We are very excited to announce that the CRC and its project partners have been awarded a $1.5 million Conservation Innovation Grant (CIG) from the USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). This is an exciting opportunity for us to put even more habitat acres on the ground over the next few years.

We will execute this project in partnership with NRCS, Ducks Unlimited, the California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation (“Foundation”), Point Blue Conservation Science and FlowWest. The project is designed to accomplish the following objectives:

• Provide funding to enhance approximately 10,000 acres through 2022.
• Retain professional fundraising development services to assist the Foundation in pursuing major donors and developing a sustainable fundraising plan to attract future investments into ricelands habitat conservation projects.
• Develop and refine technical tools to enable the Foundation to select the best habitat projects each year based upon regional environmental and habitat quality factors as well as historic waterbird use patterns in the Sacramento Valley.

We appreciate the NRCS having the confidence in the CRC and our partnership team to deploy these federal funds wisely in the interest of waterbirds in California. 

For questions on the Foundation, please contact Environmental Affairs Manager Paul Butter, pbutter@calrice.org. For habitat program implementation inquiries, please contact Wildlife Programs Manager Luke Matthews, lmatthews@calrice.org.