WHEREAS, The Sacramento Valley is a unique landscape that includes a mosaic of state and national wildlife refuges, privately managed wetlands, farmland, rivers, and streams that support an amazing biodiversity of fish and wildlife species; and

WHEREAS, Each year, the Sacramento Valley hosts one of the greatest concentrations of waterfowl in the world, as nearly 4,000,000 waterfowl and 250,000 shore birds use the Sacramento Valley as a wintering ground, and approximately one billion birds follow the Pacific Flyway, an ancient avian migratory route that spans from the State of Alaska to South America, on an annual migration through the Sacramento Valley; and

WHEREAS, California is the second-largest producer of rice in the United States, and most of California’s rice is grown on approximately 500,000 acres of land located in the Sacramento Valley that contributes over $1.3 billion to the state economy and provides natural habitat, biodiversity, and nourishment for the approximately 7,000,000 ducks and geese that migrate along the Pacific Flyway each year; and

WHEREAS, The rivers of the Sacramento Valley are home to four seasonal runs of Chinook salmon that occur in the spring, fall, late fall, and winter, and the spring and winter runs of Chinook salmon, along with steelhead and green sturgeon, are listed as either threatened or endangered by state or federal agencies; and

WHEREAS, Water that flows from the Sierra Nevada, Cascade, and Coast Ranges is managed in the Sacramento Valley to provide flood protection for the region and to provide water for multiple benefits for the natural and working landscapes; and

WHEREAS, The people who live, work, and play in the Sacramento Valley are advancing a holistic approach, from ridgetop to river mouth, to restore the ecosystem function of the special landscapes and riverscapes while concurrently securing water supplies for communities, farms, recreation, and hydropower; and

WHEREAS, Blending the wisdom of leading scientists with local knowledge to better understand precious water resources and take various actions to integrate the rivers and creeks with the landscapes and communities will help the entire region to thrive; and

WHEREAS, The Floodplain Forward Coalition is a diverse coalition of conservation organizations, farmers and other landowners, local governments, water suppliers, and academic institutions that is working to develop and implement projects to spread out and slow down water across the Sacramento Valley landscape as a nature-based solution that mimics natural flood plain processes in order to provide multiple benefits for the environment, migratory birds and fish, and farms, towns, and cities; now, therefore, be it