Upcoming Enrollment Opportunity for Fall Flooding through Bid4Birds

The California Ricelands Waterbird Foundation (Foundation), is glad to announce the upcoming enrollment interval for the Fall Bid4Birds habitat program. 

The Bid4Birds Program focuses on extending the flooding interval in rice fields for the good thing about waterbirds, notably shorebirds. While the usual winter flooding interval is useful for many migrating waterbirds on the Pacific Flyway, there are a selection of species that arrive within the late summer time or early fall when most rice fields and marshes are dry. Providing flooded habitat is particularly essential this 12 months given the present excessive drought circumstances all through the state. 

In the autumn, Bid4Birds offers incentive funds for growers to implement shallow flooding on their rice fields for 3-4 weeks between July 15 and October 1. The Foundation solicits members through an public sale by which growers submit bids primarily based on an evaluation of their prices to offer this essential habitat. The Bid4Birds Habitat Selection Committee, together with representatives from Audubon California, California Rice Commission, Point Blue Conservation Science and The Nature Conservancy will assess bids in a standardized approach utilizing information on when and the place birds want the habitat most.

Bids might be submitted through the Foundation web site from June 6 to June 22, 2022. 

If you will have any questions on this system or wish to be taught extra, please go to the Bid4Birds webpage or contact Julia Barfield from The Nature Conservancy at (916) 449-2852 or [email protected].