Galt festival to celebrate Cosumnes River Preserve

In search of a distinct identity, the city of Galt is aligning itself more closely with the Cosumnes River Preserve, the vast wonderland of waterfowl on its border.

On Jan. 12, the city will hold its first Annual Winter Bird Festival, in celebration of the many species of migratory and resident birds that flock to the 46,000-acre Cosumnes preserve during the winter months.

Most of the events will take place at the Chabolla Center. They will include expert speakers, a "Crane Culture" theater performance by the group Save Our Sandhill Cranes, and children's activities.

School buses also will take people on morning and evening driving tours of the preserve, whose flooded fields are teeming with a wide variety of birds.

The idea for the festival came from City Councilman and former Mayor Tim Raboy.

"What I've been trying to do for many years on the council is show the environmental benefits of living in Galt," Raboy said. "So many people in Galt have never been out to the preserve and walked the trails there. … They just think it's a big area with thousands of protected acres that no one can ever go on.

"My goal has always been to increase the size of the preserve between Elk Grove and Galt and have more of a greenbelt than there is now … I'm hoping that people will see more of the benefit."

Harry McQuillen, manager of the Cosumnes preserve, said the city's idea was "to take community ownership of the preserve."

"They didn't want it to be associated with Lodi or Stockton or Elk Grove or Sacramento," McQuillen said.

"I think they also wanted to showcase Galt."

For years, Galt has struggled over what it wants for the future. The City Council has switched back and forth from pro-growth forces to those who want to maintain a small town identity.

The continued growth pressures are evident in the sponsorship list for the bird festival. Wal-Mart was the most generous private sponsor, at the $2,500 level, Raboy said. It is working on plans to build a store in Galt.

Galt's current City Council majority is pursuing a course of moderate growth in a region filled with hamlets that have burgeoned into mega-suburbs.

In the past year, the council scaled back the amount of expansion proposed in its new general plan.

The city allocated $5,000 to pay for the bird festival. The Cosumnes preserve provides a buffer separating Galt from Elk Grove, its much larger neighbor to the north.

While much of the preserve remains inaccessible, The Nature Conservancy and its various government and nonprofit partners operate about four miles of trails, some of them wheelchair-accessible, and a visitors center on Franklin Road.

In addition, thousands of birds can easily be spotted from roads that cut through the preserve's flooded fields.

Avid bird watcher David Yee, who lives in Galt, said ducks and other water-dependent species are particularly abundant on the preserve this year, because the relatively dry winters of the past few years have left fewer places nearby for them to go.

"Because they're intentionally flooding here, it's driving every bird around here into these flooded areas," he said.

Yee is scheduled to give an overview of local resident and migratory winter birds during the festival.

Standing on Desmond Road on Friday morning in the biting cold and drizzle, Yee said the Cosumnes River Preserve has become known among bird enthusiasts for its wide diversity of species.

Not only are waterfowl abundant, but harriers, hawks and other raptors can nearly always be seen soaring overhead or perched on trees and telephone poles. Songbirds, woodpeckers and flycatchers populate the wooded upland areas.

As Yee spoke, a flock of thousands of white-fronted geese took off, letting loose with a noisy, honking chorus.

"It sounds impressive," he said. "Birders love that."

A group of tundra swans flew overhead, and also a pair of sandhill cranes. Out on a flooded field next to Desmond Road, pintails mixed with American widgeon, nothern shovelers and green-winged teal.

Galt city officials initially suggested calling their event a crane festival. But Lodi already has one, so the city decided to go with the more generic "winter bird" designation.

That designation is appropriate, Yee said, because the Cosumnes preserve hosts such a wide variety of winter birds.

"This is good diversity, it really is," he said. "If a person wants to come and see large numbers of birds, it's great."

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