Helping People Help the Land

In 2011, California’s 38-million acre Bay 

Delta region (see map page 3) became 

one of more than a dozen landscape level 

conservation initiatives nationally designated 

by USDA’s Natural Resources Conservation 

Service (NRCS). As such, the region is now 

the focus of accelerated assistance and 

funding to agricultural producers to voluntarily 

restore and enhance the natural resources 

through water conservation, water quality work, and habitat restoration. 

The Bay Delta Initiative (BDI) is offering partners an avenue to tackle 

challenging issues from the ground-up, using the NRCS voluntary conservation 

approach, employing both technical and financial assistance. While partners 

are continuing to work with the Agency to define areas of opportunity where 

they can jointly leverage their efforts for maximum effectiveness, this initial year 

of the Initiative has already seen promising results. 

The BDI is an especially broad ranging Initiative offering farmers assistance in 

managing water, nutrients including manure, pests, crop residue, and wetland 

wildlife habitat. In 2011 California used BDI funds to join with the Bureau of 

Reclamation in a unique effort to simultaneously increase water efficiencies 

in water delivery systems and on-farm water management. Additionally, BDI 

funds were used to fund wetland restoration and easement opportunities that 

collectively offer significant benefits to water quality, shorebirds and waterfowl. 

Bay Delta Overview Did You Know?

• Within the Bay-Delta 

Watershed, six counties 

produce more food than 

any other area of the same 

size in the world. These 

counties represent four 

of the top 10 agricultural 

producing counties in the 

United States.

• Water for approximately 

$400 billion of annual 

economic activity is 

delivered through the Bay 

Delta, including $28 billion 

benefitting the agricultural 

industry. 

• The Bay Delta is home to 

750 species of fish and 

wildlife, including over 50 

species of fish. 

• The greater Bay-Delta 

Watershed encompasses 

over 38 million acres.

Bay Delta Initiative

Protecting California’s Natural Treasure

December 2011
page 2

NRCS Land Use Total Acres within the

 proposed initiative area1

Total Private and 

Tribal land

Public Land Private Land Tribal Land Percent of 

total acres

Cropland 101,299 5,166,745 264 14% 5,167,009

Rangeland 4,837,273 10,721,645 32,121 41% 10,753,766

Pastureland 36,482 1,372,220 495 4% 1,372,715

Forestland 7,470,272 4,352,225 34,143 31% 4,386,368

Water 166,523 344,176 226 1% 344,402

Wetland 90,475 288,921 216 1% 289,137

Urban 121,804 1,996,300 1094 6% 1,997,394

Barren 678,045 190,268 125 2% 190,393

TOTAL 13,502,173 24,432,500 68,684 24,501,184

(Table Above)

Data Source for table

Land use: NASS - 2009 Cropland Data Layer, reclassified to NRCS Land Use Classes.

Land Ownership: State of California Resources Agency Legacy Project 2007 Conservation and Trust Land Ownership in the State of California.

Prime Farmland: California State Department of Conservation (2004-2008) county surveys.

NRI 1982-2007, Prime Farmland Uses, State of California.

FY 2011 Bay Delta Initiative - 

Financial Assistance Programs 

Summary

Conservation 

Program

Obligation Amount

EQIP $5,000,000

WHIP $220,000

WRP $21,486,780

TOTAL $26,706,780 

Getting Water SMART

NRCS and the Bureau of Reclamation each contributed funding to 

a joint pilot effort to simultaneously improve irrigation infrastructure 

and on-farm irrigation efficiencies. This is a unique opportunity to 

approach water efficiency in a comprehensive way, knitting together 

the needs of the system and the individual users in five water 

storage and irrigation districts throughout the Central Valley.

Participating growers in the Stockton area are realizing a number of 

benefits. Growers are being taken off of groundwater which helps 

avoid overdraft and possible contamination of that groundwater. 

The farmers get access to higher quality, pressurized surface water 

that doesn’t need to be pumped, thus saving energy cost. Using 

irrigation water management, farms average a 25% increased water 

efficiency. Air quality in this non-attainment area is also benefitting 

from the decreased use of diesel engines. 

