The New York Times has a story on the success of the BirdReturns program. It is a program in which migrating birds are assisted by paying farmers to keep their rice fields flooded in the California Central Valley to help migrating birds. See earlier story “Pop-up” Wetlands Help Migrating Birds.
The Times explains how the farm fields are chosen using data on bird migration patterns from eBird, a successful citizen science program that collects data on bird sightings.
The Nature Conservancy than pays rice farmers in the birds’ flight path to keep their fields flooded with irrigation water from the Sacramento River as migrating flocks arrive. As the farmers are only paid to flood their fields for several weeks, the program is much less expensive than buying habitat. It often cost about $45 per flooded acre per year.
Read the full story at: Paying Farmers to Welcome Birds – NYTimes.com.
Natural History Wanderings 
As an avid birder in northern California who has trekked to this area for the migration every winter for the past 21 years, I can say without hesitation this is a brilliant arrangement. It is also a shining example for how people can establish harmony between their land and the wildlife. Great post.
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By: Jet Eliot on May 27, 2014
at 9:47 AM
Reblogged this on Ann Novek–With the Sky as the Ceiling and the Heart Outdoors.
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By: narhvalur on May 27, 2014
at 6:24 AM