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Thoughts on Rice
This podcast is for growers, PCAs, consultants, and other industry professionals in the California rice industry. We'll primarily be focusing on the Sacramento Valley and Delta Region of California. The UCCE Rice Farm Advisors aim to deliver extension information relating to the California rice industry.
Find out more about UCCE and California rice here!
Thoughts on Rice
Create habitat, support cranes and get paid; BirdReturns Sandhill Crane Program with Billy Abbott
Sarah Marsh Janish and Billy Abbott discuss the upcoming BirdReturns program, the Sandhill Crane Program, which incentivizes farmers to provide roosting and forage habitat for the Greater Sandhill Crane, an threatened bird species in the Sacramento Valley and CA Delta regions.
BirdReturns Sandhill Crane Application
Applications open on July 25 and close on August 17.
Upcoming Events
- Weedy Rice Workshop - August 5, 2025, 10:00 AM - 1:15 PM, Roberts-Union Farm Center, 4925 Howard Rd, Stockton, CA 95206
- CRC Bird Conservation Programs Informational Workshop - Wednesday, August 13, 2025, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, Hillcrest Catering, 210 Julie Dr, Yuba City, CA 95991
- Rice Field Day - August 27, 2025, Rice Experiment Station, Biggs, CA
Other Resources
Mention of an agrichemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is the law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu.
The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general purposes only. The "University of California" name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
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Hello and welcome to Thoughts on Rice, a podcast hosted by the University of California Cooperative Extension Rice Advisors. I'm one of your hosts, Sarah Marsh-Yamish, and I'm a rice farm advisor for Colusa and Yolo counties.
SPEAKER_01:I'm Whitney from DeForest. I'm the Cooperative Extension Rice Advisor for Sutter, Yuba, Placer, and Sacramento counties.
SPEAKER_02:My name is Luis Espino. I'm the Rice Farming Systems Advisor for Butte and Glynn counties. I'm Michelle Leinfelder-Miles. I'm a farm advisor in the Delta region. I work on all sorts of field crops, grains and forages, but one of those is rice. And the counties that I cover are San Joaquin, Sacramento, Yolo-Salano, and Contra Costa counties.
SPEAKER_03:Together, the UCCE Rice Farm Advisors seek to provide relevant, topical, research-backed information relating to California rice production. Today we get the chance to talk about an upcoming incentive program orchestrated by the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, also known as MBCP, under the Bird Returns Program. The Sandhill Crane Program seeks to incentivize farmers and land managers to create new crane habitat to increase the resilience of the Central Valley's population of the Sandhill Crane. To talk more about the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, Bird Returns, and these wildlife We are joined by Billy Abbott. Billy coordinates avian field science and monitoring of this program. Hi, Billy. Thanks for being here today.
SPEAKER_00:Hi, Sarah.
SPEAKER_03:If you want to give just a quick introduction as to who you are, what your role is, maybe how long you've been working in this role, and then maybe what that encompasses.
SPEAKER_00:All right. So yeah, I'm Billy Abbott. I'm the AB and field science manager here for the Nature Conservancy California. I primarily work on the bird returns program. And what I'm largely doing is overseeing all the field work and gated collection out in the field, primarily on the farmland side of things, but it goes into the wetlands and other our side science projects as well. I have been in this position for a little over two years. I actually started at the Nature Conservancy in 2014 as a technician on this project and have boomeranged. I left, went to school, came back and got this position.
SPEAKER_03:Wow. So you have a pretty longstanding tradition of being involved with this organization. That's really neat.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. It's great. I mean, I love working here and I feel like Like we're doing something tangible out there to make a positive impact.
SPEAKER_03:Well, OK, so we've mentioned The Nature Conservancy. Can you tell me a little bit about what the organization is, what the mission, what the vision is for this organization?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so we're a global nonprofit organization and we have the goal of coming to science-backed solutions to conserve lands and waters across the globe. And we're doing this in a way that works for both people and wildlife. So we're really striving for those win-win outcomes where everyone gets ahead. We do do this work in a nonpartisan way. So we are trying to put forward our best work regardless of the political climate and just trying to stay aimed and focused on the mission we have. of conserving the lands and waters of the world.