Farmers are increasing water efficiencies by an average of 25% by 

The WaterSMART work 

described below, along with 

WRP opportunities, was the first 

conservation in California to be 

funded through the nationallysponsored Bay Delta Initiative. 

This work builds upon decades 

of ongoing and complementary 

conservation work done in the 

region by NRCS California. Several 

stories of this ongoing work are 

highlighted in this report. The 

nationally-funded BDI promises to 

accelerate these partnerships and 

successes to bring about natural 

resource benefits on private land 

for the public good.

 
page 3

Bay Delta Conservation and Wildlife Go Hand-in-Hand

Natural flooding from upstream 

agricultural land in a one millionacre watershed, has historically 

washed significant sediment 

into the Colusa Drain. Voluntary 

wetland restoration has proved 

an effective tool for trapping this 

sediment and benefitting both 

water quality and migratory birds. 

Through the Wetland Reserve 

Program (WRP) landowners have 

voluntarily worked with NRCS 

and conservation partners to 

successfully enroll and restore 

more than 10,000 acres of habitat 

along 20 contiguous miles adjacent 

to the Colusa Drain. Although this 

land is still subject to flooding and 

inundation, it now serves to trap 

and filter sediment. 

The $25 million invested in WRP 

in BDI in 2011 is resulting in 

48 landowners restoring over 

21,000 acres of wetlands. These 

projects can be expected to reap 

water quality and habitat benefits 

similar to those in the Colusa 

Drain, but on twice as much 

acreage throughout the Bay Delta 

watershed. 

 
Placing Dairy Nutrients in Fields 

Over 1300 dairies make their home in the Bay Delta region. 

Working with Western United and other industry partners and 

using Farm Bill programs such as AWEP, CCPI and EQIP, NRCS 

has done extensive waste management planning with more 

than 1000 producers. As a result, producers were able to secure 

Waste Management Plans needed to keep them in business and 

in compliance with water quality requirements. Given the difficult 

economic conditions in the dairy industry, many of the dairies could 

not afford the planning without NRCS help. Now an $80+ million 

challenge looms as dairy operators continue implementing needed 

practices to safely capture, store, transport and apply manure 

nutrients to growing crops.

Partnered Projects are Showing Huge Promise for Water Quality

In the northern San Joaquin Valley the Coalition for Urban/Rural 

Environmental Stewardship (CURES) and the Partnership for Ag 

and the Environment successfully applied for AWEP funding. This 

project uses farmer-led outreach to involve and assist all the affected 

farmers along waterways with impaired water quality. Farmers in 

this 1.5 million-acre region are using nutrient management, tail water 

return systems and other conservation measures to prevent impaired 

water from leaving the farm. 

Today several of the priority waterways that exceeded state 

standards for agricultural inputs five years ago have shown dramatic 

improvements. This year, of three priority watersheds, two met state 

standards for pesticides and toxicity and the third met standards for 

all but one pesticide. 

Nutrient management on the 

hundreds of dairies in the Bay Delta 

AWEP has funded hundreds of drip 

irrigation and other water-efficient 

Providing a Safe Landing Path for Migratory Birds 

Fifty percent of all wintering waterfowl migrating through the Pacific 

Flyway use the Sacramento Valley, where 2,500 rice producers live 

and produce the second largest rice harvest in the Nation.

Now migratory birds have even more reason to be grateful to their 

rice farming hosts and conservationists who are working with them.

Nearly 80 rice farmers have signed contracts with NRCS, receiving 

$2.7 million in conservation funding assistance, to flood their fields 

earlier or maintain water on their fields longer in the season to help 

migratory and shorebird species. Collectively, these farmers are 

reshaping miles of rice levees for nesting and resting. This work also 

supports the national Migratory Bird Habitat Initiative and BDI goals.

A great blue heron enjoys a tasty 

crawfish snack during a typical 

sunny day in a California rice field.

The work showcased on this page represents examples of conservation funded by NRCS in the 

State of California. These successes serve as useful templates for future work and partnership 

that nationally-funded Bay Delta Initiative efforts will build upon. 

www.nrcs.usda.gov

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