Conservation Program Recommendation Tool

The Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) has local offices throughout the region and offers several different programs for cost-share of conservation practices on private land. Programs include Regional Conservation Partnership Program (RCPP), Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP), and Conservation Stewardship Program (CSP). Conservation practices include cover crops for nesting habitat, winter flooding with variable drawdown, shoulder season flooding for shorebirds, and much more.

This program supports shallow flooded habitat on private agricultural land for migrating shorebirds and other waterbirds when habitat is most needed in late summer and early fall. Payment rates for this program vary as it is run as a reverse auction. This program is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and administered by The Nature Conservancy, Audubon California, and Point Blue Conservation Science.

This program supports nesting habitat on fallow ricelands for upland nesting ducks and other waterbirds. Payment rates vary based on the type of vegetation that is in the fallow fields, $30/acre for volunteer vegetation and $110/acre for established planted cover crops. This program is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and administered by California Waterfowl (CWA).

This program incentivizes farmers to create new crane habitat to increase the resilience of the Central Valley’s Sandhill Crane population. The goal is to complement existing habitat by providing additional foraging and roosting habitat that has limited hunting disturbance. This program is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and administered by The Nature Conservancy, Audubon California, and Point Blue Conservation Science.

CWRHIP supports landowners and lessees who provide critical winter flooding on ricelands to support migratory waterfowl and other waterbirds. Fields must have been planted to rice the previous growing season to be eligible. This program is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and administered by the California Rice Commission.

Bid4Birds incentivizes growers to create shallowly flooded ricelands during the rice growing shoulder seasons – late winter into spring and then again in the late summer/early fall. This habitat supports migratory shorebirds and other waterbirds. This program is funded by a mix of private donors, private foundations, and state and federal agencies, depending on the year, and is administered by the California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation.

The Fish Food program incentivizes growers to pulse-flood their ricelands or wetlands during the winter to support native fishes by exporting the zooplankton grown on floodplains back into the river. This program is run and administered by California Trout but is currently searching for funding.

This program supports nesting habitat on rice levees and roads for upland nesting ducks and other waterbirds. Payment rate is $0.80 per linear foot of levee or road enrolled. This program is funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife and administered by California Waterfowl (CWA).