SPEAKER_03:It's so important, I think, to maintain just the value of the world, the value of the environment. And there's a lot of partnership, I think, that is critical towards maintaining those environments. Now, I know that the Nature Conservancy works in a partnership with the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, and that encompasses the Nature Conservancy and a couple of other organizations. Would you care to mention some of those?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So currently, Burturn is an initiative of the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership. Like you mentioned, that is a union of the Nature Conservancy, Point Blue Conservation Science in Audubon, California. And we are also currently funded by the California Department of Fish and Wildlife. So across the state agency and our three NGOs, we are working together to get our bird returns program out there.
SPEAKER_03:Fantastic. And we had a couple of members of CDFW on last fall who also talked about different incentive programs but it's great to see the investment that there is in maintaining the wildlife especially in these areas because for our part as a rice advisor and as a person who works in agriculture we have a lot of rice in this area in the California Central Valley but it's also not only an ag powerhouse but a critical part of the Pacific Flyway and so I think a lot of the work that you all do is critical towards supporting that wetland habitat for those migratory birds. Let's explain a little bit of the history of the Bird Returns program. Can you go into detail about that?
SPEAKER_00:So Bird Returns was started in 2014 by the Nature Conservancy. It was solely to meet habitat deficits for migratory shorebirds in the shoulder seasons, so late summer, late spring. Since then, Then the program has grown various different ways. The Bird Returns is now an initiative of the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, a union of Audubon, California, Point Blue Conservation Science, and the Nature Conservancy. We started this out on a small scale just in Rice and the Sac Valley, and we are privately funded since then. We have applied for and received public funds from California Department of fish and wildlife. And we have also been trying to meet the habitat objectives that we have for these different seasons. And part of doing that has been expanding into different habitat types, so private wetlands and different crops on farmland side of things. And then we've also seen need for assisting other species, such as some of our locally breeding waterfowl and shorebirds, as well as overwintering sandhill cranes. So along those lines, we have expanded our seasonality into the summer to help with the breeding birds and then into the winter to help with the sandhill cranes.
SPEAKER_03:Do you have any data or anything you could share about the long-term impacts of these incentive programs? Yeah,
SPEAKER_00:I mean, the goal of these is to meet these habitat targets that are laid out in the Central Valley Joint Venture. From the Central Valley Joint Venture, we have a spring habitat target of 13,500 acres and a fall habitat target of 40,000 acres. We are very close to meeting our spring targets at this point. We've still got some work to do on the fall. But the goal of hitting those targets is to sustain the current population of shorebirds that we have in the valley. So that's just maintaining what we have. Once we get there, which we are working hard to, we're gonna increase our habitat targets then. And the goal of that is to help some of these shorebird populations, which have declined drastically here in the Central Valley, but also across North America, to help start rebound them, start increasing those populations. Yeah. And then along the way, we are doing a bunch of science to try to make sure what we're doing is as effective as possible. So we have studies currently on like Bendic invertebrates. So like the main food source of shorebirds is invertebrates that live on the floor of these wetlands, like in the mud. We're trying to understand how they are affected by different flooding regimes, different habitat types like wetland versus farmland. We also have We just wrapped up a four-year drought study that was tagging, putting MODIS tags or satellite tags on Dowitchers and Dunlin and trying to understand how they respond, where they're going under different water conditions and different water years. And then like on the Sandhill Crane side of things, we have social attraction experiments that are trying to expand their local range and build resilience within that Sandhill Crane population. So it's not only we're trying to do what we're doing better so we can help those populations rebound.
SPEAKER_03:OK, so we've kind of talked a little bit about the Sandhill Crane program, but the reason we're on today is to talk about that one in particular, because as I understand it, applications for this program are about to open are open. Let's what's the application looking like?
SPEAKER_00:OK, so the applications for the Winter Sandhill Crane Program will open either late this week or early next week. And once they are open, they will remain open until August 18th at 9 a.m. So anytime in there, people are encouraged to apply.
SPEAKER_03:Okay. And so just for listeners' sake, we're recording July 22nd. So maybe look for that July 25th, maybe July 20th. something like that?
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah, somewhere right in there. And you can check the website birdreturns.org under the Sandhill Cranes tab, and it'll let you know that it's open or not.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, everyone, Sarah here with a little interlude and extra information. After Billy and I had our conversation, the deadlines for the Bird Returns Sandhill Crane program firmed up. And so this is just auxiliary information to add to what we're talking about here. But essentially, the Bird Returns hill crane program application process opened friday july 25th 2025 and will remain open until 11 59 p.m on august 17th that's a different date than the date that billy and i were talking about but yeah just keep in mind open from july 25th and closes on august 17th all right back to our chat so what are the field or land requirements that you guys are looking for enrollment in this program?
