Partnership with the Department of Water Resources

A man in a blue shirt in the right of the frame is holding tall reeds walking to the left as a woman in green shirt and sun hat holding a weed whacker moves towards a recently wee whacked area. Another person in red flannel shirt weed whacks still standing reeds in the center of the frame.

Solano RCD began partnering with the Department of Water Resources (DWR) Delta Levees Program in 2019 to assist in stewarding state-owned lands in the Sacramento San Joaquin Delta. This partnership allows DWR to contract habitat stewardship to RCDs with localized knowledge of delta ecosystems and habitat restoration in the greater Delta area.

Through this program Solano RCD partners with other RCDs in the region working on DWR lands including Yolo County RCD, Contra Costa RCD, and San Joaquin RCD. These partnerships allow all the RCDs to leverage our skills, tools, and resources to co-steward the lands. Collectively we work on hundreds of acres of land within the Delta. While many of these sites are well established, some sites are still coming online while others need more work to control invasive species and improve habitat health.

One person sits in the center frame with a flat of small green vegetation in front of them. Three people in the background are planting into brown, dead wetland vegetation.

Looking at the backs of two people wearing floppy hats as they sit on the prow of a boat with coin envelopes and pens in hand with legs dangling off the side of the boat. The boat is moving towards stands of dark green tules on a river with golden rolling hills in the background.

Brown field of dead cattails with bright blue sky reaching above. A person wearing an orange helmet is riding a green ATV with an orange mower pulled behind.

Six people in workwear handling branches and tools amongst leafless dead trees on a gray day.

Solano RCD alongside other RCDs works to maintain and enhance mitigation and habitat enhancement sites on various islands in the Delta including Sherman Island, Twitchell Island, Dutch Slough, and Grizzly Slough. Our work involves targeted invasive species control, planting native species to increase biodiversity, monitoring sites, and working with local Reclamation Districts (RDs) and DWR to maintain site infrastructure.

In addition to our work to steward these sites, due to the long-term nature of such work there are natural opportunities to learn more about various restoration techniques including weed control, monitoring strategies, and planting palettes as well as partner with researchers working on site. We have worked closely with DWR staff to host Land Stewardship Workshops to share knowledge with DWR staff in charge of managing these project sites as well as sharing lessons from this partnership at various conferences and public meetings throughout the state. See links to some of our previous presentations below.

Each site has its own goals and requirements that were established when built. The sites we work on vary greatly in terms of their habitat types from riparian forest and tidally influenced setback levees to subsidence reversal managed wetlands and scrub-shrub habitats. Each of these sites supports various plant and animal species that are vital to healthy ecosystems. Some sites are built to support rare and endemic species while others are more focused on sequestering carbon, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and reversing subsidence. You can read more about such projects here.

To learn more about this program or other work we do in the Delta, contact Elizabeth Davis at 707-678-1655 x 110 or