Project Underway: Lower Yolo Tidal Restoration Project
Westlands Water District supports improving the Delta ecosystem and is working with the California Department of Water Resources, the Bureau of Reclamation, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Fish and Wildlife Service, and the National Marine Fisheries Service to undertake actions to address factors that limit the natural production of viable native fish populations in the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta and the Rivers’ watershed.
The District is in the final design stage of its Lower Yolo Restoration Project, a habitat restoration plan that is being developed through a collaboration between the District and the Department of Water Resources. When completed, the project will restore approximately 2,200 acres of tidal marsh land habitat.
The California Natural Resources Agency identified the Lower Yolo Tidal Restoration Project as a priority restoration project under EcoRestore, an initiative to help coordinate and advance critical habitat restoration in the Sacramento – San Joaquin Delta.
The Lower Yolo Restoration Project, which is expected to enhance fishery habitat and ecosystem health, has four primary objectives:
- enhance regional food web productivity in support of delta Smelt recovery.
- provide rearing habitats for out-migrating salmonids.
- support a broad range of other aquatic and wetlanddependent species, including Sacramento splittail.
- provide ecosystem functions associated with the combination of Delta freshwater aquatic/tidal marsh/ floodplain/seasonal wetland/lowland grassland interfaces that existed historically.
Construction of the project is scheduled to begin in late Spring/Summer 2020 and expected to be completed by December 2020.
When California achieves the co-equal goals of providing a more reliable water supply for the state and protecting, restoring, and enhancing the Delta ecosystem, everyone wins.
Westlands is proud to play a role in helping California meet the state and federal requirement to restore 8,000 acres of wetland habitat in the Delta.