SPEAKER_00:So on the focus sandhill crane program, we're asked, it's a farmlands program. So this is in farmlands. And there's two habitat types that we ask for in the sandhill crane program. There's roosting habitat, which is where those cranes are sleeping. And there's forage habitat where those cranes are eating. And that's the two primary behaviors these cranes are engaging in while they're in the central valley. Both program, both roost and forage fields are eight-week enrollments. And there's varying start dates that the farmers can select. So for the roost habitat, what we're asking for is a field that's 30 to 200 acres. It's got to have access to reliable water source to maintain flooding. And what we're asking for them to do is maintain flooding for that eight-week period between three and nine inches. Before their flooding period starts, they need to knock down or minimize the stubble that's in the field. So they can either mow it, chop it, disk it, chisel it, whatever works, just get that stubble down. Be asked that those roost fields don't have tree edges, and that is for protection of the cranes from predators. And then The fields can be anywhere between 30 and 200 acres. So there's quite a bit of range in there. And that's the basics of the roost program. For the forage side of things, these fields can be anywhere from 30 to 500 acres. The difference of this habitat is that the forage is un-flooded. So after it needs to be in a rice field, a corn field, or some other grain like barley, wheat, something along those lines that can act as food for the cranes. And after harvest, we ask that they mow the stubble down so it's short. Farmers, if they choose and they want to put that stubble in contact with the soil to help with decomp, they can roll it. But we ask that they don't till it in any way. And the reason for that is that we are wanting that waste grain to be left on the surface of those fields so it's accessible for the birds to eat. And again, to help with decomp, if farmers choose, this is not a requirement of the program in any way, but if they would like to, the last two weeks of their enrollment, they can put a little bit of water out there up to two inches on that field to help kickstart that decomposition process. Also, farmers can enroll in both roost and forage programs. And again, if they wanna do both, if there's a maximum of 500 acres, per application. And if they want to have both types of habitat out there, the forage fields need to be equal or greater in size than the roost fields.
SPEAKER_03:So what does the application process look like then?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, for the Saranhoe crane program, the application process, like it starts when it opens. And once the application window closes on August 18th, we will compile all the applications. And then our select collection committee of the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership and assisted by California Department of Fish and Wildlife. We'll analyze each property. We'll run them through one of our mathematical models. Those mathematical models are utilizing landscape level factors, like things like history of flooding, proximity to known crane roosts, and other things. And using those landscape level factors, we will assign each field that submitted a bird score. The higher the bird score, the better potential habitat that it can offer. So once each property has a bird score, we list them out in order from highest to lowest, and the highest bird score properties are then selected for the program, and we'll go through that list until the budget is exhausted.
SPEAKER_03:How much budget is allocated towards the Sandhill Crane program.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Okay. So the budget currently for the Sandhill Crane program is$830,000, but that might bump up as we might have some more funds come available from some of the other programs that we have currently running.
SPEAKER_03:So let's talk a bit about what might exclude a field from consideration. Can you discuss a little bit about what those factors may be?
SPEAKER_00:Yes. So largely, they exclude are the same for roost and forage fields. One of the main ones is being enrolled in another incentive program in any time that overlaps their enrollment in our program. So they can't double dip, but they can stack programs. So if they have one ending September 30th, they can start ours October 1st. Other things that can exclude fields are being within five miles of an airport or Air Force base And that's just for safety reasons for flights. Fields that are hunted are also excluded, at least from the roost. We are discussing whether or not forage fields will be allowed to be hunted currently. And then, like I mentioned before, on the roost fields, fields with tree edges are not allowed. And again, that's just for predator protection for the cranes.
SPEAKER_03:For the hunting exclusion, does that also apply to adjacent fields or nature? neighboring fields? Say if a neighboring field or an adjacent field allows hunting next to a field that you're submitting, does that have an impact on the application?
SPEAKER_00:So for the hunting on roost fields, they are not allowed to hunt the enrolled field or any adjacent field, like directly adjacent fields. The caveat to that is if they don't own the adjacent fields, then they have no control of that and we don't expect them to stop their neighbors from hunting. That's just not a realistic possibility. If we do apply the exclusion to the forage, the hunting exclusion to the forage fields, it'll just be the forage fields that are enrolled. Adjacent fields will not be affected by that.
