; Whipple et al. 2012). At the of agricultural lands (Sommer et al. 2001a, same time, there have been corresponding 2001b; Opperman 2012). Research over the declines in the distribution and abundance of past 2 decades has shown that seasonally a suite of native fishes (Moyle et al. 2011), an flooded lands support a suite of native fishes understandable outcome since a large body of and provide food web subsidies within and research provides evidence that floodplains to downstream habitats (Sommer et al. 1997, are high-quality habitat for multiple Central 2001a, 2001b; 2004; Jeffres et al. 2008). At Valley fishes (Sommer et al. 2001a, 2001b; the same time, these studies have shown Feyrer et al. 2006a, 2006b; Jeffres et al. that the Yolo Bypass is far from optimal 2008; Sommer et al. 2014). habitat because the landscape has been altered to drain relatively quickly, and is Construction of levees in the Central Valley often disconnected from the Sacramento has allowed the development of one of the River by levees and weirs that create major most extensive and productive agricultural passage problems for upstream migrating economies in the world (e.g., CDA 2018). Lands adult fishes, such as Chinook Salmon and that formerly seasonally flooded can now sturgeon (Sommer et al. 2014; Herbold et al. be farmed in most years. Recently, there 2018; Johnston et al. 2020). Several of these has been a growing interest in whether the issues will be addressed in coming years vast acreage of farmland that now occupies by proposed structural changes to Fremont formerly inundated floodplains adjacent to Weir at the upstream end of Yolo Bypass, river systems could be managed to improve and by the additional improvements to the their value to fish and wildlife (Suddeth floodplain’s water distribution system (USBR Grimm and Lund 2016; Katz et al. 2017). and CDWR 2019). However, the question A case in point is the Central Valley Joint remains whether changes to agricultural Venture Partnership, which promotes the use land management and infrastructure can of flooded rice fields as a means to increase provide reliable fish habitat that can increase available wetlands to support shorebirds and the growth and survival of juvenile native waterfowl migrating, overwintering, and fishes, and thereby (1) contribute to reversing breeding along the Pacific Flyway (Shuford their overall decline, (2) aid in the recovery and Dybala 2017). Conservation biologists of native fishes listed under the U.S. and working in partnership with local farmers California Endangered Species acts, (3) and have developed a system by which fields are increase the availability of fishery resources. reflooded after rice harvest to create seasonal wetland habitat for water birds during fall To help the overarching objective of and winter. These temporary agricultural providing reliable fish habitat, our team 2 SEPTEMBER 2020 Goose Club Sutter Bypass Ranch Study Area Fremont Weir Wallace Weir Knaggs Ranch Study Area Conaway Ranch Study Area Sacramento Weir Sacramento Putah Creek Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area Region Map Yolo Bypass Rio Vista San Francisco Bay 5 0 5 10 15 Dos Rios Study Area Kilometers Figure 1 Location map for Yolo Bypass and related sampling areas. The Dos Rios study area is located along the San Joaquin River, south of the main area shown. https://doi.org/10.15447/sfews.2020v18iss3art3 3 SAN FRANCISCO ESTUARY & WATERSHED SCIENCE VOLUME 18, ISSUE 3, ARTICLE 3 conducted a series of field studies during many of the lessons learned here should have 2012-2017. To test fish and food web at least some relevance to wild Sacramento responses within different land-management River Chinook Salmon. Finally, our project scenarios, we conducted our project on was separate from a number of other fish standard rice and winter wheat fields, management research projects in agricultural adjacent fallow lands, and rice fields parcels, such as current efforts to investigate with different harvest practices or other whether invertebrates grown on flooded experimental modifications. This work rice fields can be used as a food subsidy for yielded several publications that provided adjacent river channels (e.g., Cornwell and insight into habitat conditions in flooded rice Katz 2017). fields for fish and invertebrates (Conrad et al. 2016; Corline et al. 2017; Katz et al. 2017). The focus of our effort was on rearing habitat STUDY AREA for young Chinook Salmon, but this work The Yolo Bypass is a 24,000-ha, partially may also be relevant to other native fishes. leveed flood basin that is used to safely convey floodwaters away from Sacramento The goal of this paper is to summarize the Valley communities (Figure 1). The Yolo key lessons learned from 6 years of research Bypass contains a suite of habitats including on the feasibility of using farm fields as agricultural lands, managed wetlands, upland rearing habitat for juvenile Chinook Salmon habitat, and perennial ponds and channels, in the Yolo Bypass and other Central Valley with broad open-water tidal wetlands at locations. Our hope is that our summary will its downstream end where it joins the provide guidance to future researchers, as Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta (Sommer et well as inform managers as they evaluate al. 2005; Suddeth Grimm and Lund. 2016). potential management approaches. An The basin receives seasonal inflow from the important caveat is that our studies were Sacramento River, Colusa Basin (via Knights not intended as a proof of concept for any Landing Ridge Cut), Cache Creek, and Putah specific management actions. Rather, our Creek, as well as substantial perennial research was intended to
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