Resource Management -
Refuge History -
Habitat Types -
Habitat Management -
Waterfowl Surveys -
Monitoring/Research -
Endangered Species
Water control structure in wetlands habitat,
photo USFWS
Managing Refuge Lands
Managers, biologists, and Refuge workers maintain more than 35,000 acres of wetlands and uplands on the Sacramento NWR Complex. The refuges' seasonal marshes are drained during late spring and summer to encourage plant growth on the moist exposed soil. Reflooding in the fall makes seeds and plants available for wildlife.
This water management replaces some of the habitat the Sacramento River's historical flooding provided. Additionally, prescribed management techniques including burning, discing, mowing, and pond excavation help create and maintain wetland diversity and productivity.
Meeting the needs of wildlife requires special continuous habitat management. Permanent ponds may be drained every three to five years and the vegetation burned. This keeps them from being choked with plant life and deepens pond bottoms. Watergrass habitats are irrigated to bring seed heads to maturity while uplands are periodically burned to return nutrients to the soil.
SNWRC Water Management Plan The managed wetlands of the Complex require water to be artificially applied. Each of the managed wetlands receive water from a variety of sources depending on their location and water rights. This water management plan describes the sources. (pdf, 29KB)
2012 CDFG/USFWS Marsh Management Workshop "Managing More with Less"
March 13-15, 2012 PowerPoint Presentations (files are in pdf format and may take some time to download due to their size)
- Opening Remarks (pdf, 4.86 MB) by Greg Mensik, USFWS (Retired) and Andy Atkinson, CDFG
- Recent Progress in the Tulare Basin Wildlife Management Area, Kern County, CA (pdf, 19.79 MB) by Scott Frazer, Kern NWR
- Mosquito production in relation to seasonal wetland irrigation regimes (pdf, 5.5 MB) by Natalie Washburn/John Eadie, UC Davis
- Using the TRUMET model for conservation planning in the Klamath Basin (pdf, 3.4 MB) by Dave Mauser, Klamath Basin NWR Complex
- Monitoring Greater Sandhill Cranes on Modoc National Wildlife Refuge 1979-2011 (pdf, 3.7 MB) by Dominic Bachman, Modoc NWR
- Changes in white-fronted goose body condition pre- and post-CVJV (pdf, 8.9 MB) by Dan Skalos, USGS
- Western Colonial Waterbird Survey--a California update (pdf, 2.33 MB) by Rob Doster, USFWS, R8 Division of Migratory Birds
- Update on Tricolored Blackbird Productivity and Insights from Banding Efforts (pdf, 1.6 MB) by Bob Meese, UC Davis
- Waterfowl nesting response to an upland habitat enhancement/restoration project at Grizzly Island WA (pdf, 5.67 MB) by Robert Eddings, CWA
- Ricefield Management for Waterbirds (pdf, 5.7 MB) by Khara Strum, PRBO
- Chico State University wetland study site at Howard Slough WA (pdf, 13.89 MB) by Jay Bogiatto, CSU-Chico and Steve Cordes, CDFG, Upper Butte Basin WA
- Results of water primrose control efforts at Colusa NWR and presence of a new non-native Ludwigia species in Butte County (pdf, 7.25 MB) by Brenda Grewell, USDA-ARS and Jennifer Isola, USFWS
- Native Grassland Restoration at Sacramento National Wildlife Refuge Complex (pdf, 4.33 MB) by Joe Silveira, USFWS