SPEAKER_03:Hey, everyone. It's Sarah again. Just coming back with some more information about this hunting exclusion. And so it's actually been decided that hunting will not be prohibited on fields that are enrolled in the foraging program. So no need to worry about any kind of hunting exclusion if you're enrolling in forage all right back to the chat Great. Okay. Is there anything else you want to talk about with the Sandhill Crane Program, the Winter Sandhill Crane Program?
SPEAKER_00:So the Winter Sandhill Crane Program, it occurs in Sacramento Valley and the Delta. It's not pushing at all into the San Joaquin. And the reason for this is because we are targeting the Greater Sandhill Crane, which is a subspecies of the Sandhill Crane. The two subspecies that we have the most of in California, that are most abundant in California, California are the greater and the lesser Santo cream. Um, graders tend to overwinter in the sack Valley and the Delta lessers tend to overwinter and the Delta and the San Joaquin. So this Delta is kind of a mixing space of the two subspecies. Um, but. Graders are state threatened. They're listed as a state threatened species or subspecies. So that's why our program is focused on them. And that's why our program is focused on the Sac Valley and the Delta.
SPEAKER_03:What are some of the other programs that Bird Returns does or some of the other programs that the organization does to try and encourage wildlife habitat?
SPEAKER_00:Within Bird Returns, we have several programs in addition to the Sandhill Crane Program. On the wetland side of things, we have spring, summer, and fall wetlands. Spring wetlands run in the late spring with a goal of providing habitat for shorebirds before they leave for their migration north to their breeding grounds. Fall wetlands, just like late summer farmlands, is with the goal of providing habitat for shorebirds and other migratory water birds that are arriving from their breeding grounds. So this is like the southern leg or a stock point on their migration. And then the summer wetlands is going to act as brood water for breeding waterfowl and breeding shorebirds. But in summer wetlands, I mean, in all these programs, we have recorded over 180 species of land birds using these fields and 85 species of different species of water birds using these fields. So it's geared towards shorebirds and cranes particularly, but it's benefiting a much wider range of species than that.
SPEAKER_03:Now, this is just for curiosity's sake here, but you must need a pretty large crew of people to be able to track all these birds. Or is it pretty much like a really dedicated person skittling from field to field?
SPEAKER_00:No, it is a pretty big crew of folks. And I guess one thing I'll highlight is how seamlessly our organizations, Audubon and Point Blue and the Nature Conservancy, work together to make this field work happen. We are We have a meeting once a week to discuss who needs help, who has extra capacity, who is missing capacity. And it's all hands on deck for all of these programs. And so we probably have in the Nature Conservancy, we have myself and we will have three, we'll have a technician lead and then two other technicians that help do biological and compliance monitoring of these fields. Autobahn has another three or four people that they run. And Point Blue has at least two currently that are helping out with field work. So we are, I mean, we are a pretty big group. It's a big geography. There's a lot of enrollments and so it does take an army.
SPEAKER_03:But very collaborative effort. I mean, you mentioned it earlier, but it just it's so nice to see that reinforced example right there.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it is. I mean, that's what Ben, which is the best partnership I've ever been a part of. We just we work so closely with each other. It's super comfortable work environment and everyone is aiming at the same goal. And and not just within our migratory bird partnership team, it's also within the farming community as well. We see the farmers and other private wetland owners really have a have some pride in the habitat that they're providing and are proud of the species and use of their lands by wildlife. So we in the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership have the same goal, but it's not just us. It's also the farming community and private wetland owners as well.
SPEAKER_03:Yeah, I wholeheartedly concur. I think farmers are conservationists just by nature of who they are and what they experience.
SPEAKER_00:Yes, yeah. I mean, they're out there in those lands and they really have the opportunity to appreciate them when this habitat gets put out there successfully.
