A daily compilation for DWR personnel of significant news articles and comment
August 14, 2007
1. Top Item -
Owners turn off spigot on rice fields
Hoping to develop in Natomas, they seek to avert wetlands status, sources say.
Sacramento
By Mary Lynne Vellinga - Bee Staff Writer
Rice fields are drying up in the Natomas basin, and agricultural economics aren't the only reason why.
The shift out of rice is part of an effort by landowners north of the Sacramento city limits to avoid harboring endangered garter snakes, which spend much of their lives in water, said a half-dozen people who either own land in the basin or are familiar with the situation.
Landowners who hope to one day develop don't want to have their properties viewed as valuable wetland habitat by federal and state wildlife regulators. So they're letting their fields sit fallow or growing crops that require little or no irrigation.
"My perception is that landowners are thinking that if their property were to be declared wetlands, then they might never be able to develop it or use it for any other purpose than rice farming," said John Roberts, executive director of the Natomas Basin Conservancy.
Roberts, whose organization is charged with protecting the population of the snake and about 20 other species, said the move out of rice is alarming, and is making his job more difficult.
In the Natomas basin, rice fields have long offered some of the same benefits for giant garter snakes and other wildlife once found in the seasonal lakes and streams that lined this natural bathtub north of the city.
Ducks, herons and other birds forage in flooded rice fields. The snakes slurp up the tiny fish that wash off the fields into irrigation ditches.
But in the past three years, most of the rice fields in northern
The Natomas Central Mutual Water Co., which supplies irrigation water to the Natomas basin, reports that about 12,000 acres of the basin are planted in rice this year -- a 34 percent drop from 2004, when there were 18,200 acres of rice fields in the company's service territory.
Most of the remaining rice is being grown in
Roberts said the shift out of rice on privately owned land amounts to a significant reduction in snake habitat. Created by the city of
It uses fees and land dedications from developers to acquire preserves and manage them.
The decline in rice acreage around the preserves "harms the ability of the Natomas Basin Conservancy to produce viable habitat," Roberts said.
The area's shift away from water-intensive rice farming also has compounded the financial difficulties of the Natomas Central Mutual Water Co., which is already reeling from the loss of farm customers it once served in areas now paved over by subdivisions.
"When you have fallow ground or nonirrigated ground, that's less revenue for the company," Swearingen said.
Natomas Central recently reached a tentative agreement with the city of Folsom to sell it a big chunk of water for its expansion south of Highway 50.
Landowners contacted by The Bee were reluctant to discuss the specific reasons why they had switched from rice to other crops.
"We're taking our farm ground out of rice for a variety of reasons, including that it may not be in the best interest of future development," said Steve Thurtle, senior vice president of Richland Planned Communities.
Two years ago,
Landowners said economics have played a role in their decision to rotate crops. The cost of water from Natomas Central has risen so high it makes it hard for them to make money on rice.#
http://www.sacbee.com/101/story/323680.html
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