River Partners

Restoration Scholars Summer 2025 applications are open until March 14, 2025. Apply today: https://lnkd.in/gdUcnWQg If you ask people pursuing conservation careers how they hope to channel their talents, you’re bound to get a variety of answers. But it’s likely that they’d all agree on one thing: They want to make a meaningful difference with whatever it is they end up doing. That’s exactly what River Partners’ Restoration Scholars program is all about—giving passionate, driven individuals the opportunity to gain hands-on experience and build the next generation of skilled restoration leaders. Since 2000, River Partners has mentored over 200 early-career students in environmental science, natural resource management, land stewardship, and policy development. Through our paid, eight-week summer internship, participants gain exposure to real-world river restoration projects and gain skills and training to build meaningful careers in the growing restoration sector. The program has helped launch careers and inspire life-long conservation stewards. Hear from past Restoration Scholars Francis Ulep and Lambert Ngenzi on how the program shaped their paths and accelerated their careers on our blog: https://lnkd.in/gucYqa83

“Dos Rios symbolizes what California’s state park system can and should become: An accessible public space to Californians and an important solution to the climate crisis.” Read more by Rachel Norton from The Sacramento Bee: https://lnkd.in/gNRZmDeP

My favorite part of my job is following native seed from its original wildland collection to the restoration project it ends up in! Last week, I had the honor of visiting the 467-acre Capinero Creek project, an historic project whose main objective is to restore alkali scrub habitat in the South San Joaquin Valley. This is just tip of the iceberg-- with agricultural land repurposing set to occur throughout the SJV, we have an enormous opportunity to restore critical habitat and protect endangered species like the San Joaquin kit fox and Blunt-nosed leopard lizard. For this project, NativeSeed Group and Hedgerow Farms teamed up with Great Valley Seed Company to wildland-collect, grow, and deliver over 6600 lbs of locally-collected native wildflower, shrub, and grass species, as well as nursery stock for thousands of plants grown by Escondido Growers. After planting in December by River Partners, seedlings are already beginning to emerge. We are excited to continue this work in Phases II and III, which will further the regional conservation work of The Nature Conservancy and Tule Basin Land & Water Conservation Trust.

New research by UCLA climate scientist Daniel Swain (Weather West) sheds light on the growing impacts of “hydroclimate whiplash” in California and beyond—rapid, extreme swings between wet and dry conditions. These shifts fuel wildfires, worsen floods, strain water resources, and put communities in harm’s way. The impacts are intensifying with climate change. Restored floodplains are a key natural solution that can help California adapt to future extremes. According to reporter Ian James from the Los Angeles Times: "Adapting to these more intense extremes in California and elsewhere, the researchers said, will require changes in water management practices and infrastructure to plan for both droughts and floods rather than treating them as separate hazards. One approach, they said, is to restore natural floodplains to absorb high flows from flash storms, reducing flood risks while also recharging groundwater." Last year, River Partners’ efforts to restore Central Valley floodplains was featured on the front page of the LA Times, highlighting the importance of restored, healthy river floodplains on mitigating climate extremes, reducing flood risks, boosting water supplies for vulnerable communities, and reviving degraded ecosystems. The many benefits of restored floodplains include: ? Absorbing high flows during flash storms to reducing flood risks for people and cities ? Increasing water supplies through groundwater recharge and reduced irrigation demand that boost water availability ? Safeguarding river ecosystems as natural buffer zones for future weather extremes Floodplain restoration is already making a difference across California, and River Partners is proud to be leading this charge in the Central Valley. Together we can build resilience for California’s people, wildlife, and water systems in the face of growing climate extremes. Read more about how climate ‘whiplash’ set the stage for devastating LA fires: https://lnkd.in/ea43gxUa Read more about how River Partners’ floodplain restoration efforts ease flood risks and restores healthy ecosystems: https://lnkd.in/gEuDTFQQ