SPEAKER_03:Well, okay. So we talked about the other programs and some of their benefits. Are there any upcoming events or programs or workshops that your partnerships or any of the other organizations are going to have in the next six months or so?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, so like we talked about a lot, the Sandhill Crane Program will be opening up for applications any minute now. But in addition to that, we also work very closely with the California Rice Commission. And they actually have a sister program that spun off of bird occurrence called Bid for Birds. And Kristen Sesser hosts an annual conservation programs and rice workshops. And that will be occurring August 13th It'll be from one to three in the afternoon at Hillcrest Catering in Yuba City. And that is a really great workshop to attend. We talk about bird returns. Kristen talks about bid for birds, but also CDFW, NRCS, and other organizations and agencies come through and just discuss their programs and let growers know, growers and wetland managers know what opportunities there are to be involved in incentive programs in the valley. And it's a really good catch all for a good majority of the programs that are occurring here.
SPEAKER_03:Absolutely. We'll be sure to put that event in our show notes and then we'll also put it up on our website just to have increased visibility. But yeah, I think I went to that last year and it was incredibly informative. Are there any deadlines that people should be on the lookout with regards to other programs when I guess general times of year that the other programs applications might open.
SPEAKER_00:So within the Migratory Bird Conservation Partnership, the Nature Conservancy primarily manages the farmland side of things, and Audubon California primarily manages the wetland, the private wetland side of things. So I believe all of the programs for the wetlands that Audubon is primarily handling are open in spring, in May, I believe. And then late summer farmland, or yes, so our other farmland programs our only other farmland program besides the Sandhill Crane is the late summer farmlands and that application period is earlier is also in the spring sometime around May depending it varies a little bit year to year we've been trying to find a sweet spot that is the best time for farmers to like have a minute to apply to these farmers are busy folks so it's a hard needle to thread So yeah, that varies a little bit. There's always information about any of the programs on birdreturns.org, and you can check under the different tabs for information on any specific program.
SPEAKER_03:Well, Billy, I think we've kind of reached the end of this, but if people have any questions, where should they go? They should go to the Bird Returns website, but who should they contact?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, if anyone has specific questions about any of the programs or just general questions Feel free to reach out to me. My email and phone number are up on the website. Also, Becca Rosenkranz is a member of our team, Burger Turn's team on the Nature Conservancy side of things. She is a wealth of information. And then also Julia Barfield, the program manager. Her information is on the website as well. So on the wetland side of things, Geronimo Castaneda. His information is on the contact page of the birdreturns.org site. And yeah, he can help out with any questions regarding the wetlands.
SPEAKER_03:Okay, well, Billy, thank you so much for coming on here and talking about these programs. We'll probably have you back on again sometime. So get used to this. But yeah, thanks again so much for being here.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, thank you very, very much, Sarah, for the opportunity to be on here, get the word out about bird returns. And I would also like to just thank all the people that are involved in this work from Point Blue, Audubon, Nature Conservancy, and our partners at the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
SPEAKER_03:We have a few upcoming events. The next upcoming event will be the Weedy Rice Workshop, which will take place on August 5th, 2025 from 10 a.m. to 1.15 p.m. at the Roberts Union Farm Center at 4925 Howard Road in Stockton, California. The next upcoming event after that will be the Annual Rice Field Day, which will take place as always on the last Wednesday of August on August 27th, 2025. at the Rice Experiment Station at 955 Butte City Highway in Biggs, California. This will feature talks from breeders, talks from our UC Rice specialists and advisors, and a delicious lunch. For more information about these and other upcoming events, feel free to check out our resources, which include the UC Rice blog and the UC Agronomy Rice website. In terms of other resources you might want to take advantage of, you can also look at our newsletters, which include Rice Briefs, which covers Colusa Yolo, Rice Notes, which covers Yuba Sutter, Rice Leaf, which covers Butte and Glen counties, and Field Notes, which encompasses rice in the Delta region of California. Thanks for listening to Thoughts on Rice, a University of California Cooperative Extension podcast from the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources. You can find out more about this podcast on our website, thoughtsonrice.buzzsprout.com. We'd love to hear from you, whether it's from using our text link in the show notes, a survey submission in our feedback form, also in the show notes, or in a comment or rating on your podcast streaming service of choice. We are starting to see panicles head out in the rice fields. And we know what that means. Harvest is right around the corner. Remember, like the growers like to say, have a rice life. Mention of an agrochemical does not constitute a recommendation, merely the sharing of research findings. Always follow the label. The label is the law. Find out more at ipm.ucanr.edu. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed are the speaker's own and do not represent the views, thoughts, and opinions of the University of California. The material and information presented here is for general purposes only. The University of California name and all forms and abbreviations are the property of its owner, and its use does not imply endorsement of or opposition to any specific organization, product, or service.
