Splendid sanctuary

Farming and wildlife don't always go hand in hand, but at the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area, waterfowl rest and feed among tules and rice paddies.

Stretching 10 miles south of Interstate 80 and covering 25 square miles, the wildlife refuge is home to 200 species of birds. The fertile and abundant lands also support rice and tomato crops and cattle grazing.

When President Clinton dedicated the wildlife area, he hailed it as an innovative land use project. Today, the bypass area serves a mix of functions and brings together diverse partners, including government officials, farmers, hunters and the public.

Today, state fish and game officials and wildlife advocates will commemorate its 10th anniversary during an invitation-only event. Members of the public can tour the wildlife area by car – the best way to view birds, officials say – when a new auto tour road opens on Saturday.

When the bypass was created in the early part of the 20th century, flood control was the main goal.

"Its purpose is to get the water from the Feather and Sacramento Rivers to the Delta without flooding the city (Sacramento)," said Dave Feliz, who manages the wildlife area for the California Department of Fish and Game.

When the Sacramento River reaches about 37 feet, water spills over the Fremont Weir into the bypass, flowing into the north Delta through Cache Slough. Without the bypass, the city "would have been destroyed by now," Feliz said.

The state purchased some land to create the bypass, but it also paid landowners for the rights to flood their property. Two-thirds of the wetlands are privately held by farmers, ranchers and duck hunters, and a third are public lands.

"We're neighbors and have to work together pretty closely," Feliz said.

The state Reclamation Board and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers maintain the levees and supervise the flood control mission of the bypass. The state Department of Fish and Game oversees the wildlife refuge.

Farmers and duck hunters play their part, too, by creating and maintaining levees and irrigation systems, Feliz said.

Robin Kulakow of the Yolo Basin Foundation said the public-private partnership has worked. Founded in 1989, the foundation has raised funds to buy land and helped build the political will to create a wildlife habitat.

"When it opened, we said to ourselves, 'To see thousands of pintails and ducks, that would be our dream, and it was fulfilled. … It's exceeded our wildest dreams," Kulakow said.

At any one time, there are 100,000 birds in the refuge, she said. Binocular-toting visitors might see pintails or snow geese take flight or spot yellow-headed blackbirds and red-tailed hawks perched on bush branches or signposts.

During the winter, the area is visited by birds traveling the Pacific Flyway, leaving Canada and Alaska for the warmer weather of California's Central Valley or Mexico. The birds fly back to their breeding grounds to lay their eggs in the spring.

Safe places to rest along the way are becoming scarce.

California has lost a startling 95 percent of its wetlands – most drained and used for farming, Feliz said. State wildlife officials are working to restore wetlands that were at one time native to the bypass area, he added.

The bypass illustrates that farmers' goals and wetland restoration do not have to be at odds.

"It's multi-use because it's compatible," Feliz said.

The Department of Fish and Game leases its lands to farmers and ranchers for crops and cattle grazing. Feliz said it collected $300,000 this year for additional restoration work.

During summer, 1,500 acres of tall green rice stalks sway in the sweltering heat. After rice is harvested in the fall, brown stubble decays in the flooded fields.

More important than its revenue, rice farming provides food and an ideal habitat for birds.

The Yolo Bypass Wildlife Area is being held up as a land-use and conservation model and has garnered regional, national and even international attention.

Among the visitors to the area, Feliz said, have been members of Congress and environmental ministers from Siberia, China, Korea, Japan, Mexico, and Australia.

About 4,000 students from 15 school districts visit the wildlife refuge each year to take part in educational activities, said Kulakow of the Yolo Basin Foundation, which raises funds to cover the transportation costs.

Barbie Saba's third-grade class from Woodland Prairie this week visited the wildlife area. After a lesson on how to use binoculars, students got a glimpse of birds in their natural habitat.

Explaining that the wetlands are where birds rest, Saba went on: "It's full of bugs and fish for them to eat. There are other animals living here. It's a place where special animals live."

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• Call The Bee's Ngoc Nguyen at (916) 321-1041.