Protecting the endangered riparian brush rabbit! A deadly virus threatens a critically endangered rabbit species that makes its home in our San Joaquin Valley restoration sites, including the San Joaquin River National Wildlife Refuge and the state park at Dos Rios. River Partners teamed up with the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, the Endangered Species Recovery Program at Stanislaus State University, and the Oakland and Fresno Chaffee Zoos to gently capture and vaccinate riparian brush rabbits, protecting them from rabbit hemorrhagic disease. The virus has threatened the rabbit's survival in their very limited habitat along riverways in the San Joaquin Valley, where they're vulnerable to flooding, predators, and habitat loss. These vaccinations aim to give the rabbits immunity to prevent the disease from driving them further towards extinction and are a true testament to the power of collaboration in conservation. Thank you to all our partners and supports helping restore habitat and protect these vulnerable critters! Read the full article from the Modesto Bee: https://lnkd.in/gREBFzQD

From acoustic recording units and point counts to tens of thousands of photos and drone footage, River Partners is expanding our knowledge about current and future restoration through monitoring years after restoration is complete—and that’s how we think it should be. ? Funded by the California Wildlife Conservation Board—and through collaboration with project partners Conservation Metrics, Point Blue, and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service—we’re gaining a more comprehensive picture of our restoration to help imperiled species in the San Joaquin Valley. ? https://lnkd.in/g_rDJAT9

Join River Partners President Julie Rentner and actor Ethan Peck for a special virtual film premiere of our documentary about Dos Rios, California's largest public-private floodplain restoration, with Q&A! When: October 16 at 11:30 am Pre-register here: https://lnkd.in/gwX_n884

Whether it’s one year after restoration or 20 years, we’re eavesdropping on wildlife so they can tell us how we’re doing. We’re using high-tech surveillance tools to monitor results so we can learn from our findings. We’ve deployed hundreds of camera traps, infrared trail counters, drones and acoustic recording units (ARUs), pictured, at our restoration sites over the last several years—more than 150 units this year alone. We’ve picked up birdsongs, endangered bumblebees, and nocturnal mammals roaming their home territories, detecting the return of wildlife and rare species around the clock—a nearly impossible task for human researchers to accomplish at this scale in the field. Every month or so, we check on our camera traps and ARUs and export the data for analysis using new artificial intelligence that is actively learning to identify, tally, and pinpoint when and where avian and terrestrial wildlife species have visited our restoration sites. For example, we’re hoping that our summer ARU deployment detected rare yellow-billed cuckoo, yellow-breasted chat, and yellow warbler songs—and in the future we envision using ARUs for bat detection. This summer our camera traps snapped more than 1 million photos and ARUs collected over 14,000 hours of recordings. As we assess the data, we’re improving the effectiveness of these high-tech tools, vital to see what’s working and what isn’t, informing our future restoration work all over California.

From industry and recreation to cultural significance for Indigenous people, salmon have deep importance in our state. And because they spend time in marine environments in the ocean as well as fresh water, there’s a unique and critical link between the ocean environment and our rivers in the Central Valley. Today, however, salmon are in serious trouble. River Partners is re-engineering historic side channels and floodplain rearing habitats at eight sites along a 130-mile stretch of the Sacramento River from Redding in the north to south of Colusa. Partnering with state and federal agencies, the work is challenging and tedious—but something as vital and precious as salmon surely deserves it. https://lnkd.in/gNVVfMni

From industry and recreation to cultural significance for Indigenous people, salmon have deep importance in our state. And because they spend time in marine environments in the ocean as well as fresh water, there’s a unique and critical link between the ocean environment and our rivers in the Central Valley. Today, however, salmon are in serious trouble. River Partners is re-engineering historic side channels and floodplain rearing habitats at eight sites along a 130-mile stretch of the Sacramento River from Redding in the north to south of Colusa. Partnering with state and federal agencies, the work is challenging and tedious—but something as vital and precious as salmon surely deserves it. https://lnkd.in/gNVVfMni