IV 
117TH CONGRESS 
2D SESSION 
H. RES. 1049 
Recognizing the significance of California ricelands to wildlife conservation. 
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 
APRIL 7, 2022 
Mr. THOMPSON of California (for himself, Mr. COSTA, Mr. GARAMENDI, Mr. 
LAMALFA, Ms. MATSUI, Mr. PANETTA, and Mr. VALADAO) submitted the 
following resolution; which was referred to the Committee on Natural Re-
sources 
RESOLUTION 
Recognizing the significance of California ricelands to wildlife 
conservation. 
Whereas the California Rice Commission works, on behalf of 
its farmers and millers, to enhance and sustain wildlife 
resources in California’s great Central Valley; 
Whereas California rice is commonly referred to as the ‘‘En-
vironmental Crop’’; 
Whereas California rice growers have effectively developed 
and utilized innovative water conservation strategies, 
such as recirculation and laser leveling, to use 20 percent 
less water to grow 25 percent more rice; 
Whereas the California Rice Commission has aggressively de-
veloped solar projects to generate approximately 75 per-
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cent of the electrical power needs for its drying and mill-
ing operations; 
Whereas the California rice growers reduced their rice straw 
burning by approximately 90 percent and shifted to win-
ter flooding to decompose rice straw, a practice that dra-
matically improved regional air quality and is now essen-
tial habitat for waterbirds in the Pacific Flyway; 
Whereas California rice growers transform their working wet-
land agriculture to surrogate habitat for migrating 
waterbirds by adopting conservation practices to sustain 
and enhance these critical habitat areas; 
Whereas the University of California, Davis, and the Univer-
sity of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, 
working collaboratively with the rice industry, conducts 
research and outreach where University of California Co-
operative Extension production guidelines have been 
widely adopted by growers resulting in sustainable and 
economic rice production, while providing a host of eco-
system services such as improved natural habitat and 
water quality; 
Whereas the Department of Agriculture’s Natural Resources 
Conservation Service has partnered with the California 
Rice Commission to invest approximately $30,000,000 
over the past decade to implement annual riceland habi-
tat enhancement projects benefitting the Pacific Flyway; 
Whereas the California Rice Commission works closely with 
many highly recognized wildlife conservation organiza-
tions focused on maintaining California’s wildlife-friendly 
rice acres that are now essential for the health of the Pa-
cific Flyway; 
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Whereas California rice provides over 50 percent of the food 
consumed by the 6,000,000 to 7,000,000 waterfowl that 
reside in the Central Valley each winter; 
Whereas California’s 500,000 acres of ricelands serve as 
‘‘surrogate wetlands’’ that are now essential to sup-
porting hundreds of wetland-dependent species in a State 
that has lost more than 90 percent of its historic wet-
lands; 
Whereas California’s ricelands are designated as a Shorebird 
Habitat of International Significance by the Western 
Hemisphere Shorebird Reserve Network; 
Whereas the Central Valley Joint Venture’s 2020 Implemen-
tation Plan significantly relies upon flooded ricelands to 
meet its California habitat objectives that are integral to 
goals of the North American Waterfowl Management 
Plan, which the United States ratified in 1986; and 
Whereas science has demonstrated that floodplain wetlands 
are critical energy sources for river ecosystems, for both 
fish populations as well as water birds, and the California 
rice industry, working with its salmon recovery partners, 
is testing and developing strategies to ‘‘reactivate’’ por-
tions of the historic Sacramento Valley floodplain to en-
hance juvenile salmon rearing habitat in winter-flooded 
rice fields and improve the delivery of flood-plain derived 
fish food resources from rice fields to juvenile salmon in 
the Sacramento River: Now, therefore, be it 
Resolved, That the House of Representatives recog-
nizes the significance of the California ricelands as essen-
tial Pacific Flyway habitat and supports the collective ef-
forts of the California rice industry, water management 
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agencies, university researchers, and wildlife conservation 
partners to continue conservation efforts, strongly sup-
ported by Congress through its Farm Bill conservation 
programs, to preserve and enhance California riceland 
habitats for future generations to enjoy. 
Æ 
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