But intensive agriculture in the region has put pressure on local ecosystems. Wetlands have been drained to make room for row crops, leaving migrating birds few places to stop and refuel. But the sprawling irrigation infrastructure that delivers water to fields also offers a unique conservation opportunity.
“While we have lost habitat as a result of conversion to farms, we’ve also gained the ability to manage water,” says Paul Spraycar, senior project director for The Nature Conservancy’s California water program.
This puts farmers in a prime position to help provide wetland habitat precisely when and where birds need it. By flooding fields not in use, farmers can offer food and shelter for birds as they journey to their breeding ground and back again. The idea was inspired by conservation-minded farmers, a powerful sign the concept could have industry appeal.
“We flood our fields every year for the wintering waterfowl,” says Nicole Montna Van Vleck, owner of Montna Farms. “It’s not only the way we make our living, but it’s also how we try to convey to our children our livelihood and what we value dearly.”
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It was one of these ideas that seemed really insane at first. We wondered, ‘Can you actually rent wetlands? If we design a reverse auction, will these farmers actually show up?’
Eric Hallstein, PH.D., Chief Economist, The Nature Conservancy
But to bring it to scale, The Nature Conservancy needed an economic model that would encourage local growers to get on board.
The resulting program, BirdReturns, positions wetland habitat as a secondary crop farmers can add to their annual rotation. Using a reverse auction model, the Conservancy asks farmers to set a price to flood their fields and then selects the lowest bidders who meet its requirements.
In a reverse auction, a single buyer requests good or services. Multiple sellers then place bids that express how much they’re willing to be paid. The buyer then selects the bids that best meet their needs.
Doug Thomas talks with Mark Reynolds and Eric Hallstein, economist and designer of Reverse Auction in rice fields near Olivehurst, California.
© Drew Kelly
“From a farmer’s perspective, their job is to figure out how much it costs them to create those habitat conditions, and then we get to choose the folks that can do that most efficiently,” says Eric Hallstein, Ph.D., chief economist for The Nature Conservancy of California.
When The Nature Conservancy introduced the program in 2013, the team wasn’t sure how many farmers would want to participate. There are always risks associated with a new enterprise—and growers rely on these fields for their livelihood.
“It was one of these ideas that seemed really insane at first,” Dr. Hallstein recalls. “We wondered, ‘Can you actually rent wetlands? If we design a reverse auction, will these farmers actually show up?’”
The answer was a resounding yes. Nearly 20,000 acres were offered up by dozens of farmers during the first auction. The Nature Conservancy ultimately enrolled 40 farms in the pilot program, which included 10,000 acres. These fields were then flooded for four, six or eight weeks, depending on the farmer’s water supplies and farming schedule. At the end of the first season, BirdReturns fields attracted more than 220,000 migrating birds from 57 species, averaging more than 100 birds per acre.
“It wildly exceeded our expectations,” Dr. Hallstein says. “And it’s just been growing since then.”
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It’s a solution that meets the needs of migratory birds while also benefiting the farmers of the Central Valley.
Paul Spraycar, Water Program Senior Project Director, The Nature Conservancy
Aerial view of flooded rice fields in California's Sacramento Valley.
© Drew Kelly
Spraycar attributes the program’s appeal, in part, to providing a successful proof of concept—farmers witnessed firsthand the benefits for birds and how water could be used efficiently. And once they saw that BirdReturns fields were still productive in subsequent seasons—and that some were even easier to plant after being churned by thousands of tiny feet—farmers grew more confident in the program. As a result, BirdReturns has provided upward of 40,000 acres of habitat on more than 100 farms over the past three years. And the program has been adapted to work on fields where corn, wheat and other annual crops are planted, as well.
“As farmers have experienced the program, they’ve become more comfortable in creating habitat alongside their other crops,” Spraycar says. “It’s a solution that meets the needs of migratory birds while also benefiting the farmers of the Central Valley.”
And The Nature Conservancy is continuing to scale up the BirdReturns program, with a goal of increasing the number of shorebirds that stop in the Central Valley to 400,000. Dr. Hallstein says he believes the program can provide as much as 600,000 acres of pop-up wetlands in the next 10 years. The program could also come with added benefits, such as recharging the groundwater in certain areas for dry season storage.
“It’s an example of a conservation solution that is at the scale of the problem,” he says. “We’re complementing our traditional set of tools with another tool that really lets us find economically efficient ways of working with growers and also achieve our conservation end.”
Flooded rice fields at sunset in Colusa, California.
© Drew Kelly