Hi all,
I'm sure many Tweeters are aware of this, but there is a new, (about a decade-old) program, at one point called "Bird Returns," that is creating wetland bird habitat in California by helping and paying rice farmers to flood their fields in the off-season.
The concept could breathe new life into bird conservation and the concept could scale-up and out to other areas and other crops: check out this superb article in Grist:
Farms, feathers, and fins share water in California | Grist

And here is the website of California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation which has a program to pay rice farmers to inundate fields to precise depths to maximally help birds. They are accepting donations!
California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation -; Enhance the ecological value of California rice fields to help sustain the millions of waterbirds and other wildlife in the Pacific Flyway for future generations. (calricewaterbirds.org)

Here is my blog about it which is my take and, to be honest, adds no new information but I've replaced the Foundation's shots of Cal waterbirds with my own and put my excitement about this program in my own words.

California Rice Farmers are putting the optimism back in bird conservation (ednewbold.com)

Thanks all--I was particularly moved by the paragraph in the Grist article that placed California as the single most important link the world's shorebird migration system.
Thanks all,
Ed Newbold residential Beacon Hill, home of Butyl Creek, stuck at 30 sp. for the year
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