Mission

Advance efforts to create weltand habitat for wildlife through education and networking with CalTrout, California State Assemblymembers, state, NFWF,

Our overflight examined the Sacramento Valley's vast agricultural fields and the changes this region has undergone. Centuries ago, California's Central Valley was comprised of operational floodplains; now those floodplains are largely rice fields.

EcoFlight’s partners are working to reactivate these floodplains to provide rich habitat and food sources for fish, insects, and migratory birds, and to reduce flood risk for the communities living here. From the air, we viewed fields that, thanks to the Floodplain Forward Coalition, are deliberately allowed to flood, providing a nature-based solution that mimics natural processes. This allows a win-win for agricultural lands, producing food while maintaining their critical ecosystem services. Seasonal flooding creates amazing habitat for native plant communities, insects, salmon, and fowl while mitigating the risk of floods in the Sacramento Valley.

Our partners at the Floodplain Forward Coalition are a group of 27 entities made up of farmers, water managers, biologists, conservationists, and government agencies. The ambition of Floodplain Forward is to amplify what is being done on a small scale in the Sacramento Valley by restoring floodplains and wildlife habitat to hundreds of thousands of acres of Central Valley farmland, creating critical habitat for endangered salmon and birds, and reducing flood risks for Californians.

Click for photos from the flights, geo-referenced flight photos, and aerial GoPro video.