The Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership (Audubon California, The Nature Conservancy, and Point Blue Conservation Science), with funding from the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, is now accepting online bids for the BirdReturns-Late Summer Farmlands Habitat Program. 

This program offers farmers and landowners in the Sacramento Valley and Delta an opportunity to receive financial compensation for maintaining shallow, mud-flat conditions on idle or harvested and unvegetated fields for a five-week period between July and September, which provides critical habitat for migratory birds.  

The program can be implemented on a broad suite of rotating/resting cropland or crops typically harvested before the late summer target habitat period, including but not limited to wheat and other cereal grains, garbanzo beans, tomatoes, potatoes, sunflower, safflower, corn, or rice. Suitable habitat conditions have been created using both flood irrigation and subsurface drip irrigation. 

The application period is open until April 4, 2025, at noon, and applications must be filled out on the BirdReturns Website. For questions on applying for this program, please contact either Billy Abbott  William.abbott@tnc.org (530) 228-1862 or Bekka Rosenkrantz bekka.rosenkrantz@tnc.org (916) 243-0428.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Rice growers are eligible. If you know now that you will have an idle field and are interested in this program, you are encouraged to apply to the BirdReturns program during this solicitation (closes April 4 at noon) as this program has $1.2 million in funding. California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation plans a Fall 2025 Bid4Birds program (practice specifications are similar) and the solicitation will be open from May 15 to June 10. Bid4Birds has less funding but will be open for bidding after most planting decisions have been made. Fields can be enrolled in only one flooding habitat program at a time. 

For questions or more clarity on which program best suits you, contact Kristin Sesser, Wildlife Programs Manager, at (916) 607-8988 or ksesser@calrice.org.